Luther Russell was sitting in the Origami loft on Saturday night, surrounded by Jason on bass and tabla player Pial Hossain. He then explained he wanted to try something different with his friend Pial for tonight performance, and I must say that I like when artists do that!
I had never heard of him, and I just wonder how this is possible, because, just by checking his resume I should have if we were living in a logical world: First, he is the grandson of songwriter Bob Russell who collaborated with Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones (he is credited for ‘Brazil’ among many others), he has shared the stage with Arthur Lee, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Etta James, Los Lobos and Wilco, and even formed his first band, The Bootheels with pre-Wallflowers Jakob Dylan. He made two albums as the lead singer/songwriter of The Freewheelers, then went solo with several albums, and, last year, has released his fifth and double-length album, ‘The Invisible Audience’, while also producing many other artists.
And listening to this album once home, I was stunned how the music hadn’t much to do with what I had just heard!! The Invisible Audience is full of superb Beatles-que melodies, sounding at the same time familiar and fresh at the first listening, going from upbeat to melancholy and sadness, with even a few tracks, ‘Better Off Dead’ and ‘1st & Main’, that made me jump from my seat because of their eerie resemblance to some Elliott Smith’s songs. But it is a long and diverse album and I would need to spend way more time with it to elaborate on all its detours and richness (http://lutherrussell.com)
At Origami, he started singing the western-ambiance-hymn-to-Jesus ‘Long Lost Friend’, and some melancholic instrumentals that sounded right away very familiar. But soon things shifted a little bit with this experiment he was talking about, as the tabla began to rise behind the guitar, making these very recognizable and peculiar sounds, and the more we were progressing in the set, the more this Eastern-Western dialogue was elaborating itself, deeper, longer, with long tabla solos…, too bad I could not actually see him playing.
A lot of songs were very instrumental, but when the lyrics were present they were strong like, ‘I guess nobody wants to tell you the truth’ sung with Russell’s strong and weary voice. Little by little the songs became bluesier with a mean slide guitar, and it was strange to see how this Indian sound was feeling completely at home in this Mississippi muddy blues.
‘This is a song we came up on the spot’ Luther said at one point, and they did a song inspired by Tommy Johnson’s ‘Big Road Blues’, giving a lot of sense to this fusion of styles, while I was admiring his prowess on guitar, as everything they were playing seemed effortless.
The sound of the tabla was running fast, precipitating itself toward the delta blues, blending really well with it, like a perfect marriage between east and west. The small store was filled with ‘friends’ as he said, and he is certainly a fellow to follow.
Comments are closed.