Tom Rush - Voices

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Real class from Tom Rush

This is great stuff.  It has been many years since Tom Rush's last album, but Voices shows that at 78 he's still making really good music.

This is a collection of Rush's own compositions with a couple of traditional songs, and they are all really good.  He has a fine band with him that generates a lovely sort of bluegrass driving shuffle which is a great pleasure throughout, and Rush's songs are good, solid tunes and great, sometimes very witty lyrics which he delivers in a wonderfully engaging, laid back style.  He has the knack of capturing an emotion or conveying a vivid story in just a few words, like this in Cold River

"There was a girl, there was a gun

Sixteen days now on the run…"

And there are plenty more gems of concision throughout the album.

I've listened to this quite a few times now and it's getting better every time.  Amusingly, on my first listen I'd been completely engaged by the first three songs and was thinking that we'd only just had John Prine's excellent The Tree Of Forgiveness and now a cracker from Tom Rush, when he sang

"…Sitting listening to old John Prine

My baby loves me

Life is fine."

Voices is a really good album from a genuine master.  My advice is to try a few samples and if you like what you hear, don’t hesitate; Voices is a bit of real class.