Biting Other Blogs: Tom Russell & Kris Kristofferson

Biting Other Blogs is an occasionally occurring feature that will direct your attention to a specific blog post or two that, most likely, I wish I had posted myself. Giving credit where credit is due, I typically wont blab too much, except to encourage you to get up on whatever blog I am highlighting…

Kris Kristofferson’s new disc, Closer to the Bone (New West) is as great as his 2006 LP, This Old Road and for the same reasons, basically. Sparse, raw and just plain moving. Kristofferson’s grizzled soul oozes from each note, strum and lyric. Here are a few things I have seen lately regarding this gem…

• Rolling Stone delivered a short, but sweet review…

• The 9513 sure liked it a whole lot…

• Blurt Online (formerly Harp Magazine) also heard what I hear in the album…

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The new album from folk-troubadour Tom Russell, Blood & Candle Smoke, has been getting rave reviews from the blogosphere. I can’t say that I am quite as high on it as others are, but that’s not to say that I am not rather impressed. Russell’s voice is that of a classic, authoritative story-teller. Who needs a simple, catchy hook when you can have such a beautiful yarn spun right before you. Russell shouldn’t have needed this album and the subsequent praise (including a recent, widely viewed Letterman appearance) to elevate his profile, but elevate it, this album has indeed done. Check out the following pieces that tell you why…

• Nine Bullets calls it the likely album of the year in his mind….

• Paste Magazine say this album has “considerable power”

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Tags: Kris Kristofferson, Tom Russell