█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒ ████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓ █████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒ ░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓ ███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░ ████████████████████████████████████ █ ██████████████████████████████████▒ █ ▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒ ████████████████████████████████ ▒▒ ▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█ █████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒ ████████████████████████████ ░██░ ░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████ ██████████████████████████▒ ▓████ █████████████████████████▓ █████░ █████████████████████████▓ ██████░ ████████████████████████▓ ███████ ███████████████████████▓ ████████▒ ▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████ ████████████████████░ ░███████████▒ █████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒ ██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒ ░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒ ██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒ ████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░ ███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████ ███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████ ████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒ ████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████ ████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒ ████████████ ████████████████████████████████ ████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██ ██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒ █████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS ███████████████████████████████ ▒▒ █████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒ ██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒ ████████████████████████ ░▒ ████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░ ███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░ ┌────────┐ ────┤ Info ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Artist | Tom Russell Title | The Rose Of Roscrae Genre | Country Format | Album Source | CDDA Time | 149:10 Label | Proper Records Store | 2015 Catalog | PRPDC130 Rip | 2017 Bitrate | 222 kbps Size | 254.22 MB Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Tracks ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ CD 1/2 01. Overture (with Jimme Dale Gilmore & The Norwegian Wind 2:56 Ensemble) 02. This Is The Last Frontier 1:13 03. Guilty / Johnny Behind The Deuce (with Dave Olney) 5:38 04. Sam Hall (with Johnny Cash) 0:59 05. The Rose Of Roscrae 5:33 06. Hair Trigger Heart 5:04 07. He'll Be Dead Before He Hits The Ground (with Joe Ely & 1:20 Angie Meyers) 08. You Gotta Have A Dance / St James Hospital (with Fats 2:41 Kaplin & Moses Clear Rock Platt) 09. Ain't No More Cane On The Brazos (with Jimmy La Fave & 3:18 Gretchen Peters) 10. The Last Running 5:32 11. Home On The Range / America (with Walt Whitman) 1:13 12. Just A Closer Walk With Thee (with Augie Blood) 2:24 13. Cowboy Voices Beyond The Campfire (with Ramblin Jack 2:02 Elliott, Jack Hardy, David Massengill & Tex Ritter) 14. He Wasn't A Bad Kid, When He Was Sober 4:43 15. The Sidekick's Last Testament (with David Olney) 2:15 16. Johnny's Campfire Soliloquy #1 1:36 17. The Unfortunate Rake / The Streets Of Laredo (With A.L. 1:48 Lloyd & Jimmie Dale Gilmore) 18. The Hands Of Damien 2:17 19. This Is The Last Frontier / Campfire Soliloquy #2 1:41 20. Carrickfergus / The Water Is Wide (with Finbar Furey) 4:33 21. The Fairground Pugilist (with Sourdough Slim) 1:31 22. Campfire Soliloquy #3 1:07 23. Campfire Ghosts / Campfire Voices (with Blackie Farrell, 2:16 Ross Knox, Glenn Orhlin & Pat Russell) 24. Crazy Horse / Custers Luck (with John Trudell & Thad 2:43 Beckman) 25. Johnny Behind The Deuce #2: Molokai 1:28 26. She Talks To God 3:21 27. Rock Of Ages / Gunpowder Sunset Overture 2:52 CD 2/2 01. The Water Is Wide / Overture (with Maura O'Connell & The 2:33 Norwegian Wind Ensemble) 02. I Talk To God (with Maura O'Connell) 3:13 03. The Bear (with Eliza Gilkyson) 2:53 04. The Railroad Boy (with Eliza Gilkyson) 1:04 05. Resurrection Mountain 3:46 06. When The Wolves No Longer Sing (with Gretchen Peters) 2:59 07. Just A Closer Walk With Thee / The Gospel Of John Chapter 2:34 4 (with Augie Meyers) 08. Jesus Met The Woman At The Well (with Eliza Gilkyson) 2:37 09. Damien (A Crust Of Bread, A Slice Of Fish, A Cup Of Water) 5:21 10. Guadalupe / Valentine De La Sierra (with Gretchen Peters & 4:22 Ann Gabriel) 11. Poor Mother Mexico 1:20 12. Gallo Del Cielo (with Joe Ely & Ian Tyson) 1:33 13. Soliloquy #1 / Swiss Yodel Choir 1:51 14. En Canadien Errant (with Bonnie Dobson) 1:09 15. He'll Be Dead Before He Hits The Ground #2 (with Joe Ely & 1:32 Augie Meyers) 16. Doin' Hard Time In Texas 3:14 17. When I Was A Cowboy (with Lead Belly) 1:55 18. West Texas Montage (with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark & 4:25 Dan Penn) 19. Old Rattlebag Blues (Soliloquy #2) 2:35 20. Midnight Wine 5:23 21. Whiskey In His Blood 2:31 22. Tularosa 3:50 23. Irish Medley / The Stable 4:51 24. Isn't It Grand (with Gurf Morlix, Eliza Gilkyson, Augie 1:48 Meyers & Pat Manske) 25. The Rose Of Roscrae (with Maura O'Connell) 5:47 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Notes ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Americana singer/songwriter Tom Russell was born in Los Angeles in 1950. Raised on the cowboy music of the American West, he grew up to be a talented songwriter, and began issuing albums under his own name in the early 70s. Russell's material, however, was also recorded by such luminaries as Johnny Cash, Guy Clark, and Dave Alvin, to name only a few. While much of Russell's work mined the country tradition, he was also known to flavor his work with Tex-Mex, folk, and the cowboy music of his youth. After an acclaimed career spanning two decades, Russell found another gear with 1999's "Man From God Knows Where". A concept album eight years in the making, the LP presented a song cycle inspired not only by America's pioneers, but by Russell's own immigrant ancestors. Russell's "The Rose Of Roscrae" is the final album in a trilogy that began back in 1998 with "The Man From God Knows Where". That recording explored his family's origins in Norway, Ireland, and the American West. He followed it with 2005's "Hotwalker", which looked deeply at post-WWII American culture and mythologized sometimes marginal figures from the worlds of art, film, literature, and more. For Russell, no myth is larger than life; it is life itself. "The Rose Of Roscrae", is a sprawling folk opera, or Western musical, complete with libretto - Russell is ambivalent about defining it. Over two discs and 52 selections (many narrated, most sung), Russell delivers an epic that moves from Ireland and Texas, the Plains, California and Mexico to Canada, prisons in the deep South, carnival shows, and all the way back. His cast is equally large: Maura O'Connell, Joe Ely, Dave Olney, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Gretchen Peters, Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, Augie Meyers, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Ian Tyson, and dozens more. Further, along with his own songs, Russell licensed others, plus field recordings with the voices of Johnny Cash, Lead Belly, John Trudell, Walt Whitman, Tex Ritter, and more, adding depth and weight. Real and fictional characters are hard-stitched into his seamless narrative. Part of his story is inspired by his sister-in-law, who ranched a 3,000 acre spread in California after being abandoned by his brother, a cowboy. The story's 'hero' is Johnny Dutton, reflecting back on his 95 years. He recounts his tale of being a teenager in love with Rose Malloy in County Tipperary, Ireland in the 1880s. After a savage beating by her father, he flees across the Atlantic, becomes a cowboy, and then an outlaw: Johnny Behind-The-Deuce. He writes to Rose and lures her to America. They marry but he later abandons her after being encouraged by his cousin, Joseph Dutton - who has his own redemption later in the story - to return to the wild life. The journey is Homeric. Characters such as Joseph Dutton and the mystical priest Father Demian - who runs a leper colony on Molokai - are historical figures. Disc two is from Rose's perspective sung by O'Connell. She'd married Johnny, been abandoned, ranched alone, seen him return, run him off, moved back to Ireland, and returned his letters unopened when he continued to pursue her. Her perspective on love reveals the stark difference about love between women and men. The pair end up together, but as friends, sharing the weight and wonder of life during a remarkable period in history, with all of its hardscrabble, spiritual mystery. And the music? Folk, rock, country, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble's Copland-esque serial moments, Celtic, and much more. It's panoramic, theatrical, and gloriously excessive. But Russell keeps his focus on "The Rose Of Roscrae"; it's soulful and moving for its reach; it doesn't need the libretto to be enjoyed, or even to blow your mind. Russell's view of history may be romantic but it is also gritty as hell, and enduring. This is his masterpiece. ┌────────┐ ────┤ Group ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘