Tony Russell
A music scholar of great repute, Russell has written about blues, country and other American musics for MOJO, The Guardian, and numerous specialist magazines. He is the author of books such as The Blues: from Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost and the seminal Blacks, Whites and Blues. In 2012 he was nominated for a Grammy for his authorship (with Ted Olson) of the book accompanying the Bear Family boxed set The Bristol Sessions 1927–1928: The Big Bang of Country Music. Most recently, Tony has co-authored with Olson the book accompanying another Bear Family box, The Johnson City Sessions 1928–1929: Can You Sing Or Play Old-Time Music? (2013).
List of articles in the library by artist
Charlie Poole: You Ain't Talkin' To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music
Review by Tony Russell, Maverick, May 2005
THE PAST IS another country music: they do things differently there. In a rural school hall, dancers execute their circle-lefts and allemands, the fire in ...
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, June 1972
THESE THREE double albums (with a fourth by Eddy Arnold) open a reissue series presumably intended to uncover the roots of today’s country music. Each ...
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, March 1972
EACH OF THESE bluesmen began to make his name soon after World War II, most of them profiting from the new urban audiences of blacks ...
Lightnin' Hopkins: Lightnin' Strikes
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
When the great bluesman Big Bill Broonzy died in 1958 there were some who obituarised him as the last of the blues singers. ...
Profile by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
Riley King was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on 16 September 1925. For a young black boy growing up amid the poverty and racial segregation ...
B.B. King: Will Success Spoil B.B. King?
Comment by Tony Russell, Cream, January 1972
ANY ARTIST who becomes noticeably successful soon has the more inquisitive, the harder-to-satisfy, of his followers asking ‘What’s he going to do now?’. Some sit ...
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, April 1997
CHICAGO IN THE FIRST DECADE after World War II spawned record labels like a salmon on fertility drugs. Many of them dealt with blues, some ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate McGarrigle: obituary
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, January 2010
Folk singer and songwriter at the heart of an innovative music-making family ...
Elvis Presley, Otis Blackwell: Otis Blackwell 1932 - 2002
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, May 2002
Prolific writer behind some of Elvis’s greatest hits ...
Uncle Dave Macon: Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy (Bear Family)
Review by Tony Russell, Maverick, September 2004
UNCLE DAVE MACON was the first real star of country music. True, Fiddlin' John Carson got on disc first: Uncle Dave made his debut recording ...
T-Bone Walker: Rare Blues and a Worldwide Reputation
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
T-BONE WALKER, had he been that sort of man, might have carried a chip on his shoulder the size of the Chrysler Building. ...
Profile by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1982
When it comes to Chicago blues, Muddy Waters is The Man. "Spell it M! — A, child! — N!" as he growls in ‘Mannish Boy’. ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, May 2012
FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS, Doc Watson, who has died aged 89, was the most illustrious name in traditional American folk music. A superb, original guitarist ...
List of genre pieces
Elijah Wald: Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues
Book Review by Tony Russell, New Humanist, May 2004
FOR A MUSIC that has always been resolutely secular, the blues has attracted a remarkable crowd of hierarchs and hierophants. Scholars, musicians, record collectors and ...
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, July 1995
WHEN BLUES PEOPLE WAS PUBLISHED in 1963, LeRoi Jones became the first black American to have written a book about the blues. It did not ...
Bewitching And Captivating: A Calypsonian history of Trinidad
Review by Tony Russell, Catalyst, May 2007
"The report of the Commission of Inquiry/Has arrived in this colony/It touches health and sanitation/Housing, wages and education . . ." The subject matter of ...
Blues In The Bottle: American Vernacular Music and the Medicine Show
Book Review by Tony Russell, Catalyst, May 2006
A review of the compilation Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937 (Old Hat Records) ...
Overview by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1981
The men who turned the USA on to rock DISK JOCKEYING IS AN OLD TRADE – but not perhaps, an old name: music-biz archaeologists have ...
Leonard Chess: Grand Master Of The Blues
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1982
Chess is one the great labels. Along with Sun and Atlantic it has stamped its trademark indelibly on the history of rock. ...
Various Artists: The Gospel Sound
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, November 1972
YOU READ it here, you read it there: gospel is close to the heart of blues and rock. But where do you hear what that ...
Various Artists: Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection 1960-2000 (Arhoolie)
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, November 2000
A 5-CD box set and photo-packed book celebrate a life committed to roots music. Subtitled The Journey of Chris Strachwitz. ...
Various: The Complete Sun Singles Vol 1 (Bear Family)
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, April 1995
SUN RECORDS HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN the history – or, if you never took to Presley, the demonology – of popular music, and the ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The Very Best of 40-year-old Virgin
RBP Album Club, June 13th: Miki Berenyi and Lucy O'Brien celebrate a Blondie classic
Essential Listening: Green Day grilled by Roy Trakin
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic