Tony Russell
A music historian and critic, Tony Russell (pictured in 1975 with old-time country fiddler Hoyt Ming in his Mississippi sweet-potato patch) has written about blues, country, jazz and other American musics for MOJO, The Guardian and many specialist magazines. He has also acted as a consultant on TV documentaries such as American Epic, Folk America and Blues America. His books include The Blues: from Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings (with Chris Smith & others), Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost and 1970's seminal Blacks, Whites and Blues. Tony has been three times nominated for a Grammy for his authorship (with Ted Olson) of the books accompanying the Bear Family boxed sets The Bristol Sessions 1927–1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (2011), The Johnson City Sessions 1928–1929: Can You Sing Or Play Old-Time Music? (2013) and The Knoxville Sessions 1929–1930: Knox County Stomp (2016). In March 2021, his Rural Rhythm: The Story of Old-Time Country Music in 78 Records was published by Oxford University Press.
Pic: Carl Fleischhauer
Tony Russell on the RBP podcast
49 articles
List of articles in the library
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 ...
Profile and Interview by Tony Russell, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
A FAMILIAR blues story is the one of the musician who held his first guitar almost before he clambered out of the cradle. As the ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Overview by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 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, The History of Rock, 1982
Chess is one the great labels. Along with Sun and Atlantic it has stamped its trademark indelibly on the history of rock. ...
Profile by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 1982
When it comes to Chicago blues, Muddy Waters is The Man. "Spell it M! — A, child! — N!" as he growls in ‘Mannish Boy’. ...
Profile by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 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 ...
Lightnin' Hopkins: Lightnin' Strikes
Retrospective by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 1983
When the great bluesman Big Bill Broonzy died in 1958 there were some who obituarised him as the last of the blues singers. ...
T-Bone Walker: Rare Blues and a Worldwide Reputation
Retrospective by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 3 December 1999
HERB ABRAMSON, who has died aged 82, was one of the architects of Atlantic Records, which in the 1950s and 60s was the most creative ...
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. ...
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, January 2001
Ten years after his death at 35, Vaughan's blues legacy is commemorated by four hours of his music on three CDs and a DVD. ...
Etta James: Matriarch Of The Blues
Review and Interview by Tony Russell, MOJO, September 2001
Magisterial readings of blues and soul classics from the folios of Otis Redding, Al Green, and O.V. Wright, with a dash of Dylan and a ...
Elvis Presley, Otis Blackwell: Otis Blackwell 1932 - 2002
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, May 2002
Prolific writer behind some of Elvis’s greatest hits ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 18 August 2002
THE AMERICAN singer and pianist Rosco Gordon, who has died aged 74, was an obscure but influential figure, less in his own idiom of rhythm ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 3 March 2003
DESPITE THE EFFORTS of many producers and publicists, country music has resisted being severed from its roots in southern US working-class life. ...
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 ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 12 June 2004
DURING THE 1960S, a generation of teenagers discovered America's hidden music of black blues, gospel and soul, and many of them promptly fissured into followings ...
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 ...
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 ...
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) ...
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 ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 26 September 2008
1950s blues and R&B singer resurgent in the 80s and last year. ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate McGarrigle: obituary
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 19 January 2010
Folk singer and songwriter at the heart of an innovative music-making family ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 28 January 2011
THE SINGER AND guitarist Charlie Louvin, who has died aged 83, was half of one of country music's best-loved and most influential double acts. ...
David "Honeyboy" Edwards, 1915-2011
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 30 August 2011
Blues singer and guitarist with an enthralling style, he played with Robert Johnson. ...
Honeyboy Edwards: David Honeyboy Edwards: obituary
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 30 August 2011
Blues singer and guitarist with an enthralling style, he played with Robert Johnson. ...
Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin: Hubert Sumlin, 1931-2011
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 5 December 2011
Revered blues guitarist who combined musically with Howlin' Wolf "like gasoline and a lit match" ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 15 December 2011
Country singer whose biggest hit was 'Blanket on the Ground' ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 29 March 2012
Banjo player with a breathtaking style who shaped bluegrass and explored other genres ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 30 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 ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 17 July 2012
The "Queen of Country Music" in the post-war era, she had her first hit with 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels'. ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 2 December 2012
Versatile American guitarist who had a million-selling hit with 'Love Is Strange' ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 28 December 2012
Versatile blues singer and songwriter whose compositions included 'Tramp', recorded by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 24 February 2013
Singer and guitarist considered an icon of Chicago blues ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 24 June 2013
BOBBY "BLUE" BLAND, who has died aged 83, was among the great storytellers of blues and soul music. In songs such as 'I Pity the ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 19 July 2013
Mississippi blues guitarist who captivated audiences with his hypnotic playing and random storytelling ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 11 August 2013
JACK CLEMENT, who has died aged 82, was not only a prolific and successful songwriter and an able musician but had a long track record ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 18 December 2013
COUNTRY MUSIC entered a golden period after the second world war, as scattered regional styles such as honkytonk, western swing and bluegrass began to coalesce ...
Little Jimmy Dickens, 1920-2015
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 8 January 2015
Country music star of the 1950s and '60s who remained a stalwart of the Grand Ole Opry. ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 15 May 2015
Self-deprecating but with a magisterial stage presence, King developed a style that was both innovative and rooted in blues history. ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 26 June 2016
FOLLOWING THE DEATH of Bill Monroe in 1996, Ralph Stanley became the leading name in bluegrass, embodying in both his music and his bearing the ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 14 January 2019
Music writer, rock correspondent and academic who understood and communicated the cultural worth of pop. ...
The New Lost City Ramblers: John Cohen, 1932-2019
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 14 October 2019
Film-maker, photographer, folk music revivalist and founder member of the New Lost City Ramblers ...
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