All Tom’s albums are exceptionally strong, he’s one of the finest contemporary folk singer/songwriters around, but the release of ‘Modern Art’ sees him at his strongest, which makes this an important release.
He’s an exceptionally skilled songwriter, with few peers in songs written from someone else’s viewpoint, and this is clearly demonstrated with a trio of songs from this disc, the opener ‘The Kid from Spavinaw’, a song about baseball legend Mickey Mantle, written from the perspective of a dying Mantle, reflecting on his highs, lows, achievements and mistakes – it’s a moving song, a fantastic piece of writing and is beautifully performed. Elsewhere ‘Isaac Lewis’ is an epic narrative ballad of a Welsh sailor who died only 70 miles from home on his return from Australia – it sounds like a folk classic, but is a Russell original and another wonderful song. Third in this sequence is ‘Muhammad Ali’, a reflection from Ali on his life, achievements and the dignity of living life in the face of his illness. These three songs show the skill of Russell as a writer, wildly differing subjects and settings, but all steeped in detail, colour and emotion.
Musically this is acoustic singer/songwriter with a subtle Texan twist, and the list of people contributing is impressive, most notably Nanci Griffith who sings duet vocals on 3 tracks, and there’s excellent guitar work from Andrew Hardin throughout; other musicians include Eliza Gilkyson and Gurf Morlix.
Of the 13 songs, most are original compositions, but there are a few well chosen covers, Michael Smith’s ‘The Dutchman’ being the pick of them, it’s a great song and Russell delivers it perfectly.
‘Modern Art’ is one of the finest singer/songwriter albums we’ve heard, it has everything, it’s considered, detailed, and dynamic and is full of character and depth. A future classic and an album not to be missed.

£13.49