Baby Boomers like me probably have at least a vague recollection of the name Tom Rush. In the mid-60s we listened to his records, learned his guitar chords. He was a major part of that era's folk-music boom, along with the likes of Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, Tim Hardin (all but the last still around and still performing), and many more.
I'm on Tom's email newsletter list. Today's message includes a surprisingly direct reference to, and viewpoint on, a current presidential candidate, one that I'll share below the fold...
Here are the first two paragraphs of today's Tom Rush newsletter:
There’s a story I like about how Henry Ford wanted his engineers to come up with a certain carburetor design. They worked and worked, and reported that it couldn’t be done. So he took the job to two guys from the mail room, with no engineering training whatsoever, and they worked and worked, and did it.
They talk a lot about Obama’s lack of experience, but I’m thinking that, to the extent that it’s true, it might be a good thing. It seems evident that all of our current problems were carefully (or carelessly) crafted by people with lots and lots of experience. Tons of knowledge about The Way Things Should Be Done have led us into all kinds of very bad situations. Maybe we need someone who doesn’t know how it’s done, or that it can’t be done, to have a try at straightening things out. Don’t get mad at me – it’s just a thought.
He doesn't quite come out and endorse Obama, but I think I can read between the lines. Tom currently lives in Jackson Hole, so I wonder whether he participated in the Wyoming caucuses.
For those who don't recall Tom Rush, let me add a bit to this diary. During the folk music boom of the '60s, he was a tireless seeker of fresh musical talent. On his extraordinary 1968 album The Circle Game, Tom sang songs written by such unknown songwriters as Joni Mitchell (the title cut, as well as Tin Angel and Urge for Going), James Taylor (Something in the Way She Moves and Sunshine, Sunshine) and Jackson Browne (Shadow Dream Song). I think it is literally true that we might never have heard of any of those artists had Tom Rush not heard them in some New England coffeehouse.
Tom continued to champion Taylor and Browne over the next several years, before their careers took off. He sang Rainy Day Man (JT), These Days (JB), and Colors of the Sun (JB) on 1970's Tom Rush. Taylor's Riding on a Railroad and Sweet Baby James were on Wrong End of the Rainbow, also released in 1970. His 1972 record Merrimack County included a cover of Browne's Jamaica Say You Will.
Tom Rush also brought attention to the early works of such singer-songwriters as Jesse Colin Young, Fred Neil, Murray McLauchlan, Jesse Winchester, Guy Clark, and Bruce Cockburn. Some 45 years after he started, he's still going.
Finally, for your listening and viewing pleasure, Tom Rush performing perhaps his best-known composition, No Regrets: