LIKE many of the Texas troubadours, Tom Russell is more poet than songwriter. It’s in their blood or something, right? Except that while he is a longtime resident of El Paso, Russell is actually from California. A SoCal native who graduated from UC–Santa Barbara, he even lived in San Francisco for a while. How does it come across in his music? Well, there’s just something more exuberant than you’d expect in Russell’s songs about chased-down immigrants, beat-down rock icons and beat-up boxers. There’s nothing about the West Texas plains that could inspire the joie de vivre that Russell brings to his songwriting—did anyone ever describe a Townes Van Zandt song as “joyous”? But Russell’s are. Even when he’s writing about a break-up in “The Road It Gives, The Road It Takes Away,” there’s a Zen element to it, a feeling that everything is as it must be. That’s pure sunny California right there.
TOM RUSSELL performs Thursday (Dec. 10), at 8pm at the Little Fox theater, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. Tickets are $24 advance/$26 at the door, (650.369.4119)
