Russell Bartlett: News
Hello friends and music lovers everywhere!
Russ Bartlett here. I am alive and...well--whatever that means. Thanks to those of you who email, Facebook, call, listen and even purchase my songs. I am grateful beyond words. Although I am still writing, I have taken an indefinite reprieve from The rigors of The Road. After more than 20 years dedicated to making up songs, I have answered the call to pursue other things. Not at the complete exclusion of music (we are still working on a the next CD--yes, THAT cd, now almost four years in the making!), but certainly to the point of rumors of my "demise." (hard to get hurt when you don't have far to fall...). Someone tied my name to the Witness Protection Program in Alabama. Another had me digging graves in exchange for cheap cognac in West Texas (can't imagine how that one got started)....Still another had me listed among swine flu casualties. Really!
But, as that old Highway Men song goes, "I'm livin' still," and my absence doesn't mean I've lost the passion. Nor, God forbid, have I been cured of the pernicious virus that makes dopes like me spend our lives drifting around this earth in pursuit of a song and an audience(I think the medical designation for this virus is Dip-theria). Ah, the thrill of the chase. Naw, rather it's the recognition (like a shovel upside the head) that there are other sources of passion and joy and fulfillment in this brief life. Some like to golf (God bless ya, Mick!); I like to fish. Some like dogs or cats. I have a donkey named Beatrice that I love dearly.
But to really dial it in, I was blessed with this amazing family, including four kids. And the call of duty to provide for them goes beyond the dictates of necessity (as a line in a song I heard once goes "love means more than calling home"). It is our duty, as fathers, to be front and center with our children, not stumblebumming around Holland, nor on stage in some guitar shack in Santa Monica (sorry Jim, ya know I love you & everyone at McCabes!). Yes, I LOVED those experiences, to be sure, and will invariably return to them soon. But in the mean time, to be with my kids, to laugh and hurt and struggle and grow with them, brings more satisfaction (or perhaps just a different kind of satisfaction?) than any song I will ever compose (unless, of couse, I ever happen to compose anything as brilliant as "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road"...). As for me, this is my place for a season.
I love the way my ol' pal Townes Van Zandt touches on this in his song "High Low and in Between":
There is the highway
And the homemade lovin' kind
And the highway's mine
Us ramblers will get the travelin' done
You fathers build with stones
That stand and shine
Heaven's where you find it
And you can't take too much with you
Oh but daddy don't you listen
It's just this highway talkin'
Townes was a true musical genius, and I hold his work up there with Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. Maybe higher. His dedication to his craft, at the expense of absolutely everything else in life was, in many ways, unbelievable. I was blessed to know and perform with him briefly.
But I remember at his funeral in Forth Worth, when his brother spoke. He said Townes once told him his greatest legacy would be his catalogue of songs. His brother said, "Townes was wrong about that; his greatest legacy was his children."
As difficult to accept as that notion is for those of us in awe of Townes' gift, his brother was absolutely right.
Now, before you good folks write me off your I-Tunes libarary, please take heart. I will be posting rough versions (MP3s) of the songs from "Dark Horse," one at time a time, on my blog (you will be able to link or listen here). The first song, "Lafayette Hotel," will be posted by early March 2010. As for live performances, I have neither management nor a booking agent these days. I am the Lone Ranger (with a small "l" & "r" and a BIG task). But I will return in 2010 to the same folks festivals I have played for years. So please stay tuned and thank you for your patience and kind words.
Be safe and sound well!
God bless,
Russ Bartlett
Austin, TX