Man, Manifesto, Waitress: Sam Russell at Columbia City Theater

It’s not that I want Seattle to change. But one day I’m listening to a damn good alt bluegrass band called Creeping Time at Conor Byrne when a herky jerky hirsute man jumps onto stage and belts out the beginning of a couple sentences and breaks into a low tenor rendition of a song I figured I should have known. And I think damn this is what this town needed.

It turned out this was local legend Sam Russell. A man who, from what I’ve been told over very very cheap beer and whiskey, has recorded 7 CDs dedicated to a waitress from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Not bedroom recordings. Recorded at studios. Great stuff from what I hear, too. I’m not saying I’m positive there is a 7-CD set of Russell albums somewhere. I’m saying I’ve been told this very many times, by different songwriters in town, over the very cheap beer and whiskey I drink. And following up at Sam’s website, I have found what I believe to be a manifesto. And a suggestion that the waitress in question is named Katie. And there will be an 8th CD.

I am referencing the web for this writing. I do not own a Sam Russell CD. My mother-in-law took it. To Iceland. I had it for 4 hours. Why? Because I invited Sam Russell to play a set with me, and he uncorked a hushed, salt-of-the-Earth stunner of a set at Hattie’s Hat with vocals approaching the baritone range, exploring . . . well, I think he was singing about the Kenosha waitress. They are haunting. And my mother-in-law said that she couldn’t believe you could walk into a bar and hear someone sing original music so damn well.

This is one of the songs he delivered that night:

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What to say then? There’s a dude in Seattle who jumps on stage and steals shows who one day is the incarnation of Greg Brown, the next Van Morrison? Tracking down his online recordings, there is the above MP3 that sounds like Greg Brown– the patron saint of folk in the upper Midwest. His other online recordings . . . completely different. Sam Russell seems ready to jump into a range of genres, sing convincingly in any range he chooses, and build working class prose poems out of the highways I grew up driving on. (Strangely enough, Mr. Russell seems to have grown up ten blocks from my father’s house.)

Sam Russell performs at Columbia City Theater tomorrow night – Wednesday February 29, 2012 – at 9 PM, opening the night for Anna Coogan’s CD release of The Wasted Ocean. In a town that is getting more and more comfortable ensemble performances, harmonies, and passive cover songs, this is a chance to see flat out charisma on stage. I truly have no idea when you will be able to see him again. My hope is as large a stage as possible as soon as possible. The truth is that might be tricky. Sam Russell is a performer an audience loves, and just about every musician is loath to follow.