The Very Best Of Tom Rush: No Regrets Jonesboro GA

The Very Best Of Tom Rush: No Regrets

Tom Rush

Columbia / Legacy Records, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/17/2000

Chances are, unless you grew up in the folk and Americanarevivals in music during the '60s and '70s, you don't know the nameor music of Tom Rush.

But once you listen to the recently-released careerretrospective The Very Best Of Tom Rush: No Regrets, you'll think thatyou've known his music all your life -- and you'll wonder howanyone can live without it. In fact, if you listen real close, youmay realize that you do indeed know at least one of his songs --but more on that in a minute.

Rush's name might not be mentioned in the same breath as thoseof contemporaries Gordon Lightfoot, Steve Goodman -- or even moremodern trailblazers like the late Harry Chapin and John Hiatt. Rushis able to craft a picture out of musical notes and vocals, andcreate something that could easily be hung in the Louvre. Thedrawback? You damn well better be paying attention to everythingRush has to say, or else you'll be lapped faster than a stalled carat Indianapolis.

The thing about the songs featured on this collection is thatRush didn't write most of them -- but he's able to inject so muchpersonality into these tracks that you'd swear that he penned them.Listen to the gentle, loving touch he gives on the live version of"Jamaica, Say You Will," and try to remember that it was reallyJackson Browne who wrote the song. It's hard -- man, is it hard.