A Quick Q & A with Tom Rush

Tom Rush has been captivating audiences with his rich, melodic voice and gently laid-back, rustic brand of folk music since he first burst on the coffeehouse scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts while a student at Harvard in the early 1960s. One of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of our time, he has both written songs that have been covered by others and introduced the world to other notable artists through his gifted reinterpretations of their work. Kathy Sands-Boehmer posed a few questions to him recently. Her interview follows.

Pure and simple. Tom Rush is a legend in these parts. It’s nearly impossible to navigate your way from one acoustic music venue to another without someone mentioning his name and recalling how they first heard of him and his music. Tom’s most excellent taste in cover tunes has uncovered a whole litany of singer-songwriter greats who have since gone on to become sensations themselves. Tom has a brand new CD called What I Know — his first in over 30 years. Check out his music at www.tomrush.com. Take a moment to watch his video of Steven Walters’ “The Remember Song,” which has well over three million viewings!

Love the fact that one of your recent reviewers commented that you have “caviar taste” in songwriters that you choose to cover. You have an incredible track record — discovering emerging songwriters and interpreting their songs and making those songs your own: James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Guy Clark, Joni Mitchell and the list goes on and on. Do you recall how you first heard those songwriters and how you came to choose some of the songs for your recording projects?

I’ve never claimed, or aimed, to discover anybody — I’ve just been looking for good songs. Good enough to make up for my minimal talent as a singer. I encountered each of these folks in a different way, always by chance, if you believe in such a thing.

My first memories of you occurred when Dick Sommers on WBZ radio [in Boston, Massachusetts] played cuts from The Circle Game late at night. I’ve seen mention on the internet that others have that same memory. I understand that you actually gave Dick a copy of the song and encouraged him to play it. Good career move! It sounds like you had a sense that that song would be a breakthrough hit for you.

Dick and Jefferson Kaye, also on ’BZ, both got a copy of a studio cut of “The Urge for Going” before it was released, and they made it somewhat of a sensation. It was a “turntable hit,” meaning that they got a lot of calls for it. This was before the internet, and even before cassette recorders, and it hadn’t been released — so if you wanted to hear it you had to call the station. (When it finally was released, it went immediately to #1 on WBZ, and no other station in New England would touch it.)

With the release of your new CD, What I Know, are you making any new fans who may never have had you on their musical radar up til now?

I hope so. I think that the internet has allowed me, and many other artists, to connect directly with audiences that would have been inaccessible in the old scheme of things, back when the record label constructed (or didn’t) all the connections and pathways between the artist and the audience.

It’s very cool that Bono is singing part of “No Regrets” during recent U2 shows. Did you know that he was a fan?

He actually thought that Scott Walker of the Walker Brothers wrote it. They had a huge hit in England with the song, and that spilled over into several other covers which were also hits there. I met Bono and set him straight. Very nice fellow!

If you had to be remembered by just one song from your vast repertoire, what would it be?

Unfair question. First, they are ALL my babies and I love each and every one of them. Second, I don’t get to make that call. Thirdly, I’d settle just to be remembered.

Like many of us, Kathy Sands-Boehmer wears many hats. An editor by profession, she also operates Harbortown Music and books artists for the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In her spare time, Kathy can be found at local music haunts all over New England. This and many previous Q & A interviews with performing artists are archived at www.meandthee.org/blogtxp/. This one, several previous Q &As, and future ones also will be archived here on AcousticMusicScene.com.