He’s not exactly a rocker, but was a big factor in making us aware of young singer/songwriters such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Jackson Brown, who became the legends of their generation. Here’s a brief clip of Tom, now in his 80s, as he appears today.
And here’s how he was then.
These Days … (that’s the title of a song that Tom introduced us to by Jackson Brown, who wrote it when he was 17) … Tom has set a new, pandemic-determined course. He’s selling subscriptions of himself online. Here’s a link:
https://www.patreon.com/TomRush
Sez Tom: “I have something I really want to do, and I’m going to need your help to do it. I’m starting a weekly series of online offerings — old songs, new songs, stories, pages from a book I’m working on. Since they’ll be coming out of my studio in Rockport, Mass, I thought I’d call the series “Rockport Sundays”.
- Every Sunday I’ll send you something special — one week it’ll be a Kitchen Table video recording of an old song, the next week a new song, then a road story from my 50+ years of crazy rambling, then some pages from a book I’m working on.
- I’m thinking of this as kind of a Backstage Pass to my creative process, my relationship with the songs I love, stories about my adventures (and misadventures) on the road. Now, these won’t be super-slick — there’ll be some rough edges. This is me at home, after all, and believe it or not, my life is not highly polished!
- You’ll be joining me for some serious fun, AND you’ll be giving me an incentive (an imperative, actually) to keep on creating new work — and to spruce up and finish up the piles of odds and ends I’ve had lying around for years.
- It’s a monthly subscription that auto-renews and charges your card immediately and then on the first of every month going forward. You can unsubscribe any time you like (but I’ll do my level best to make sure you don’t want to).
- . If you’re having a good time, please help spread the word — the more the merrier!
We have just one Tier so far and may be adding others as time goes by, BUT if you’re feeling generous, or want to be a True Patron of the Arts, you can Choose What You Pay at the checkout page.
Thanks in advance for supporting me, helping me to do what I love!!”
… which, come to think of it, is pretty much the same thing as what I am trying to do with Silverback Digest, except I’m not asking for money.
These Days he might not be a rocker, but Tom Rush is still a pretty damn great musician, and you should support him however and whenever you can.