Tom Russell – Beyond St. Olav’s Gate

Track Listing:
1. Cropduster - 2:35   2. St. Olva’s Gate - 3:30   3. The Dance - 2:57   4. Home Before Dark - 2:48   5. U.S. Steel - 4:23   6. The Road To Bayamon - 3:20   7. Blue Wing - 3:59   8. Gallo Del Cielo - 6:02   9. Veteran’s Day - 3:36   10. Walkin' On The Moon - 3:46   11. Outbound Plane - 2:48   12. The Greatest Show On Earth - 4:37   13. Navajo Rug - 4:08   14. Black Pearl - 3:41   15. Beyond The Blues - 3:40   16 Haley’s Comet - 3:54

Personnel:
Tom Russell (guitar, vocals) , Fats Kaplin (accordion, dobro, fiddle, steel guitar, harmonica) , Andrew Hardin (guitars, tiple, harmony vocals) , Jonas Fjeld (guitar) , Billy Troiani / Michael Weinstein / Hank Bones (bass guitar) , Gene Hicks (piano) , Mike Warner / Charles Caldarola (drums, backing vocals) , Don Graham / Bill Grillo (drums) , Ian Tyson / Shawn Colvin (vocal harmony)

Reviews:

1. AllMusic - Pemberton Roach
An excellent "best-of" collection culled from several Russell albums released between 1979 and 1992, the music on this disc is such a sublime, if unassuming, slice of pure "alternative" country, it suddenly makes the very existence of a band like Whiskeytown seem redundant. With his quietly honest vocal delivery and carefully honed arrangements, Russell might not appeal to fans of the chillingly raw, whiskey-soaked, directness of a Townes Van Zandt or Hank Williams, Sr., but he more than makes up for any lack of intensity with the sheer beauty of his lyrics. With a novelist's eye for detail and a penchant for using such atypical country settings such as Puerto Rico and Norway, Russell has never been afraid to follow his own road; Beyond St. Olav's Gate is a fine introduction to the path's most enjoyable twists and tuns.