Tom Rush's blog

Greenwich Village not only became a magnet for songwriters, it also attracted interpreters of folk and country blues. Nobody did it better than Tom Rush, a thoughtful, immaculate stylist, exquisitely adapting other’s material.

Tom emerged from the Boston and Cambridge scene and when he signed to Elektra had already recorded two albums for Prestige in 1963 that revealed him to be an accomplished bottleneck guitarist. His Elektra debut, Tom Rush, is simply masterful, and his version of Bukka White‘s “The Panama Limited” beyond compare.

When Rush came to record his second LP, Take A Little Walk With Me, much of his repertoire had been used. The second side of this album showed that like Bob Dylan, he was more than just a folkie, Al Kooper leading a full electric band including Bruce Langhorne and Harvey Brooks through a set of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Buddy Holly songs.

By Rush’s third and final Elektra album in 1969, he was decided to adopt a more modern approach. The Circle Game featured songs by the then unknown James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell, probably the three biggest stars to be of the confessional school of song writing prevalent in the 70’s. Tom Rush's own songwriting contribution was the poignant ‘’No Regrets,” easily the definitive version of this much recorded song.