Blossom Dearie News

Some days it's tough to get out of bed. Tom Russell knows it and sings about it on "Love & Fear," perhaps the best album yet in the long career of an underrated, overlooked singer-songwriter.

Now based in El Paso, Texas, Russell once taught school in Nigeria and drove a cab in New York City, and his wise, well-traveled baritone resonates as a voice of experience. References to Sterling Hayden, Archie Moore and Blossom Dearie suggest the singer's in the September of his years, as do such song titles as "The Pugilist at 59" and "Old Heart."

Throughout Russell focuses on love and the fear of having to do without. He sings with eloquence about heartbreak and healing, longing and loneliness, regret, ex-girlfriends and the creeping doubts that come with age.

Russell's ruminations and observations are packaged in terrific music, from catchy Tex-Mex and testosterone-fueled country to bluesy, lounge jazz and a moving duet with Gretchen Peters. The pugilist at 59 packs a punch.