Russell Bartlett
Austin, TX | Established. Jan 01, 1992 | INDIE
Music
Press
"Russ Bartlett is the kind of artist that gives me hope in American Country music."
--Moshe Benarroch - Fame Review
"Russ Bartlett is the kind of artist that gives me hope in American Country music."
--Moshe Benarroch - Fame Review
"Bartlett writes like the best songwriters of the past thirty years. He is headed for R.E.S.P.E.C.T in the genre."
--Sarah Meadows - Santa Fe Reporter
"Bartlett writes like the best songwriters of the past thirty years. He is headed for R.E.S.P.E.C.T in the genre."
--Sarah Meadows - Santa Fe Reporter
"Quietly building a reputation one fine album at a time."
--John Conquest - Third Coast Music
"Quietly building a reputation one fine album at a time."
--John Conquest - Third Coast Music
"Russell Bartlett weaves a dusty tapestry of Texas Style Americana. His landscapes are vast, his characters fascinating and his voice very believable. He's a songwriter who begs you to listen forward...."
--Chris Gage
Austin Producer - Liner Notes
"Russell Bartlett weaves a dusty tapestry of Texas Style Americana. His landscapes are vast, his characters fascinating and his voice very believable. He's a songwriter who begs you to listen forward...."
--Chris Gage
Austin Producer - Liner Notes
Exceptionally good songs....I wish I'd written them!"
---Townes Van Zandt - Liner Notes from 1997
Exceptionally good songs....I wish I'd written them!"
---Townes Van Zandt - Liner Notes from 1997
"Like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt or Richard Dobson, may Russ Bartlett rise...."
--Belgium - Hogtown News
"Like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt or Richard Dobson, may Russ Bartlett rise...."
--Belgium - Hogtown News
Discography
Most material can be sampled, purchased or linked-to at www.russellbartlett.com
Photos
Bio
Country-blues folksong writer Russell Bartlett was an early arrival to the Americana genre. His 1996 solo debut album “One Hand on the Plow (Republic of Texas Records) was greeted with high praise from a discerning music press in Austin, where Bartlett was based for twenty plus years. “Exceptionally good songs—I wish I’d written them,” quipped the legendary Townes Van Zandt in the “Plow” liner notes.
TVZ was a mentor and brief friend of Bartlett, and his influence is pleasantly detectable in some of Bartlett’s hauntingly poetic lyrics. The one-time Seattle Grunge singer, who calls himself an “Eclectric balladeer,” cites musical influences ranging from Nashville Hall-of Famer Tom T. Hall to The Beatles—and even seminal British alt-punk band Joy Division. “Stylistically speaking, I’m a derivative mutt,” Bartlett says. While that may be true, his song craft is a pure breed of vivid imagery, hilarious wordplay and brilliantly woven narratives. With a seven original CD’s on various independent labels to his credit, his finely crafted stories and stark imagery have won the praise of the likes Mickey Newbury, Robert Earl Keen and Stephen Bruton, to name a few.
“He writes like some of the best songwriters of the past forty years. May he rise”-- Sarah Meadows, Santa Fe Reporter.
“Among the finest songwriters in his class” --Blue Suede News
“Bartlett shifts between poignancy and hilarity with seamless finesse. A great craftsman.”
--Jim Beal Jr., San Antonio Express News
Links
