Search - Tom Rush :: No Regrets: The Very Best Of Tom Rush

Long awaited and worth it!

Tom Altizer | Woodbridge, VA USA | 12/18/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's hard to concieve of anyone improving on Joni Mitchell's performance of any of her songs, but Tom Rush's "Urge For Going" is the definitive version of this classic. "No Regrets", even in it's overdone form included here, is one of the best songs of any era, and Rush's voice is a miracle. If you know his work, buy this for the new song and the old favorites included here. If you don't know Tom Rush, this is a great intorduction to a performer without peer. I hope he and John Leventhal soon do an entire album. That's a match made in heaven!"

Not perfection, but close enough for the time being

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 02/24/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like most people, I haven't heard Tom Rush in more years than I can remember. This new retrospective should serve to remind all of us just how good he was ... well, is, since the recent and previously unrecorded "River Song" lets us know he hasn't lost his chops: vocal, instrumental, or compositional. Rush himself put this collection together, interesting if for no other reason than that it tells us what an artist deems his best work -- as opposed, say, to what the rest of us might judge it to be. I am sure I'm not the only one wondering what in the world "San Francisco Bay Blues" -- a song long overdue for deep-sixing -- is doing here; much worse is the inexplicable inclusion of Lee Clayton's brain-dead, witless "Ladies Love Outlaws," which not even a superior interpreter like Rush can redeem. Eric Kaz's hippyish "Mother Earth" -- not to be confused with Memphis Slim's grown-up song of the same name -- has not aged well. And why, oh why, is Ed Holstein's classic "Jazzman" not here? Fortunately, that's it for the complaints. A few weird missteps aside, the rest of this is sheer beauty, from gorgeous explorations into the tradition ("Mobile-Texas Line," "Galveston Flood") to brilliant takes on modern folk-accented songs (Joni Mitchell's "Urge for Going," David Wiffen's "Lost My Drivin' Wheel") and on to Rush's melancholic, melodic originals ("No Regrets," "Merrimac County"). It makes you hope that the first decade of the new century finds Rush back in action and in the studio. This old world could use some fresh Tom Rush music. I guess this splendid collection will have to do -- at least for the time being."

Glorious and long past due!

Carole McNall | Olean, NY USA | 12/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you even think you like folk music, give this one a listen. As other reviewers have said, Tom Rush has a gorgeous voice -- did in the '60s, does today. The songs span much of his career, although (as mentioned) the Elektra tunes are mostly missing (Elektra, it's time for at least one re-release!). For me, though, any collection that has "Urge for Going" (one of my songs for a desert island) and "No Regrets" (another one) can't be passed up."