It’s difficult to imagine — for an outsider, anyway — that Tom Rush hasn’t always followed his muse. Yet there it is, on his website, something akin to a “note to self” proclaiming his new resolution. Or perhaps it’s a continuation of one he may have made in the early 1960s when he was studying at Harvard University. At that time, he was out at the coffeehouses and clubs, singing blues and folk and introducing the work of then-unknowns like Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor.
| ONSTAGE |
| Tom Rush |
| » When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday |
| » Where: Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria |
| » Info: $35; 202-397-SEAT; ticketmaster.com |
“I have written a children’s song,” said Rush of where his muse has recently led him. “That has never happened before … I’m playing it at shows to show people just how silly we can get.”
That silliness extends to poking fun at himself through stories he tells and photographs he shows during his concerts. He seems a bit bewildered by those who expect him to be caustic about his famous friends’ good fortunes. Instead, he seems to relish the part they played in each other’s art, notably on his album “The Circle Game,” which introduced music that “wasn’t folk, it wasn’t rock, it was something else.”
Rush still seeks to create that distinct music. His concerts always include a mix of beloved older songs and his newer, sometimes “silly,” tunes, plus songs by others that he loves. The only downside to the musical road he now travels is that he often is solo, so he doesn’t feel comfortable playing some of his major hits.
“I would be delighted to play ‘Driving Wheel,’ ” he said at one point when asked why he rarely pulls it out of his catalog. “I don’t travel with a band, and when I play it [as a solo act] it feels so wimpy. It wants to be big, and with one guitar I can’t make it big enough. Against my better judgment, sometimes I do it anyway.”
Though he concedes he never has enough time to listen to new music, he said that he will hear Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers and others thanks to his 11-year-old daughter. In fact, he recently took his daughter and a friend to a Lady Gaga show where they went backstage.
“They were both on the young-age spectrum,” he said. “They were a bit overwhelmed by the noise and the flash, but we got to hang out backstage and they loved that. It was fun. They got to feel special.”
When asked if his daughter realizes the genre her father created, Rush just laughs lovingly.
“I think what she likes is that I got to introduce her to the Jonas Brothers,” he said. “Sometimes Dad can be cool.”
