When Tom Rush learned there were more than 3 million YouTube video plays of him performing “The Remember Song,” he confessed he was proud.
If you go
Tom Rush
Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Info: $35; ticketmaster.com
Though Rush made it big as the blues/folk singer Rolling Stone touted as the driving force behind the singer-songwriter renaissance of the 1960s, he was pleased to see he’d made it in the more modern digital age. “For a while I was watching the count and then I realized that a 10-second clip of an elephant burping was gaining on me,” he said with a laugh. “That brought it more into perspective.”
As Rush fans know, his show is full of such self-deprecating witticisms, which only serve to heighten concertgoers’ loyalty to him. The man who made his name with such classics as “No Regrets” and “Driving Wheel” and is credited with paving the way for such songwriting greats as James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell is nothing if not modest.
Anyone who pegs Rush as a nostalgia act milking his fame is in for a shock. Rush’s voice seems as strong as ever, and he still melds new music into his sets. That’s especially true now that he has a new release — his first in 35 years — titled “What I know.”
Of course Rush knows his fans love the old songs, too. Though he never wants to become a nostalgia act only playing the old tunes, he constantly accommodates requests during concerts.
“It’s always interesting to me what requests I get,” Rush said of letting the audiences choose some songs. “I sometimes give in and sing ‘Driving Wheel,’ but I really need a band to do that well.”
Perhaps that quest for perfection is what keeps Rush so sharp. How else to explain his self-criticism — which includes his striving to “get better” at singing and songwriting — when critics such as Eric Fidler of the Associated Press write that Rush is “probably the only man alive who should be allowed to sing Joni Mitchell songs.”
Rush is modest about his critical and popular acclaim.
“I’m an overnight sensation; it’s only taken 40 years,” Rush said with a laugh about the YouTube plays. “Really, though, I think what it has done is remind people out there that I’m still doing it; still doing a credible job.”
