Mark Russell
By 
Blogging is light because I’m at Big Ears in Knoxville. First day–Allison Russell and her band The Rainbow Coalition. Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band, with David Byrne showing up for a song! Joe Lovano’s Trip Tapestry with Marilyn Crispell on Carmen Castaldi! A bit of Los Lobos. And then Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra that, among others, includes Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Gerald Cleaver, and Craig Taborn. And I have three more days of this!!
But I do have to mention upon his death that Mark Russell was horrible. He wasn’t funny and he was the kind of non-ideological court jester that rather than tell a truth to those in power just served to reinforce their position and their smug self-satisfaction. He was a Beltway machine that fed other members of that machine. His jokes were flatter than the west Texas caprock and he only succeeded because old politicians like both showtunes and self-satisfaction. Good riddance.