This is a magnificent effort by Tom. I read recently where he said he believes his song writing has come of age in the last several years and I heartily agree. I still love Barcelona, Veterans Day, Blue Wing and several other earlier songs but Blood and Candle Smoke and Mesabi were consistently excellent and this is even better. Some of the songs Rose of Roscrae, I talk to God (sung by both Tom and the fantastic Maura O'Connell at different times) and the two Damian songs are classic Russell masterpieces. This is a project which could have gone hopelessly wrong in lesser hands but he pulls it off wonderfully with ever-burning creativity and passion. My only reservation is that it is a bit of a waste to have artists as good as Joe Ely and David Olney speaking lines of dialogue and not singing with the exception of one verse by Joe. But that aside, it is on my best of all time CDs list and I am urging everyone I know to buy it or better still see him live which is a rare treat.