Russell Solomon was an American folk rock singer and songwriter best known for his hits “Ukulele Blues” and “Diamond in the Snow”. While he never became a household name, fans of early rock remember him for his quick banter during live shows and the lined, leathery face evident even in his early years, partly the result of working on his grandfather’s farm when he was a child and teenager.
While Russell Solomon played six years with the Stringerland Rock and Blues Trio, a group he founded, he is best known for taking the stage alone, armed only with a couple of well-worn guitars and a music stand holding a small clock and a handwritten set list. He recorded more than a dozen solo albums, including the successful “When He Works at Rest”, which reached number four on the Billboard pop chart in 1983. His pleasant-but-strained voice has been compared to the modern rocker Jon Bon Jovi.
While folk was the first love of Russell Solomon, rock became his passion by midlife. He once said in an interview that he would have become a rock singer sooner “if rock had been invented sooner”. He also once told Rolling Stone magazine that he brought “the soul of a folk singer to audiences expecting something a little less confrontational”.
Russell Solomon was born in rural North Texas near the small town of Perrin in Jack County, about 50 miles from the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex. Ironically, he died only a few miles from his boyhood home when a motorcycle collided with him as he stood on a road talking to a former neighbor.
Only six weeks before his untimely death, Russell Solomon finished his comeback album “Blurring Lines”. Songwriter Elias James Michelle, Solomon’s only son from his brief marriage in the 1970s to actress Leah Michelle, completed production on the album and also provided a section of vocals to replace one damaged in post-production. The CD, released in 2009, sold more copies than any Russell Solomon album released during his lifetime.
Short story on Russell Solomon.