Calvin Russell + Elliott Murphy - All along the Watchtower

 

Calvin Russell (born Calvert Russell Kosler, November 1, 1948 – April 3, 2011) was an American blues and roots rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Early life and career[edit]

Russell was born in Austin, Texas, on November 1, 1948. The sixth in a family of nine, Calvin Russell spent his first five years virtually behind the counter at Sho Nuff Café, where his father Red cooked and his mother Daisy was a waitress. At twelve, Calvin took up guitar and joined his first group, The Cavemen. At fifteen, he ran away to San Francisco. He survived on the road thanks to odd jobs and found himself imprisoned several times for petty teenage offenses. Disillusioned with the American model of financial and social success, he marginalized himself and sold cannabis in order to subsist. Arrested several times, he spent ten years behind bars. On leaving one of his stays in prison, he embarked on a journey through the Great South and crossed the Rio Grande to Piedras Negras and El Paso. This is where he really started to write songs and sing from town to town. He lived as a vagrant, but was caught by the Mexican authorities in the winter of 1985 with American weed in his pockets. Indicted for fraudulent importation of narcotics, he spent a year and a half in the jails of the Mexican government. When he returned to Austin in 1986, he worked as a plumber, but continued to hang out in an alcohol and drug environment. He rubbed shoulders with many musicians, including the legendary Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, and Leon Russell.

Elliott James Murphy (born March 16, 1949) is an American rock singer-songwriter, novelist, record producer and journalist living in Paris.

Biography[edit]

Elliott Murphy was born in Rockville Centre, New York,^[1] grew up in Garden City, Long Island and began playing the guitar at age twelve. His band The Rapscallions won the 1966 New York State Battle of the Bands.^[2] In 1971 he travelled to Europe and appeared in the Federico Fellini film Roma^[3] Returning to New York, in 1973 he secured a record contract with Polydor Records after being noticed by rock critic Paul Nelson.^[4] In 1988, he returned to college studies he had given up in the 1960s, and completed his bachelor's degree at Empire State College.^[5]