Tom Russell

Master American songwriter Tom Russell plays an 8 p.m. show at Shank Hall tonight. Over the past quarter century, Russell has recorded nearly 20 folk and country albums, many of them ambitious, most of them dark and haunting. His latest, Wounded Heart of America, is something of a concept album. It compiles 14 covers of Russells’ songs from artists like Iris DeMent, Johnny Cash, Dave Alvin and Joe Ely, packaging them with four of his originals.