TOM RUSH

folk singer-guitarist

“Well, I remember being given Pete Seeger’s ‘Cotton Needs a’ Pickin’ So Bad’ on 78 when I was a kid. And the year that Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit with ‘Sixteen Tons,’ I think about eight different people gave me a copy of that 45 for Christmas.

“But the first album that I ever bought might have been Presley’s first album. That might have been it. I also bought a lot of Josh White albums very early on, but, no, Presley would have pre-dated that.”