Hotwalker: Charles Bukowski and A Ballad For Gone America

tom russell's hotwalker album is a portrait of a segment of american culture in a time gone by. through original songs, narration and the actual voices of literary and historical figures, tom constructs a recollection of the outsider voices of american popular culture, literature and art of the 1960s. the taking-off point for hotwalker is tom's correspondence with outsider writer/poet charles bukowski in the 1960s. tom and circus midget/actor little jack horton read parts of the correspondence and narrate an historical landscape, dotted with the voices of lenny bruce, jack kerouac, dave van ronk, radical environmentalist edward abbey, hobo classical composer harry partch, ramblin' jack elliott, and bukowski himself. in the process, the listener is taken on a tour of dive bars in downtown la, mexican border whorehouses, huckster revival meetings, bakersfield honky-tonks, and more.