1- Soldier ­ 3:26 ­
2- Strangers ­ 3:26
3- Characters- 5:49
4- I dreamed I saw ­ 2:42
5- Rats & Roaches ­ 4:28
6- Down in Texas ­ 2:46
7- Shackles and chains ­ 4:02
8- This could be the day ­ 3:53
9- This is your world (Memphis mix)- 4:40

10- Bonus track: White Rails ­ 5:33

1-Don't turn your head ­3:14 (C.Russell / J.D.Graham)
2-Trouble ­ 5:26 ( C.Russell)
3- Valley far below ­ 4:40 (M.Barker)
4- We can live together ­ 4:41 (C.Russell / J.D. Graham)
5- I gave my soul to you ­ 3:58 ( M. Barker)
6- So blue (about you) ­ 4:37 (J.Escovedo)
7- You'll get yours ­ 4:47 (C.Russell / J.D. Graham)
8- The Answer ? ­ 3:59 (C.Russell)
9- It's my life ) 3:36
10- All we got is rock'n'roll ­ 6:04 (C.Russell)
11- Keepin' the demons down ­ 5:11 ( C.Russell)

Bonus tracks
12- Stripe on a nine ball ­ 3:51 ( Jubal Clark)
13- Life of a Texas man- 2:59 (Calvin Russell)

From out of the Heart Texas, the land of longhorn cattle, rocking boogie bikers, scorching hot summers, tornados, big blue skies and miles of highway stretching from Beaumont to El Paso, comes CALVIN RUSSELL.

Born in Austin in 1948, CALVIN literally spent his first years on the counter of the "Sho Nuff Cafe", where his father, Red, was short order cook and his mother, Daisy, waited tables. CALVIN says his first real memories are of the frame house in the dirt street that dead-ended into the back of Pete Pistol's Wrecking Yard. "We knew we were on the wrong side of the tracks", says CALVIN, "but loved the freedom of it. I was building hot rods and running around Texas while other kids were still riding bicycles."

The sixth of nine children, RUSSELL picked up the guitar at age twelve. By thirteen he was playing rhythm guitar in the Cavemen, winning the position from what he calls "an old rock veteran" of sixteen. He began to run above the law for what he calls "unimportant stuff". After being sent to juvenile home and shortly thereafter a state prison, he began his southwestern adventures on the seat of a Harley.

He began crossing the Rio Grande at Piedras Negras and El Paso to find adventure, write and sing, and buy and sell the fiery dreams and visions of this area of the west that still remains to this day empty and rough. This part of Texas known as "The Valley" is the beginning of the truly forsaken, desolate desert that stretches west to Death Valley and Baja California.

CALVIN spent the early 1980's in and out of South Texas, back and forth across "The Valley", living the life of a vagabond in this smuggling ground. Landing in a prison in Nuevo Laredo, Old Mexico, in the winter of 1985, he found himself sleeping on a concrete mattress in the coldest winter that desolate desert has ever seen.

Following his return to Austin, RUSSELL upgraded his sleeping quarters to the dirt space under a house on Patterson Avenue, in old Clarksville, while trying to interest the Austin music industry into listening to his material.

CALVIN also found himself hanging out in several of the alcohol-and-drug laced writer enclaves of the Hill Country just outside of Austin. The places that had provided hideouts to outlaws throughout western history, also provided renegade songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Murphy with a creative working environment. These southern talents and wild smoky hills provided inspiration for the likes of Blaze Foley, CALVIN, Craig Lee Fuller, Rich Minus and Hal Ketchum.

"An outlaw rock'n'roll soldier fighting sorrow in modern times" best describes CALVIN in his own words, and in the new release, CALVIN continues the fight. This release features 7 new songs, a cover of the late TOWNES VAN ZANDT "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold", a cover of STEPPENWOLF "Desperation" and a B. Foley's song "Lovin' You".
Produced by JIM DICKINSON (they first worked together in 1992 for the "Soldier" album), that Cd have been recorded in Memphis (this the very first time CALVIN left Austin to get into a studio !).

Also added to CALVIN's band this year is the Whizz-Kid CHUCK PROPHET on guitar. The rythm section feature the very brilliant DAVID HOOD and ROGER HAWKINS (who worked with the likes of Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Cher, Carlos Santana or Linda Ronstadt).

Since 1989, when Patrick Mathé first met CALVIN at the Continental Club in Austin, and signed him to a recording deal with New Rose Records, CALVIN has released four studio recordings and one live album. All of his albums have painted stories reaching from the Texas world to the crossroads of humanity, a place where no man can claim a country.

His first french release, "A CRACK IN TIME", was hailed as a "great record, in the colors of the Lone Star State" (Staccato, summer 1990), and led to European festival stints with Little Village and the Kinks.

His second album, "SOUNDS FROM THE FOURTH WORLD", offering more depictions of the seedier side of life, captured the attention of both french audiences and music critics alike. This release featured the single "Crossroads" considered one of CALVIN's classics.

"SOLDIER", his third release with New Rose, was produced by Nashville native, Jim Dickinson. Nine tracks captured the raw energy and straightforwardness characteristic of RUSSELL's live performance. Les Inrockuptibles said of this disc : « There are evenings where the choice is simple if you want to convince your sweetheart, either listen to Blonde on Blonde again or put on "Soldier". »

Success with this record led New Rose to release a CALVIN RUSSEL live album entitled "LE VOYAGEUR". This release was recorded during sold out shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, the EXO-7 in Rouen, the Zig-Zag in Orleans and the Elysée-Montmartre, Paris. In 1993, the CALVIN RUSSELL Band performed 178 times in Europe.

"DREAM OF THE DOG" was his fifth manifesto... and a classical chapter of RUSSELL's inspired saga.

With the release of this brand new opus, sure the story goes on... and we push a door in the deep West where mirages become concrete as soon as you open your eyes, your ears... and believe in magic !