About Russ ‘N’ Paul
Somewhere between Roy Hobbs of The Natural, and Eddie and the Cruisers there is a local story of two musicians who could have walked off the screen of either movie. Russell Jones and Paul Murray, both originally from Hyattsville, Md, began singing and writing songs when they met in High School in the very early 1970’s.
Their first effort produced a song called “Lonely Traveler” which won an award in the 1976 American Song Festival. With an incentive from Columbia Pictures, Russ and Paul produced a 4 song demo.
The demo led to an album with a small label out of Atlanta, Ga., Buffalo Records. The album, “See You in Court” was released in 1979 and reviewed by Billboard Magazine which selected the album as a “recommended LP” in their March 17, 1979 edition citing the track “Heart in the City”.
The record company originally produced about 5,000 copies. Russ ‘n’ Paul continued to play some of the more memorable watering holes in the DC area such as the Far Inn, The Pour House Pub and with what turned out to be their last show together at the Psyche Delly in Bethesda in 1980.
Russ n’ Paul both went on to get married, raise families’ and of course get daytime jobs. Even though they both played in various cover bands since that time, they went 30 years without singing and playing together.
Flash forward to 2009 when the original album, “See You in Court” had begun to show up for sale on such EBay sites as Austria, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan. This was not the driving force to re-unite after almost 30 years but more of an excuse to write and sing together again. Like a 40 year old Roy Hobbs from the movie was told, “son, most guys your age are getting out of the business and you’re just getting started”. Ditto for Russ ‘n’ Paul.
