Elton John / Leon Russell

Elton John / Leon Russell: The Union

by C. Michael Bailey
October 26, 2010

Elton John and Leon Russell are not so unlikely musical colleagues. Russell is slightly the elder, at 68 to John's 63, and within the age difference of two brothers. Both emerged in the early '70s, that fertile period nurtured by Woodstock the year before, and the rise of album-oriented-rock FM radio after. Both are pianists and composers of repute, with similar percussive styles and deep furrows of dirt, church, and Delta. John reveals this to be no accident as he ...