Leon Russell ready to sing a song for you

For the second year in a row, Elton John and Leon Russell are in town the same night, but not as equal in their separate drawing power as they are on their "Union" album together.

John is a high-dollar ticket at Caesars Palace, while Russell will sing at Boulder Station on Saturday. But Russell wasn't complaining a year ago, when either coincidence or a savvy booking agent also put them in town the same weekend.

The British superstar "set out to help me out, and I have to say he's done a pretty damn good job of it. It's pretty amazing, really," the 70-year-old Oklahoman says.

Russell is the white-maned and once-enigmatic composer of the modern standard "A Song for You," as well as the classics "Superstar" and "This Masquerade."

But when it comes to John's catalog of hits, Russell says it is "fair to say he's a savant. I've never in my life seen anybody with the melodic composing ability that he's got.

"When I write, I have to have a computer, because by the time I get to the second verse I've forgot what the first verse was."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.