The sixth in a family of nine, Calvin Russell spent his first five years virtually behind the counter at Sho Nuff Café, where his father Red cooked and his mother Daisy was a waitress.

On leaving one of his stays in prison, he embarked on a journey through the Great South and crossed the Rio Grande to Piedras Negras and El Paso.

Three years later, in December 1989, during a birthday party at the Continent Club of Austin, Russell sang his songs in a corner accompanied by an acoustic guitar.

Nobody paid attention to him except Patrick Mathé, the boss of the French record company New Rose, who regularly visited Austin.

Intrigued as much by the singer's physique as by the quality of his compositions, Patrick Mathé contacted Calvin Russell who left him a cassette.

At the beginning of 1994 appeared Le Voyageur, a live album recorded at the Olympia, the Élysée-Montmartre, the Exo 7 in Rouen and the Zig-Zag in Orléans, reflecting a marathon tour in which Russell gave 178 concerts in Europe within a single year.

Inbetween preparing his next album, Russell released the best of collection This Is My Life, which included three new titles: "Forever Young", "Texas Song" and "It's All Over Now".