“No matter what your current location Pennsyltucky is a place that you need to visit.” – Jeff Monk, Winnipeg Free Press
Pennsyltucky Named Top 10 Roots/Country album of 2018 by Winnipeg Free Press

“Boys Called Susan have truly captured the essence of Americana music with Pennysltucky.” – Bruce Warren, WXPN and Executive Producer of World Cafe on NPR music

In 2018, Russo teamed up with his first cousin Christopher Shearer and recorded the highly acclaimed debut album “Pennsyltucky” released as the band “Boys Called Susan”, which was named in homage of Shearer’s late mother Susan, who passed away from cancer in 2013.  Her dying wish was for the boys to make music together, so they crowdfunded their way to Nashville to record at the legendary Butcher Shoppe recording studio with members of Emmylou Harris’ Red Dirt Boys as the studio band.  The album, which was produced by Phil Madeira, has been spun on more than 60 radio stations across the US and Canada and received high critical marks both domestically and internationally. (www.boyscalledsusan.com for more info.)Russo’s big bluesy voice wallops audiences with soulful lyrics that bite, but listeners and audiences have always been drawn to the depth in his lyrics, the hopefulness in the blues, and the way he can make a thinking song sound like a drinking song by blending smarts with satire.  Russo’s song “Rodeo Cool”, which was released on the “Pennsyltucky” album was named as a top 5 finalist (out of more than 2000 domestic and international entries) in the ‘Country’ category of the 2019 Great American Song Contest, while his song from the same album “Unfinished Symphony” received honorable mention in the Folk/Americana category.