Well that’s it for our short first week back after the Christmas break. Don’t forget you can win Mary Gauthier tickets if you’re one of our supporters – more on this here. Since we don’t update over the holiday period, we’re 5 days late with this but it’s a good opportunity to listen to this recent classic by Tom Waits, the closing song from his “Bad as Me” album released back in 2011. About the song, “If you’ve ever been at one of those gatherings where things went badly, where we all sing even though the fireworks scared the dog and he’s been gone for two hours, and someone lit the sofa on fire, and Marge got food poisoning, and Bill O’Neal called the cops,” Waits told Pitchfork around the time of its release. Hopefully yours was less eventful. Have a good one everyone.
Well, this is the way it goes - you head off for a few days rest and relaxation and everyone and their monkey decides to release a song, so expect some big names over the next few days. And let's start with this version of 'Get Behind The Mule' from…
Following on from last week’s selection of the wonderful Richard Thompson’s ‘Beeswing’, the Chain moves on to another of the great songwriters of our time, Tom Waits - but that's not the connection. The track is ‘Buzz Fledderjohn’ (yes, a painful and tenuous connection I know), which is taken from…
Welcome back to our popular VERSIONS feature. For those of you not familiar with it, the idea is that our writers pick a great song and then as well as presenting readers with the original version, also add three cover versions of that song. Rick Bayles sets the ball rolling…
Editor of Americana UK website, the UK's leading home for americana news and reviews since 2001 (when life was simpler, at least for the first 253 days)
There’s just something compelling about Tom Waits voice, isn’t there? And when you combine that attraction to lyrics that come from a world-weary reservoir of human caprice and misfortune, you have a sound that resonates deep inside.
There’s just something compelling about Tom Waits voice, isn’t there? And when you combine that attraction to lyrics that come from a world-weary reservoir of human caprice and misfortune, you have a sound that resonates deep inside.