Tom Waits Recent News

TOM WAITS' "GLITTER AND DOOM" TOUR A TRIUMPH IN EUROPE AND US

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:08:00 -0700

TOM WAITS finished his electrifying "Glitter and Doom" tour several weeks ago with three sold-out nights in Dublin. Other stops in Europe included Edinburgh, Paris, Prague, Milan, Barcelona and San Sebastian. The European tour was as celebrated as the shows in the US, with unanimous acclaim worldwide:

UK:

The Guardian/Alexis Petridis: "Waits is an utterly magnetic performer...it seems less like you've bought a ticket to a concert than to a different world."

The Independent/David Pollock: "★★★★★"

The Times/David Sinclair: "Waits wove a spell as intricate and engaging as that of any performer I can remember seeing on a musical stage."

The Daily Telegraph/Andrew Perry: "...you were in no doubt that you had just witnessed the greatest entertainer on Planet Earth."

The Daily Telegraph/Neil McCormick: "For a couple of hours every night on the Glitter and Doom tour, with Waits as lightning conductor, whipping up the band, stirring up his demons and roaring up a storm, he puts on what is, quite simply, the greatest show on earth.

Glasgow Herald/Neil Cooper: "Voodoo of the sweetest kind..."

ITALY:

Il Corriere Della Sera: "A mindblowing concert. Tom Waits is an old-time magician."

La Repubblica: "'Jesus Gonna Be Here Soon' is wild and brutal, 'November' is the quintessence of all the autumns in this world. 'Innocent When You Dream' is marvelous and so sweet. Who wouldn't want a serenade like this?"

QN (Quotidiano Nazionale): "Enlightening, powerful, moving."

Il Secolo XIX: "The concert is almost like finding a light that will guide you to salvation."

FRANCE:

Le Monde: "Tom Waits leads a show that raises a panorama of his explorations and musical obsession since his beginning in the 70's."

Le Parisien: "Tom Waits has put a spell on the Le Grand Rex...8 years after the last Paris show of the legendary Californian singer/songwriter; he was welcomed by a standing ovation..."

SPAIN:

El Mundo: The national premier of the mature and angular blues and jazz master, of the experimental narrator, of the restless patriarch of the creative library, will be recorded in the annals of history for many more reasons than just for being the first time in Spain."

Diario Vasco: "Personal, sometimes brushing against pure genius in his parodies and in his viral ironies...The wait in time and the strict organization requirements to avoid the reselling (of tickets) were vindicated with a spectacle so captivating that could not disappoint."

El Pais: Two hours of music, poetry, mime, vaudeville, contortionism, whispers, roars, love, surprise, always surprise, always, yesterday—during two long but so very shorty hours—the sweet and scarce dictatorship of the unexpected."

US:

Los Angeles Times/Ann Powers: "Waits is underrated as a vocalist. His baritone is easy to caricature, but a lengthy concert like this one offers a chance to hear what else he can do. He often capped a song with an eerie falsetto; on a couple of songs...he adopted the hiccupping style of early Elvis Presley...And he was frankly emotional on the ballads that demand that approach..."

Wall Street Journal/Jim Fusilli: "...it was an unforgettable experience...The dark humor of Mr. Waits' work can disguise its beauty and compassion. But throughout this performance, there were transcendent moments when the song and its expression permitted a profound understanding of what he was communicating. That's what makes a concert by a gifted songwriter extraordinary."

VanityFair.com/Michelle Ciarrocca and Leonardo DiSanto: "And he lived up to every inch of his reputation as a dynamic and theatrical performer. There is a certain grace in Tom's weird angular gyrations and Frankenstein's-monster posturing. 'I didn't expect him to be so sexy,' said one fan. Indeed, what could be sexier than the man standing, arms outstretched, beneath a shower of glitter?"

Phoenix New Times/Paul Rubin: "Waits did the near impossible and lived up to the great expectations..."

Associated Press/Sandy Cohen: "Tom Waits returns to the road with searing two-hour set...packing more than two dozen tunes into a set that was sure to satisfy any fans that made trip."

Dallas Morning News/Thor Christensen: "In the 20-odd years since Tom Waits last played Dallas, his music has grown more demented and, at the same time, more poignant."

Ft. Worth Star Telegram/Preston Jones: "That unmistakable national treasure of a voice gave the troubadour the air of a carnival barker."

Atlanta Magazine.com/Steve Fennessey: "The greatest musical event of the year...the single best musical event I've ever witnessed."

Knoxville News Sentinel/Wayne Bledsoe: "Waits' voice is actually more complex than most would give him credit for. His most marked asset is an almost feral growl...Yet, Waits can also sing in a high, almost fragile, voice as well and croon with the rough beauty inspired by Louis Armstrong."

Blender.com/Mike Errico: "Tom Waits has traveled to the source of the American songbook and returned with an alternate theory of its evolution. The ingredients are recognizable in flashes—Vaudeville, bebop, spoken word, Brill Building, funk, hip-hop—but the connections he makes between them are utterly unique...he connected the dots for a rapt and grateful audience."

Birmingham News/Mary Coluso: "Tom Waits keeps 'em spellbound at Alabama Theatre. Although the concert lasted more than two hours, Waits kept listeners on the edges of their seats, wondering what he'd so next. No sluggish spots, no dead ends, just an immaculately paced, consistently exciting meld of music and theater."

El Paso Times/Doug Pullen: "Friday's...show at the Plaza Theatre...probably was unlike anything ever seen in the historic, atmospheric movie palace, before and after its 2006 restoration....playing out like some twisted journey through a house of broken mirrors...Friday's concert was part performance art, part roadhouse blues revival, all good."

RollingStone.com/Bret Gladstone: "Waits ultimately spent the night demonstrating that he's one of the last remaining character actors in American music: a self proclaimed 'moonlighting' thespian who's always known that music is another kind of theatre—a very particular storytelling practice—and that it's all in the delivery."

The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)/Devin Grant: "It was definitely worth a drive to Atlanta. Heck, I would have sailed to Singapore for a show that good. Well done, Tom."

NPR MUSIC EXCLUSIVELY WEBCASTS, PODCASTS TOM WAITS IN CONCERT

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:07:00 -0700

SHOW FROM WAITS’ “GLITTER & DOOM” TOUR AVAILABLE JULY 29; JOINS NPR MUSIC “LIVE IN CONCERT” SERIES

July 28, 2008; Washington, D.C. – Iconic singer-songwriter Tom Waits is adding an extra stop to his sold-out “Glitter & Doom” summer tour: NPR Music’s “Live in Concert” series. NPR Music is the only place to hear a full concert from Waits’ tour, which will be available for both free streaming and podcast at www.NPR.org/music beginning Tuesday, July 29.

During the show, recorded at Atlanta’s historic Fox Theater on July 5, Waits gives a stunning, two-and-a-half hour performance, featuring songs he’s never played outside a studio. The 25-track set includes “Hold On,” “All the World is Green” and “Hoist That Rag,” followed by an encore of “Anywhere I Lay My Head.”

Waits is the latest musician to have an entire performance streamed by NPR Music, which frequently webcasts rock, pop and indie concerts as part of its expanding “Live in Concert” series. The series has featured more than 100 events to date. In March, NPR Music and Member stations traveled to Austin, TX, to live webcast and broadcast 14 concerts from the influential music festival South by Southwest, among them R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver and Yo La Tengo. This summer, NPR Music is also webcasting and broadcasting performances from the Newport Folk Festival and JVC Jazz Festival Newport in Rhode Island.

NPR Music launched in November 2007 as a free, comprehensive music discovery destination, featuring content from NPR and 12 NPR Member public radio stations, as well as original-to-NPR Music features such as live performances, studio sessions, interviews, reviews and blogs. Specific sections of the site are dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz/blues, world and urban music. The site culls from NPR’s and the stations’ extensive music archives to present thousands of features; its popular Concert section offers hundreds of regional and national web concerts, with more than 15 new performances added each month. NPR Music also has dozens of original music podcasts.

TOM WAITS U.S. TOUR A TRIUMPH WITH STELLAR REVIEWS ALL ALONG THE ROUTE

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:07:00 -0700

"GLITTER AND DOOM" TOUR CONTINUES ON IN EUROPE

CHARITY TICKET AUCTION RAISES THOUSANDS FOR CHOSEN CAUSES

TOM WAITS ended his triumphant US "Glitter and Doom" tour Saturday night in front of a sold out crowd at Atlanta's famed art deco Fox Theatre. The entire tour, which began June 17 in Phoenix and wound its way through El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile and Birmingham before making its grand climax in Atlanta on July 5, was filled to the rafters at each venue with gratefully satiated fans and critics alike. Currently, Waits is playing to sold out crowds in Europe with shows in Barcelona, Milan, Prague, Paris, Edinburgh and Dublin.

Wall Street Journal/Jim Fusilli: "... it was an unforgettable experience... The dark humor of Mr. Waits' work can disguise its beauty and compassion. But throughout this performance, there were transcendent moments when the song and its expression permitted a profound understanding of what he was communicating. That's what makes a concert by a gifted songwriter extraordinary."

VANITY FAIR.COM/Michelle Ciarrocca and Leonardo DiSanto: "And he lived up to every inch of his reputation as a dynamic and theatrical performer. There is a certain grace in Tom's weird angular gyrations and Frankenstein's-monster posturing. 'I didn't expect him to be so sexy,' said one fan. Indeed, what could be sexier than the man standing, arms outstretched, beneath a shower of glitter?"

Atlanta Magazine.com/Steve Fennessey: "The greatest musical event of the year... the single best musical event I've ever witnessed."

Knoxville News Sentinel/Wayne Bledsoe: "Waits' voice is actually more complex than most would give him credit for. His most marked asset is an almost feral growl... Yet, Waits can also sing in a high, almost fragile, voice as well and croon with the rough beauty inspired by Louis Armstrong."

Ft. Worth Star Telegram/Preston Jones: "That unmistakable national treasure of a voice gave the troubadour the air of a carnival barker. Waits' best moments were grotesque and beautiful creations calling attention to themselves."

Dallas Morning News/Thor Christensen: "... he can be a tender balladeer, too, as he showed in 1976's 'Invitation to the Blues' and 'Innocent When You Dream,' a lullaby as touching as any the Gershwins ever wrote."

Blender.com/Mike Errico: "Tom Waits has traveled to the source of the American songbook and returned with an alternate theory of its evolution. The ingredients are recognizable in flashes-Vaudeville, bebop, spoken word, Brill Building, funk, hip-hop-but the connections he makes between them are utterly unique... he connected the dots for a rapt and grateful audience."

Birmingham News/Mary Coluso: "Tom Waits keeps 'em spellbound at Alabama Theatre. Although the concert lasted more than two hours, Waits kept listeners on the edges of their seats, wondering what he'd so next. No sluggish spots, no dead ends, just an immaculately paced, consistently exciting meld of music and theater."

Orange County Register/Rex Reason: "Waits could sing almost anything and sell it as fact... his set is transcendent... After nearly two hours, the catharsis is over."

Meanwhile, Waits' "scalping tickets for charity"-auctioning premium seats on Ticketmaster.com in Phoenix, Houston, Columbus and Altanta--was a success earning nearly $16,000.00 to be distributed to the following charities:

The Young Adult & Family Center - UCSF - In Honor of Dr. Kim Norman
The Young Adult & Family Center (YAF) at UCSF is dedicated to innovation the creation of clinical services, clinical training, clinical research, health education, outreach and public policy advocacy for the benefit of adolescents and young adults aged 12-24 and their families. Our mission is to advance adolescent and transitional age youth's mental health in all communities, with a special emphasis on the most vulnerable, through leadership in clinical care, clinical research, education, outreach and public policy.

The Young Adult & Family Center - UCSF
Department of Psychiatry
University of California, San Francisco
401 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143-0984
415-476-7000
email: Kim.Norman@ucsf.edu
http://psych.ucsf.edu/lpphc.aspx?id=2374

Summerfield Waldorf School
Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm provides an inspiring curriculum based on the developmental needs of the whole child. The school and farm is situated on 38 acres in Sonoma County, California. Summerfield's educational mission is to create a supportive environment that nurtures the development and education of our students. And, in turn, our students receive the foundation they need to contribute to their own communities and the wider world. It is a well balanced classical curriculum where music, arts, and practical work enliven our students' academic achievement. Waldorf education is now the largest private school system in the world.

Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm
655 Willowside Road
Santa Rosa, Ca. 95401
(707) 575-7194
http://www.summerfieldws.org

Children's Village of Sonoma County- In Honor of Georgia Lee Moses
Children's Village of Sonoma County is an innovative foster care home for children and youth in foster care. We opened its first four homes in August 2006 serving children and their siblings in foster care. We are a community care facility serving children and youth in foster care who are unlikely to be adopted or re-unified with biological parents. Our program is the first of its kind to place on-site volunteer grandparents assisted by Village "parents," professional therapeutic staff and 100+ volunteers – all of whom are guided by the notion to create a loving, nurturing and supportive family atmosphere for the kids. The Village concept was a dream of Founder and Executive Director, Lia Rowley. She was spurred to action to create an alternative to the foster care setting after working with vulnerable populations for three decades and after learning of the murder of a 12 year old girl she knew, Georgia Moses.

Margherita Gudenzi
Fund Development Manager
THE CHILDREN'S VILLAGE OF SONOMA COUNTY
Tel. 707.566-7044
www.thechildrensvillage.com

NAMI - Sonoma County - In Honor of Jermiah Chass*
NAMI Sonoma County is a grassroots family and client organization, dedicated to improving the lives of all people affected by mental health challenges. Our mission is education, support and advocacy. We provide classes, support groups, art therapy, resources and referrals, and a library. Some of our services are in Spanish, and all are provided at no charge.

*Jermiah Chass, 16, was a much loved family and community member and an excellent student at Analy High School, Sebastopl, California.He was shot to death by police responding to a 911 emergency call from his parents, who were trying to get the mentally distressed boy to the hospital. Jeremiah was the first of four mentally distressed individuals shot dead by police in response to 911 calls in little more than a year. Obviously, there is a profound lack of understanding and training of officers who are sent out on these calls. One of NAMI's goals is to prevent further casualties and to work with local authorities providing police the necessary training and education to respond.

NAMI Sonoma County
1717 Yulupa Ave
Santa Rosa CA 95405
707.527.6655
www.namisonomacounty.org

Catholic Charities
The largest provider of homeless services in California's Redwood Empire, between the Golden Gate Bridge and Oregon, is Catholic Charities. The Family Support Center serves children and their parents, 130 people daily, providing food, shelter, on-site childcare, medical care, a school liaison and tutoring, and a teen center, while helping homeless parents find jobs, housing, and the help they need to address tough issues such as domestic violence, parenting skills, mental illness or chemical dependency.

The Homeless Service Center is a daytime drop-in center for single adults and couples, providing 100 clients per day with showers, laundry, storage, telephone/message service, mail, community referrals and intake for four other shelters and emergency sick beds. All told, Catholic Charities assists over 300 people each night at six shelters, focusing on immediate needs and crises, especially for children, while moving adult clients and parents towards independence.

Catholic Charities
PO Box 4900 Santa Rosa CA 95402
(707) 528-8712
www.srcharities.org

TOM WAITS’ "GLOOM AND DOOM" TOUR KICKS OFF WITH RAVE REVIEWS; RECEIVES KEY TO THE CITY IN EL PASO

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:06:00 -0700

Friday night in El Paso was a first for TOM WAITS in his long and storied career, when he was given an official Key to the City. About a quarter of the way into his set at the historical Plaza Theatre, Frank Perez—a uniformed officer--walked onstage, which prompted Waits to explain, "I paid all those tickets" and "she was dead when I got there." Perez was soon followed by Councilwoman Susie Boyd who handed Tom a plaque which held a key to the city. Tom, visably moved said, "This is a first for me, a real first."

Of the show, Doug Pullen noted in the El Paso Times: "Friday’s...show at the Plaza Theatre...probably was unlike anything ever seen in the historic, atmospheric movie palace, before and after its 2006 restoration....playing out like some twisted journey through a house of broken mirrors...Friday’s concert was part performance art, part roadhouse blues revival, all good."

All of the reviews have been nothing short of stellar including Phil Gallo of Daily Variety: "No artist brings together a larger collection of scar-covered and demon-riddled humans in his work than Tom Waits, whose keen observations of the human condition are funneled through characters holding on dearly to thin swatches of hope...Waits opened his oddly routed world tour Tuesday in Phoenix with a riveting and cohesive two-hour set that felt like a reunion of oddballs, crackpots and believers telling their stories through a series of wheezes, harrumphs and shouts."

Elsewhere, Sandy Cohen of the Associated Press affirmed: "Tom Waits returns to the road with searing two-hour set...packing more than two dozen tunes into a set that was sure to satisfy any fans that made trip," and Andrew Dansby of the Houston Press praised: "...credit Waits for stomping...with some combination of passion and urgency that never feels like a put on. His is a theatrical show, make no mistake about it. He flails about like a man in the throes of a seizure, and when he stomps on the stage a little cloud of smoke flies up. But the theatrics never clutter the songs."

Of the Dallas show, Thor Christensen in the Dallas Morning News stated: "In the 20-odd years since Tom Waits last played Dallas, his music has grown more demented and, at the same time, more poignant," while Preston Jones of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram raved: "That unmistakable national treasure of a voice gave the troubadour the air of a carnival barker."

And on opening night, Waits gave a "sprawling, brawling concert," according to Ann Powers in the Los Angeles Times. "Waits is underrated as a vocalist. His baritone is easy to caricature, but a lengthy concert like this one offers a chance to hear what else he can do. He often capped a song with an eerie falsetto; on a couple of songs...he adopted the hiccupping style of early Elvis Presley...And he was frankly emotional on the ballads that demand that approach...Over the years, Waits has developed a stage presence that complements his penchant for vocal disguise. Following the lineage that connects Japanese Kabuki theater to Bertolt Brecht’s Theater of Alienation, Waits mimics the actions of the soul man or the preacher until they become surreal.

Meanwhile, Paul Rubin of the Phoenix New Times declared: "Waits did the near impossible and lived up to the great expectations...The guy is a performance artist of the highest rank, a kabuki with a bowler hat, a Delta bluesman not afraid to be romantic, a cynic with a heart of gold."

Waits continues his tour through St. Louis (6/26), Columbus (6/28), Knoxville (6/29), Jacksonville (7/1), Mobile (7/2), Birmingham (7/3) and Atlanta (7/5), before heading off to major cities in Europe for a string of dates.

Tom Waits’ Glitter and Doom Tour Starts Tonight!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:06:00 -0700

Tonight the constellation PEHDTSCKJMBA will reveal its secrets as the Glitter and Doom Tour kicks off in Phoenix AZ. Anti will definitely be in the house, so check the blog often for details of the shows.

Tom Waits plays the 'Glitter and Doom' tour through Europe this summer

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

Following 'Glitter and Doom's 13 U.S. shows that open in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday 17th June, America's legendary songwriter and performer Tom Waits brings his 'Glitter and Doom' tour to Europe this summer, playing shows that include the Grammy-award winning artist's first-ever concerts in Spain and the Czech Republic. The European schedule opens in Spain's San Sebastian on Saturday 12th July and finishes in Dublin on Saturday 1st August.

"I have a stellar band: Larry Taylor (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion)", says Waits. "They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers. I'm doing songs with them I've never attempted outside the studio. They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men."

The European tour will also be subject to new anti-scalper plans, thus attempting to ensure that every fan will pay only face value (plus normal service and handling fees) for the tickets. They will be limited to two per person with the purchaser's name - and name of their plus one - printed on the ticket. Ticket-holders will need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues. Ticket-holders will need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues.

European tour dates are as follows:

DATE - CITY - VENUE - ON-SALE INFO
July 12 - SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN - Auditorium Kursaal - Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

July 14 & 15 - BARCELONA, SPAIN - Auditorium Forum - Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

July 17, 18 & 19 - MILAN, ITALY - Teatro Degli Arcimboldi - Ticket Hotline - valid only in Italy - 892101. International enquiries +39 0584 46477. Tickets also available online from www.ticketone.it. Tickets on internet presale on Friday 23rd May at 9.00AM and all other outlets from Monday 26th May at 9.00AM.

July 21 & 22 - PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - KCP - Tickets available on www.ticketpro.cz with ticket@ticketpro.cz handling enquiries from English and German speaking customers. Tickets on sale on Friday 30th May at 9.00AM.

July 24 & 25 - PARIS, FRANCE - Grand Rex - Ticket Hotline is 0890 39 01 00 - accessed from France only - with +33 (0)1 46 91 57 67 for international enquiries. Tickets on sale as an internet presale from http://www.gdp.fr/index2.php?idDirBill=1311 on Monday 26th May at 9.00AM, with all other outlets from Wednesday 28th May at 9.00AM.

July 27 & 28 - EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - Playhouse - Ticket Hotline on +44 870 606 3424 and online from www.ticketmaster.co.uk. On sale at 9.00AM on Tuesday 27th May.

July 30, 31 and August 1 - DUBLIN, IRELAND - The Ratcellar, Phoenix Park - Ticket Hotline is 0818 719 300 - accessed from Ireland only - with 0870 243 4455 for the UK and +353 1 4 569 569 for international enquiries. Tickets also available online from www.ticketmaster.ie. On sale at 9.00AM on Tuesday 27th May.

TOM WAITS' TRUE CONFESSIONS

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

TOM WAITS' TRUE CONFESSIONS

(A conversation with himself)

I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others... His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping sprees, the face lifts, the ski trips, the drug busts and the hundreds of rooms in his home. The tax shelters, the public urination... I was nervous to meet the real man himself. Baggage and all. But I found him to be gentle, intelligent, open, bright, helpful, humorous, brave, audacious, loquacious, clean, and reverent. A Boy Scout, really (and a giant of a man). Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Remove your shoes and no smoking, please.

Q: What's the most curious record in your collection?
A: In the seventies a record company in LA issued a record called "The best of Marcel Marceau." It had forty minutes of silence followed by applause and it sold really well. I like to put it on for company. It really bothers me, though, when people talk through it.

Q: What are some unusual things that have been left behind in a cloakroom?
A: Well, Winston Churchill was born in a ladies cloakroom and was one sixteenth Iroquois.

Q: You've always enjoyed the connection between fashion and history... talk to us about that.
A: Ok let's take the two-piece bathing suit, produced in 1947 by a French fashion designer. The sight of the first woman in the minimal two piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atomic bomb by the U.S. at Bikini Island in the Marshall Isles, hence the naming of the bikini.

Q: List some artists who have shaped your creative life.
A: Okay, here are a few that just come to me for now: Kerouac, Dylan, Bukowski, Rod Serling, Don Van Vliet, Cantinflas, James Brown, Harry Belafonte, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf, Lead Belly, Lord Buckley, Mabel Mercer, Lee Marvin, Thelonius Monk, John Ford, Fellini, Weegee, Jagger, Richards, Willie Dixion, John McCormick, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, Hoagy Carmichael, Eurico Caruso.

Q: List some songs that were beacons for you.
A: Again, for now... but if you ask me tomorrow the list would change, of course. Gershwin's second prelude, "Pathatique Sonata", "El Paso", "You've Really Got Me", "Soldier Boy", "Lean Back" , "Night Train", "Come In My Kitchen", "Sad Eyed Lady", "Rite of Spring", "Ode to Billy Joe", "Louie Louie", "Just a Fool", "Prisoner of Love", "Wang Dang Doodle (all night long)", "Ringo" , "Ball and Chain", "Deportee", "Strange Fruit", "Sophisticated Lady", "Georgia On My Mind", "Can't Stop Loving You", "Just Like A Woman", "So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Who'll Stop The Rain?", "Moon River", "Autumn Leaves", "Danny Boy", "Dirty Ol' Town", "Waltzing Matilda", "Train Keeps a Rollin", "Boris the Spider", "You've Really Got a Hold On Me", "Red Right Hand", "All Shook Up", "Cause of It All", "Shenandoah", "China Pig", "Summertime",
"Without a Song", "Auld Ang Syne", "This is a Man's World", "Crawlin' King Snake", "Nassun Dorma", "Bring it on Home to Me", "Hound Dog", "Hello Walls", "You Win Again", "Sunday Morn' Coming Down", "Almost Blue", "Pump It Up", "Greensleeves", "Just Wanna See His Face", "Restless Farewell", "Fairytale of NY", "Bring Me A Little Water Sylvie", "Raglan Road", "96 Tears", "In Dreams", "Substitute", "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues", "Theme from Rawhide", "Same Thing", "Walk Away Rene", "For What it's Worth", theme from "Once Upon A Time In America", "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", "Oh Holy Night", "Mass in E Minor", "Harlem Shuffle", "Trouble Man", "Wade in The Water", "Empty Bed Blues", "Hava Nagila"

Q: What's heaven for you?
A: Me and my wife on Rte. 66 with a pot of coffee, a cheap guitar, pawnshop tape recorder in a Motel 6, and a car that runs good parked right by the door.

Q: What's hard for you?
A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.

Q: What's wrong with the world?
A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made 12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Q: Favorite scenes in movies?
A: R. De Niro in the ring in Raging Bull. Julie Christie's face in Heaven Can Wait when she said, "Would you like to get a cup of coffee?" James Dean in East of Eden telling the nurse to get out when his dad has had a stroke and he's sitting by his bed. Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil saying "He was some kind of man." Scout saying "Hey Mr. Cunningham" in the scene in To Kill A Mockingbird. Nic Cage falling apart in the drug store in Matchstick Men... and eating a cockroach in Vampire's Kiss. The last scene in Chinatown.

Q: Can you describe a few other scenes from movies that have always stayed with you?
A: Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker explaining to the Puerto Rican all about gold. Brando in The Godfather dying in the tomatoes with scary orange teeth. Lee Marvin in Emperor of The North riding under the box car, Borgnine bouncing steel off his ass. Dennis Weaver at the motel saying "I am just the night man," holding onto a small tree in, Touch of Evil. The hanging in Oxbow Incident. The speech by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner as he's dying. Anthony Quinn dancing on the beach in Zorba. Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick covered in feathers in the church as the ladies stick needles in the voodoo doll. When Mel Gibson's Blue Healer gets shot with an arrow in Road Warrior. When Rachel in The Exorcist says "could you help an old altar boy father?" The blind guy in the tavern in Treasure Island. Frankenstein after he strangles the young girl by the river.

Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it's at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was elated. Moral solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.

Q: Most interesting recording you own?
A: It's a mysteriously beautiful recording from, I am told, Robbie Robertson's label. It's of crickets. That's right, crickets, the first time I heard it... I swore I was listening to the Vienna Boys Choir, or the Mormon Tabernacle choir. It has a four-part harmony it is a swaying choral panorama. Then a voice comes in on the tape and says, "What you are listening to is the sound of crickets. The only thing that has been manipulated is that they slowed down the tape." No effects have been added of any kind except that they changed the speed of the tape. The sound is so haunting. I played it for Charlie Musselwhite and he looked at me as if I pulled a Leprechaun out of my pocket.

Q: You are fascinated with irony, what is irony?
A: Chevrolet was puzzled when they discovered that their sales for the Chevy Nova were off the charts everywhere but in Latin America. They finally realized that "Nova" in Spanish translates to "no go." Not the best name for a car... anywhere "no va".

Q: Do you have words to live by?
A: Jim Jarmusch once told me "Fast, Cheap, and Good... pick two. If it's fast and cheap it wont be good. If it's cheap and good it won't be fast. If it's fast and good it wont be cheap." Fast, cheap and good... pick (2) words to live by.

Q: What is on Hemmingway's gravestone?
A: "Pardon me for not getting up."

Q: How would you compare guitarists Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel?
A: Octopus have eight and squid have ten tentacles,
each with hundreds of suction cups and each have the power to burst a man's artery. They have small birdlike beaks used to inject venom into a victim. Some gigantic squid and octopus with one hundred foot tentacles have been reported. Squids have been known to pull down entire boats to feed on the disoriented sailors in the water. Many believe unexplained, sunken deep-sea vessels, and entire boat disappearances are the handiwork of giant squid.

Q: What have you learned from parenthood?
A: "Never loan your car to anyone to whom you've given birth." - Erma Bombeck

Q: Now Tom, for the grand prize... who said, "He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of"?
A: Mae West

Q: Who said, "Half the people in America are just faking it"?
A: Robert Mitchum (who actually died in his sleep). I think he was being generous and kind when he said that.

Q: What remarkable things have you found in unexpected places?
A:
1. Real beauty: oil stains left by cars in a parking lot.
2. Shoe shine stands that looked like thrones in Brazil made of scrap wood.
3. False teeth in pawnshop windows- Reno, NV.
4. Great acoustics: in jail.
5. Best food: Airport in Tulsa Oklahoma.
6. Most gift shops: Fatima, Portugal.
8. Most unlikely location for a Chicano crowd:
A Morrissey concert.
9. Most poverty: Washington D.C.
10. A homeless man with a beautiful operatic voice singing the word "Bacteria" in an empty dumpster in Chinatown.
11. A Chinese man with a Texan accent in Scotland.
12. Best nights sleep-in a dry riverbed in Arizona.
13. Most people who wear red pants- St. Louis.
14. Most beautiful horses, N.Y.C.
15. A judge in Baltimore MD1890 presided over a trial where a man who was accused of murder and was guilty, and convicted by a jury of his peers... and was let go- when the judge said to him at the end of the trial "You are guilty sir... but I cannot put in jail an innocent man." You see - the murderer was a Siamese twin.

16. Largest penis (in proportion to its body) - The Barnacle.

Q: Tom, you love words and their origins. For $2,000... what is the origin of the word bedlam?
A: It's a contraction of the word Bethlehem. It comes from the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem outside London. The hospital began admitting mental patients in the late fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century it became a lunatic asylum. The word bedlam came to be used for any madhouse- and by extension, for any scene of noisy confusion.

Q: What is up with your ears?
A: I have an audio stigmatism where by I hear things wrong- I have audio illusions. I guess now they say ADD. I have a scrambler in my brain and it takes what is said and turns it into pig Latin and feeds it back to me.

Q: Most thrilling musical experience?
A: My most thrilling musical experience was in Time Square, over thirty years ago. There was a rehearsal hall around the Brill Building where all the rooms were divided into tiny spaces with just enough room to open the door. Inside was a spinet piano - cigarette burns, missing keys, old paint and no pedals. You go in and close the door and it's so loud from other rehearsals you can't really work- so you stop and listen and the goulash of music was thrilling. Scales on a clarinet, tango, light opera, sour string quartet, voice lessons, someone belting out "Everything's Coming Up Roses", garage bands, and piano lessons. The floor was pulsing, the walls were thin. As if ten radios were on at the same time, in the same room. It was a train station of music with all the sounds milling around... for me it was heavenly.

Q: What would you have liked to see but were born too late for?
A: Vaudeville. So much mashing of cultures and bizarre hybrids. Delta Blues guitarists and Hawaiian artists thrown together resulting in the adoption of the slide guitar as a language we all take for granted as African American. But it was a cross pollination, like most culture. Like all cultures. George Burns was a vaudeville performer I particularly loved. Dry and unflappable, curious, and funny - no matter what he said. He could dance too. He said, "Too bad the only people that know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair."

Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Q: Favorite Bucky Fuller quote?
A: "Fire is the sun unwinding itself from the wood".

Q: What do you wonder about?
A:
1. Do bullets know whom they are intended for?
2. Is there a plug in the bottom of the ocean?
3. What do jockeys say to their horses?
4. How does a newspaper feel about winding up papier-mache?
5. How does it feel to be a tree by a freeway?
6. Sometimes a violin sounds like a Siamese cat; the first violin strings were made from cat gut- any connection?
7. When is the world going to rear up and scrape us off its back.
8. Will we humans eventually intermarry with robots?
9. Is a diamond just a piece of coal with patience?
10. Did Ella Fitzgerald really break that wine glass with her voice?

Q: What are some sounds you like?
A:
1. An asymmetrical airline carousel created a high pitched haunted voice brought on by the friction of rubbing and it sounded like a big wet finger circling the rim of a gigantic wine glass.
2. Street corner evangelists
3. Pile drivers in Manhattan
4. My wife's singing voice
5. Horses coming/trains coming
6. Children when school's out
7. Hungry crows
8. Orchestra tuning up
9. Saloon pianos in old westerns
10. Rollercoaster
11. Headlights hit by a shotgun
12. Ice melting
13. Printing presses
14. Ball game on a transistor radio
15. Piano lessons coming from an apartment window
16. Old cash registers/Ca Ching
17. Muscle cars
18. Tap dancers
19. Soccer crowds in Argentina
20. Beatboxing
21. Fog horns
22. A busy restaurant kitchen
23. Newsrooms in old movies
24. Elephants stampeding
25. Bacon frying
26. Marching bands
27. Clarinet lessons
28. Victrola
29. A fight bell
30. Chinese arguments
31. Pinball machines
32. Children's orchestras
33. Trolley bell
34. Firecrackers
35. A Zippo lighter
36. Calliopes
37. Bass steel drums
38. Tractors
39. Stroh Violin
40. Muted trumpet
41. Tobacco Auctioneers
42. Musical Saw
43. Theremin
44. Pigeons
45. Seagulls
46. Owls
47. Mockingbirds
48. Doves
The world's making music all the time.

Q: What's scary to you?
A:
1. A dead man in the backseat of a car with a fly crawling on his eyeball.
2. Turbulence on any airline.
3. Sirens and search lights combined.
4. Gunfire at night in bad neighborhoods.
5. Car motor turning over but not starting, its getting dark and starting to rain.
6. Jail door closing.
7. Going around a sharp curve on the Pacific Coast Highway and the driver of your car has had a heart attack and died, and you're in the back seat.
8. You are delivering mail and you are confronted with a Doberman with rabies growling low and showing teeth... you have no dog bones and he wants to bite your ass off.
9. In a movie... which wire do you cut to stop the time bomb, the green or the blue.
10. Mc Cain will win.
11. Germans with submachine guns.
12. Officers, in offices, being official.
13. You fell through the ice in the creek and it carried you down stream, and now as you surface you realize there's a roof of ice.

Q: Tell me about working with Terry Gilliam.
A: I am the Devil in the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus-- not a devil... The Devil. I don't know why he thought of me. I was raised in the church. Gilliam and I met on Fisher King. He is a giant among men and I am in awe of his films. Munchausen I've seen a hundred times. Brazil is a crowning achievement. Brothers Grimm was my favorite film last year. I had most of my scenes with Christopher Plummer (He's Dr. Parnassus). Plummer is one of the greatest actors on earth! Mostly I watch and learn. He's a real movie star and a gentleman. Gilliam is an impresario, captain, magician, a dictator (a nice one), a genius, and a man you'd want in the boat with you at the end of the world.

Q: Give me some fresh song titles you two are working on.
A: "Ghetto Buddha", "Waiting For My Good Luck To Come", "I'll Be an Oak Tree Some Day", "In the Cage", "Hell Broke Loose", "Spin The Bottle", "High and Lonesome."

Q: You're going on the road soon, right?
A: We're going to PEHDTSCKJMBA (Phoenix, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta). I have a stellar band: Larry Taylor (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers. I'm doing songs with them I've never attempted outside the studio. They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men. We are the Borman Six and as Putney says, "The Borman Six have got to have soul."

~~~

Tom Waits On-Sale Information

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

"GLITTER AND DOOM" THE TOM WAITS TOUR:

HITTING CITIES HE'S RARELY OR NEVER PLAYED IN HIS FOUR DECADE CAREER, BEGINNING JUNE 17 IN PHOENIX, ENDING IN ATLANTA ON JULY 5

Eccentric musical shaman and rara avis TOM WAITS has decided to take his show to some of the summer's hottest regions. The Grammy-winning artist will begin his "Glitter and Doom" tour in Phoenix at the Orpheum Theatre on June 17 and finish in Atlanta on July 5 at the Fox Theatre. Tickets for his previous "Orphans" tour in 2006 sold out in minutes.

When questioned about the summer inferno choice, Waits responded, "We're going to the deep south where they still love a man who wears red pants and they make him feel welcome."

Waits will be touring with longtime musical ally Larry Taylor (bass), Omar Torrez (guitar), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Casey Waits (drums and percussion) and as yet named reed player; performing hollers, mambos and rhumbas.

Of his last tour, critics were unanimous: The Chicago Tribune, "After two hours, Waits' reprised 'Time,' a beautiful song, even in a land where it's raining hammers and nails. Waits' voice sounded like that hard rain. Even at its most tender, it was a gruff, unrelenting force of nature." The Flint Journal (MI), "Waits took the eager capacity crowd on a journey of Wagnerian proportions... I hope we don't have to wait another 19 years to sip from that cup again." The Tennessean, "(Ryman Auditorium) Even back in the ancient, pre-country days when the holy structure was an actual church, it's hard to imagine a more passionate sermonizer gracing the boards than Waits."

Anti Records recently launched tomwaits.com with the release of the press conference clip for the "Glitter and Doom" tour. The site will have all tour info, news, photos and updates with a detailed explanation of the ticket policy. Waits' press conference is currently the #1 featured video on YouTube.com with over 90,000 views in less than 72 hours.

As on his last tour, Waits' U.S. booking agent and longtime tour director, Stuart Ross, has spent a great deal of effort to fight ticket scalpers. Along with Ticketmaster, he has worked out a plan he believes will make sure every fan pays face value (plus normal service and handling fees) for the tickets purchased for the "Glitter and Doom" tour.

Tickets for all markets are due to go on sale Friday, May 16th. Check local venues and Ticketmaster for specific start times. Tickets will be available via the internet and by phone.

In other Waits news, unrelated to the tour, WAITS has finished filming The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, a romantic fantasy adventure starring Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Vern Troyer and Lily Cole with renowned director Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Brothers Grimm).

US tour dates are as follows:
DATE - CITY - VENUE - ON-SALE TIME
6/17 Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum - NOON Pacific
6/18 Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum - NOON Pacific
6/20 El Paso, TX - Plaza Theatre - 1pm Mountain
6/22 Houston, TX - Jones Hall - 10am Central
6/23 Dallas, TX - Palladium - 11am Central
6/25 Tulsa, OK - Brady Theatre - Noon Central
6/26 St. Louis, MO - Fox Theatre - 10am Central
6/28 Columbus, OH - Ohio Theatre - 10am Eastern
6/29 Knoxville, TN - Civic Auditorium - 9am Eastern
7/01 Jacksonville, FL - Times Union Center Moran Theater - 10am Eastern
7/02 Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre - 10am Central
7/03 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theatre - 11am Central
7/05 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre - 10am Eastern
European dates to be announced shortly.

Check out www.tomwaits.com for all the latest info.

Tom Waits Press Conference video has been posted at tomwaits.com

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

Tom has just one word for you to know about his upcoming Glitter and Doom summer tour: “PEHDTSCHJMBA.”

Click here for more information

Tom Waits Press Conference announcement

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

Tune in and view highlights from the press conference held by musician and iconoclast Tom Waits on Monday, May 5 at www.tomwaits.com beginning at 9am EST.