One For The Weekend: Tom Waits

Check out the animated lyric video for "The Fly," a new Tom Waits spoken word piece about a common house fly.  

Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan's compositions get the spotlight on new multi-artist comp

Ace Records has gathered 19 stellar covers of songs by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan for Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow. 

Here's the scoop... 

With undeniable cultural gravity, the team of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan join luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazlewood, Brian Wilson and Laura Nyro in Ace Records’ long-running series of multi-artist compilations celebrating the great American songwriters of the modern era. Hundreds of artists from all walks of music have recorded songs from Waits and Brennan’s matchless catalogue, 19 of the finest of which comprise the hand-picked selection Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow (out May 29th), including many chosen by the songwriters themselves.

Few artists have remapped the terrain of popular music, and culture at large, like Tom Waits. Over the course of five decades, he has forged a singular aesthetic that defies genre and turns the marginal into myth. His work is neither fully inside nor outside the mainstream tradition but moves restlessly between them, drawing from vaudeville, blues, jazz, folk, theatre – and just about anything else that catches his ear – to craft something wholly his own. His influence reverberates not just through the underground and avant-garde, but across theatre, film, literature, and visual art. With his long-time creative partner and wife Kathleen Brennan, he has dismantled and reassembled the idea of song itself, crafting works that exist as both raw expression and high art. This collection honours not only the extraordinary versatility of Waits and Brennan’s songwriting, but the importance of an artist who continues to haunt and inspire from the edges inward.

Ace’s selection is sequenced chronologically by song, opening with Bruce Springsteen’s live recording of ‘Jersey Girl’, Waits’ ode to Brennan from 1980’s Heartattack And Vine, and closing with folk matriarch Joan Baez’s version of Waits and Brennan’s anti-war ‘Day After Tomorrow’ from Waits’ more recent Real Gone. “All the great things that came out of New Jersey don’t hold a candle to Kathleen Brennan, at least not in Tom’s eyes,” Bob Dylan said on his Theme Time Radio Hour show. “She rescued me,” reflected Waits in an interview for The Guardian. “Maybe I rescued her too, that’s often how it works. Upshot is that we both got into the same leaky boat. Everybody knows she’s the brains behind Pa, as Dylan might have said. I’m just the figurehead. She’s the one who’s steering the ship.”

In addition to “steering the ship”, Brennan became Waits’ songwriting partner. The couple’s first-released joint composition, ‘Hang Down Your Head’ from Rain Dogs, is heard here in a raunchy rendition by country-blues heroine Lucinda Williams. Elsewhere, performers from the worlds of jazz, blues, gospel, soul and rock put their own stamps on great songs with which Waits devotees will be familiar on Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Big Time, Bone Machine, Mule Variations, Real Gone and Orphans. Pride of place – because it’s a particular favourite of Waits and proved incredibly challenging to license – goes to the heart-wrenching recording of ‘Down There By The Train’ from Johnny Cash’s late-life masterpiece American Recordings.

Made with the blessing, approval and involvement of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow is an essential collection for any fan of this remarkable artist’s unique work.

Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow: 

Words & Music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan

1. JERSEY GIRL - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND

2. 16 SHELLS FROM A THIRTY-OUGHT-SIX - BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND

3. GIN-SOAKED BOY - SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THE ASBURY JUKES

4. JOCKEY FULL OF BOURBON - LOS LOBOS

5. HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD - LUCINDA WILLIAMS

6. TEMPTATION - DIANA KRALL

7. YESTERDAY IS HERE - BETTYE LAVETTE

8. WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE - THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

9. STRANGE WEATHER - MARIANNE FAITHFULL

10. I DON'T WANNA GROW UP - RAMONES

11. DOWN THERE BY THE TRAIN - JOHNNY CASH

12. HOUSE WHERE NOBODY LIVES - KING ERNEST

13. PICTURE IN A FRAME - WILLIE NELSON

14. HOLD ON - MADISON CUNNINGHAM

15. THE LONG WAY HOME - NORAH JONES

16. 2:19 - JOHN HAMMOND

17. DIAMOND IN YOUR MIND - SOLOMON BURKE

18. TRAMPLED ROSE - ALISON KRAUSS / ROBERT PLANT

19. DAY AFTER TOMORROW - JOAN BAEZ

Get a copy of Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow directly from Ace Records right here. Check out a few alternate performances by some of the artists included. 

One For The Weekend: Massive Attack with Tom Waits

Watch the video for the new Massive Attack and Tom Waits collaboration "Boots On The Ground" about the currently unravelling U.S. democracy.

Here's the scoop from Tom Waits HQ...

Today Massive Attack is sharing their collaboration with Tom Waits, "Boots on the Ground." And sadly for all, their song is never more urgent and timely. The song chronicles the madness and rabid abandonment of mankind to the commands of "The Masters of War” as Dylan put it. It marks Massive Attack's first new music since 2020 and Waits’s first new recording since the 2011 album, Bad As Me.

The song is available today on streaming platforms, and will be followed by a 12" vinyl release. The 12” edition features "Boots on the Ground" on Side A, with an exclusively Waits B-side titled "The Fly” - a track featuring Waits’s trademark droll and sardonic spoken word.

Watch the video for "Boots On The Ground" below. Get it right here. 

Heavens to murgatroyd, even! it's Daniel Clowes' birthday!

Cheers to cartoonist/screenwriter Daniel Clowes on his 65th birthday! Here are a few interviews you may have missed. 

Eleni Mandell discusses covering "Burma Shave" by Tom Waits

Singer/songwriter Eleni Mandell recorded and released her version of the Tom Waits classic "Burma Shave" off Foreign Affairs.

Jim Jarmusch's Father Mother Sister Brother screens at the Fox, Jan 12 thru 17

Tom Waits stars alongside Adam Driver in Father Mother Sister Brother showing at The Fox Monday thru Saturday. 

Here's the scoop...

A revolutionary voice of the 1980s indie film scene, Jim Jarmusch returns to weaving narrative vignettes, as he mastered in his diner anthology “Coffee and Cigarettes” and his early films like “Mystery Train” and “Night on Earth.”

In his own words, Jarmusch describes the film as “a kind of anti-action film,” with a subtle and quiet style carefully constructed to allow small details to accumulate—almost like flowers being delicately arranged in three separate arrangements.

“Father Mother Sister Brother” showcases Jarmusch at his best: minimalist, with an unerring eye for the essence of human experience.

Watch the trailer followed by screening times below. 

Get tickets for Father Mother Sister Brother at the Fox Theatre right here. 

Read an interview with director Jim Jarmusch for Another Mag in the Links section.  

 

LINKS
Another Mag Jim Jarmusch interview

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER @ The Fox Theatre

Walter Daniels & Stories Of Teeth vs. Tom Waits

Check out the Walter Daniels & Stories Of Teeth update of the Tom Waits classic "Gin Soaked Boy" off Swordfishtrombones.  

Walter Daniels & Stories Of Teeth are: 

Walter Daniels - Vocals, Harmonica, Nose Flute

Coby Cardosa - Drums, Keyboards

Paul Johnson - Guitar, Bass

Walter Daniels has been a big part of Stories of Teeth.  He played on two songs from our first release, and has joined us onstage a couple of times. In the summer of 2025 he asked me if we'd be interested in recording a cover he'd been wanting to do.

He came over and we played through the song once, then recorded it live with drums, rhythm guitar, vocals and harmonica. Lead guitar and organ were added and it was done.

In case you are new to Walter, he has been playing harmonica around Austin with many artists for about 40 years.  He was the front man and harmonica player for Jack O'Fire, and Big Foot Chester, and Walter Daniels and the Delle Valley Trustees.

Check out "Gin Soaked Boy" performed by Walter Daniels & Stories Of Teeth followed by the original Tom Waits recording off Swordfishtrombones below. You can find more recordings by Stories of Teeth on Bandcamp right here and Walter Daniels here. 

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Wishing Tom Waits a SUPER 76th birthday today! Here are a few clips of our man in action. 

Mavis Staples covers Kevin Morby & Gillian Welch on new album Sad and Beautiful World

Mavis Staples' forthcoming album "Sad and Beautiful World" is out November 7th via Anti Records. Hear the first 2 tracks below. 

Writes Mavis....

"I am thrilled to announce my new solo album, Sad And Beautiful World.

"Produced by Brad Cook, this record spans seven decades of the American songbook and includes reinventions of timeless songs by Tom Waits, Gillian Welch, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen, Frank Ocean, and more, as well as original music.

"Take a listen to the first track of the record - my version of “Beautiful Strangers” by Kevin Morby. Visit the links below to listen and to pre-order your copy of Sad and Beautiful World out November 7 on Anti Records."

Album artwork by Elizabeth De La Piedra

Listen, Pre-save and Pre-order: https://mavisstaples.ffm.to/sadandbeautifulworld

Sad and Beautiful World

Grim days call for fierce love. And Mavis Staples, one of the most enduring figures in American music, is laying it down. Sad And Beautiful World is the latest solo album from a national treasure and multigenerational talent. On her new record, Mavis stands side by side with us in the face of dangers she knows all too well, at a time when more and more people have reason to wonder who and what could be lost. 

Sad And Beautiful World was produced by Brad Cook, known for his work with Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, and Nathaniel Rateliff, among other artists. The record spans seven decades of the American songbook — a range nearly as vast as Mavis’ career — and includes reinventions of timeless songs as well as original music.  

Now 86, Mavis has been performing since the age of eight. After starting out with her father Roebuck “Pops” Staples, sisters Cleotha and Yvonne, and brother Pervis in the Staple Singers more than seventy years ago, she’s the lone surviving member of the group, still carrying her family’s gifts and knowledge with her as a living heritage.  

Inducted into several halls of fame (blues, rock, and gospel), a Kennedy Center Honoree, a winner of multiple GRAMMYs (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), Mavis is our musical history. She’s collaborated with nearly every major figure of her era(s), from Bob Dylan to Prince, Aretha Franklin, and Willie Nelson — not to mention countless stars from subsequent generations. 

Sad And Beautiful World includes cameos by artists who have become part of Mavis’ world, many of whom are legends in their own right: Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Derek Trucks, Katie Crutchfield, MJ Lenderman, Justin Vernon, and others shine a light on her, while Mavis does what only she can do. Embracing vulnerability, she sings close and deep here, drawing the listener into a circle filled with her unforgettable presence.  

The first track recorded for the album, “Human Mind,” was written for and about Mavis by Hozier and Allison Russell. Paying tribute to the complexity of life, Mavis expresses faith in humanity: “Even in these days, I find / this far down the line, / I find good in it sometimes.” That magical last word — “sometimes” — shows her choosing hope, even with the disappointments that experience has brought. 

Her take on Tom Waits’ “Chicago” flaunts her vocal prowess, opening the album with a high-octane journey North that her family actually made—a dream of a future, but one offering no guarantees. Guitar riffs from Buddy Guy and Derek Trucks layer the song with a musical legacy that rose out of that same migration, a migration that Guy himself also lived. 

These are love songs for tough times. The title track, written by Mark Linkous (a.k.a. Sparklehorse), with its funeral-march rhythm and spare lyrics, finds beauty even in the midst of grief over everything that’s been lost. Mavis turns to Gillian Welch’s “Hard Times” to testify that “we’re gonna make it yet.”   

On Kevin Morby’s “Beautiful Strangers,” she reminds those in danger, “If you ever hear the gunshot… think of mother / I am a rock.” Her version of Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed,” delivers a staggering benediction to those who stumble: “There will be mountains you won’t move. / I’ll always be there for you.”  

“We Got To Have Peace”, written by Curtis Mayfield, her friend and longtime collaborator, is framed by Mavis as a plea and a psalm. Yet her take on Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” carries a quiet fury that suggests choosing peace shouldn’t be mistaken for submission. 

The album closes on two reflective notes. Mavis sings “Satisfied Mind,” a song made famous by Porter Wagoner, and delivers it from the perspective of a long life well lived, reminding listeners that fleeting glory makes for shallow victory. And with “Everybody Needs Love,” Mavis finishes with the joy she insists on spreading, reminding us that she’s here, that we cannot go it alone, and that we don’t have to. 

It’s impossible to talk to Mavis’ collaborators without them bringing up the strength of her spirit and her generosity, growing animated over how much her songs mean to them. Allison Russell described hearing the Staple Singers as a preteen and finding out that Mavis had played a key part in the civil rights movement as a young woman.  

Upon being told that a verse from “Human Mind” she’d written (“I am the last, daddy, the last of us”) had made Mavis cry, Russell said she’d been deeply affected. “Mavis is the transcendent force of love embodied,” she said. “There is no higher honor than one of my biggest heroes being moved by words I wrote.” 

Producer Brad Cook tells stories about growing up listening to the Staple Singers. About seeing Mavis perform live, he said, “I remember being utterly floored by the conviction and power she had in her voice.” 

To capture Mavis’ resonant phrasing and textured vocals, Cook tried to build every song around that voice. He began with spare skeleton recordings, just drum and piano, and focused on recording her vocals. Then he expanded the song from there, trying never to overshadow or undermine the framework she’d established. He imagined a record in the tradition of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken, a group of artists coming together to celebrate community—in this case, one centered on Mavis. 

Sad And Beautiful World shows that love is a choice and a force all its own. The album is a litany of prayer, of Mavis breathing life into these songs. “I just have to deliver the compassion I feel,” she says. “I want to share the song the way I feel it.” 

************************  

More than seventy years after a high-school a cappella teacher tried and failed to change her singing style, Mavis Staples has one of the most recognizable voices in the world, with resonant phrasing and vocals so warm and textured, they feel like a physical presence. 

Not only is Mavis still making studio albums, she’s still on the road, returning to venues like the Newport Folk Festival, where she’s been a fixture since 1964. This July at Newport, Public Enemy founders Chuck D and Flavor Flav dropped to their knees to bow down before her. She made clear it was all unnecessary, but there’s something regal about her that people respond to — a grace that rises out of lived experience. 

Few people wield the combination of moral authority and the musical artistry that Mavis possesses. The moral authority comes from experiencing the Jim Crow era as a Black woman playing music in the South. With Freedom Highway, the Staple Singers created the literal soundtrack for the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. They opened for Martin Luther King Jr. at his rallies. Mavis has spent a lifetime standing up for those people the most powerful among us would like to beat down.  

She considered retiring in 2023 but found she has too much left to express through music. And now, despite our dark days, as she said in the wake of her 85th birthday party last year, “You have to stay hopeful and have faith that things are going to get better.” She can’t keep us from the danger facing the country or magically restore the progress that’s being undone. But she knows from her own experience that it’s possible to find a path through, a way to keep going.  

She may be one of the last true ones standing, but she’s not waiting around to be revered for the wisdom she brings. She’s too busy still leading the charge, still showing us how it’s done. Steadfast in triumph and adversity, Mavis Staples is still making music—and history—just when we need her most. 

Remembering Chuck E. Weiss on his 80th birthday

Remembering hipster Chuck E. Weiss on what would've been his 80th with a few 78 finds and some Art Fein's Poker Party clips. 

Happy 75th Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating Tom's birthday with his brief cameo on the new Dale Crover album Glossolalia and a couple of vintage performances. 

LINKS

Men's Journal Life Advice From Tom Waits

That time Tom Waits dropped by KBCO-FM to chat and sing a few tunes

Check out Bret Saunders interview with Tom Waits along with a few songs on KBCO around the time of Mule Variations in 1999. 

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating Tom's birthday with an Iggy Pop chat (check the link below) and Tom's Fernwood 2 Night appearance from 1977.

Iggy and Tom press play on some fave tunes for each other and discuss them for two hours right here.  

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating the birthday of Tom Waits with a couple of his memorable TV appearances, some of which you may have missed. 

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating Tom's birthday with his VH1 Storytellers performance from 1999... complete with Swedish subtitles. 

Watch Robert Frank's road movie Candy Mountain from 1987

The cast of Candy Mountain includes Dr. John, Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, David Johansen and Mary Margaret O'Hara as Darlene. 

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating Tom's 71st birthday with his snazzy Austin City Limits performance from 1978.  

R.I.P. Fred Willard, 1939-2020

Remembering Fred Williard as Jerry Hubbard on Fernwood 2 Night and his many hilarious scene-stealing cameos like his appearance in Spinal Tap.

... and here's Fred on Late Night with David Letterman

R.I.P. Hal Willner, 1957-2020

Sadly, music curator deluxe Hal Willner has passed away after a battle with COVID-19. Check out a few of his projects below.

Writes Dougie Bowne.... I used to joke about Hal, “he's my favorite kind of producer - he hires the right musicians, and leaves them the hell alone while they work shit out.” The joke, as they all must, wrapped itself around some truth, but what Hal did was make great art. The mysterious methods that were his and his alone might have looked like luck, accident, or sorcery, as if they weren’t being directed, but of course they were. He made great shit happen over and over and over again, putting together wildly important shows, producing beautiful, meaningful albums, introducing people to each other and all of us to ideas, and humor and beauty, and that takes some doing, it isn’t easy, though he made it look like it was. He made shit that could make you cry like a train, or laugh like a baby. He was an artist by any measure you might want to call up into play for deciding who to call by that name. And his loveably grumpy sarcasm could never conceal the fact that he loved more stuff - more musics, more TV shows, more films, more poems, more people, more everything than just about anyone I ever met. And I love him. 
Hal Willner April 6, 1956 – April 6, 2020 "No more to say, and nothing to weep for but the Beings in the Dream, trapped in its disappearance, sighing, screaming with it, buying and selling pieces of phantom, worshipping each other, worshipping the God included in it all—longing or inevitability?—while it lasts, a Vision—anything more?" Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg

LINKS
Rolling Stone Tom Waits pens tribute to Hal Willner
Brooklyn Vegan 32 Videos of Hal Willner's 80s series Night Music
New York Times Hal Willner's vanishing weird New York

R.I.P. percussionist extraordinaire Emil Richards, 1932-2019

Sadly, Wrecking Crew session musician Emil Richards – who snapped his fingers on The Addams Family TV theme – has passed away. He'll be greatly missed. 

LINKS
Hollywood Reporter Emil Richards, Legendary Percussionist and L.A. Session player, Dies at 87