Thomas Alan Waits is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk, hip hop and experimental techniques verging on industrial music,and definitely not country. Per The Wall Street Journal, Waits “has composed a body of work that’s at least comparable to any songwriter’s in pop today. A keen, sensitive and sympathetic chronicler of the adrift and downtrodden, Mr. Waits creates three-dimensional characters who, even in their confusion and despair, are capable of insight and startling points of view. Their stories are accompanied by music that’s unlike any other in pop history.”
David Kent Hidalgo is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. Hidalgo frequently plays musical instruments such as accordion, violin, 6-string banjo, cello, requinto jarocho, percussion, drums and guitar as a session musician on other artists' releases.
Alice is the fourteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 on Epitaph Records. It consists of songs written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan for the opera Alice ten years earlier. The opera was a collaboration with Robert Wilson, with whom Waits had previously worked on The Black Rider. Waits and Wilson collaborated again on Woyzeck; the songs from it were recorded and released on Blood Money at the same time as Alice.
One from the Heart is a soundtrack album of Tom Waits compositions for the Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name. It was recorded from October 1980 to September 1981. It was during this period that Waits met his wife Kathleen Brennan, an employee at the studio where it was recorded. While the film was released in February, the soundtrack album release was delayed until October of 1982 due to a dispute between Columbia Records and Coppola's Zoetrope Studios.
Mule Variations is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Tom Waits, released on April 16, 1999, on the ANTI- label. It was Waits' first studio album in six years, following The Black Rider (1993). The album was backed by an extensive tour in Europe and North America during the summer and autumn of 1999, which was Waits' first proper tour since 1987. Other promotional stops included a solo performance on VH1 Storytellers.
Blood Money is the fifteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 on the ANTI- label. It consists of songs Waits and Kathleen Brennan wrote for Robert Wilson's opera Woyzeck. Waits had worked with Wilson on two previous plays: The Black Rider and Alice. Alice was released with Blood Money simultaneously in 2002.
Bone Machine is the eleventh studio album by American singer and musician Tom Waits, released by Island Records on September 8, 1992. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards. The album marked Waits' return to studio albums, coming five years after Franks Wild Years (1987).
Franks Wild Years is the tenth studio album by Tom Waits, released 1987 on Island Records. It is the third in a loose trilogy that began with Swordfishtrombones. Subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts", the album contains songs written by Waits and collaborators for a play of the same name. The play had its world premiere at the Briar St. Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1986, performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. "If I Have to Go" was used in the play, but released only in 2006 on Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. The theme from "If I Have to Go" was used under the title "Rat's Theme" in the documentary Streetwise as early as 1984. The title is derived from "Frank's Wild Years", a track from Swordfishtrombones.
Värttinä is a Finnish folk music band that started as a project by Sari and Mari Kaasinen in 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the southeastern region of Finland. Many transformations have taken place in the band since then. Värttinä shot into fame with the release of their 1991 album Oi Dai. As of 2009, the band consists of three lead female vocalists supported by three acoustic musicians. The vocalists sing in the Karelian dialect of the Finnish language.
Real Gone is the sixteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released October 4, 2004 in Europe, and October 5 in United States on the ANTI- label. The album was supported by the Real Gone Tour, playing sold out locations in North America and Europe in October and November 2004.
Kathleen Patricia Brennan is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and artist. She is known for her work as a co-writer, producer, and influence on the work of her husband Tom Waits.
Poi Dog Pondering is an American musical group which is noted for its cross-pollination of diverse musical genres, including various forms of acoustic and electronic music. Frank Orrall founded the band in Hawaii in 1984, initially as a solo project. In 1985 Orrall formed the first line-up of PDP to perform its first concert at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The band embarked on a yearlong street performance busking tour across North America. They eventually settled down in Austin, Texas in 1987, where they recorded their first three albums. In 1992, the band relocated to Chicago and they began to incorporate orchestral arrangements and elements of electronic, house music, and soul music into their acoustic rock style. The membership of Poi Dog Pondering has evolved from album to album, with Frank Orrall a constant player since the inception of the band.
"Jersey Girl" is a song composed and originally sung by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits from his 1980 album Heartattack and Vine.
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States.
Strange Weather is a 1987 studio album by British singer Marianne Faithfull, recorded after recovering from a 17-year addiction to heroin in 1986. The album's three predecessors on Island Records were all recorded while Faithfull confronted personal struggles, and contained a majority of lyrics and some music penned by Faithfull herself. In contrast, Strange Weather is a striking mix of rock, blues and dark cabaret, and though none of the songs were written by Faithfull, all are tied together by the spare and nuanced production of Hal Willner, using a notable group of contributing musicians, such as Bill Frisell. The title track has since become a Faithfull concert staple and has appeared live in three additional recordings.
The Wall Tour was a concert tour by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd throughout 1980–1981 in support of their concept album The Wall.
Friends of Mine is an album by American folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, released in 1998.
Videoplasty is the third home video by Primus, following 1993's Cheesy Home Video and the fan club exclusive Horrible Swill. Videoplasty was released at the end of 1998 to complement the band's recent covers EP Rhinoplasty, and is composed mostly of highlights from a live show performed on October 14 that year at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California. This live footage is interspersed with montages of clips filmed during previous tours and at other recent shows, footage shot backstage and in the studio, animations by bassist Les Claypool, and the band's then-current music videos, spanning the previous two years back to the recording of the Brown Album and presented in approximate reverse-chronological order.
"Back in the Crowd" is a song by American rock musician Tom Waits. It is the second single and seventh track from Waits' seventeenth studio album, Bad as Me. Written and produced by Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, the song was released on September 27, 2011 as a digital download via iTunes and Spotify.
Blazing Away is a live album by British singer Marianne Faithfull, released on the Island label in 1990.
