Covered in Folk: Tom Waits
(Dave Alvin, Kathryn Williams, Shawn Colvin, Sarah Jarosz, Redbird +more!)
I somehow managed to reach full-bore adulthood without hearing a lick of Tom Waits. Which is probably all for the better: as I’ve noted many times, my long-standing preference for melodic voices is only now giving way to a mature appreciation of the unique beauty that springs from powerful truths filtered through broken instruments.
And anyway, the Tom Waits songbook is eminently adult, both in the way it looks at the world through bleary, jaded, ancient eyes and the way it rattles about with themes of alcoholics, lonesome trainwatchers, tired prostitutes, and others past their prime, struggling to capture the last licks of a life that has almost finished passing them by. Indeed, the world that Waits inhabits often seems to burn with unfinished life-energy, the heat haze of a drunkard’s sweaty existence in every growl - sometimes festering, sometimes flickering, sometimes roaring out of control.
But there’s also something about a Tom Waits song that suits the stillness of winter. There’s ice in these bittersweet, boozy ballads: the chill of an outsider’s threadbare coat, the thin layer of frost that forms on a dying relationship, the icicle weight of the guillotine metaphor, an observer’s frozen distance from the ideal. In Waits’ capable hands, as in winter’s quietude, the world aches with wistfullness; time captured in crystal, the pessimistic inevitabilities of future and the hard roads of the past ever present in the hopeful moment.
Tom Waits is well-covered, and he should be. His melodies are simple, his imagery clear. The gaze of his narrators and the desires of his subjects resonate with us. The icewall that he places between the world as it is and the world longed for is a familiar one, for it represents our innermost fears and projections. And as long as they are treated tenderly, there are a multitude of ways to interpret these songs.
But where the songs of Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson are, by definition, folk songs, which lend themselves to a universal opportunity for coverage, Waits writes songs for his own distinctive voice. The coarse, gravelly vocals and slow piano-driven delivery that mark Waits’ beautifully broken performance wring every drop of poignancy from their underclass hearts and streets so exquisitely, it poses a particular challenge for would-be interpreters. And sure enough, as a bevy of mediocre, mixed-bag tribute albums proves, it’s surprisingly hard to cover a Tom Waits song with efficacy - to transform that rawness without shaming it with antiseptic beauty, or overwhelming it with rage and despair.
Too many miss the tenderness Waits feels for his subjects. Too many fall too quiet, focusing on melody to the detriment of the necessary nuance. Balance is key, here, lest the longing turn maudlin and cheap, or the chill turn to heat and anger.
Still, there are many ways to capture winter well. Ice can be fragile or fleeting, jagged or muddied, brittle or echoingly still; it can trap us, or shatter beneath us, or even sustain our careful footsteps across it, if we mind our surroundings. Here’s a few folksingers and singer-songwriters who manage to get it right.
- The Cottars: Hold On
(Barely-restrained Celtic folkpop, a thrillride from Nova Scotian sibling act The Cottars’ Forerunner) - Redbird: Hold On
(Sparse, touchingly ragged singer-songwriter fare with rotating lead and harmony vocals from Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault, and Kris Delmhorst, performing as folk collective Redbird.) - Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl: Innocent When You Dream
(A lighthearted, slightly twee lo-fi lullaby waltz from UK singer-songwriters Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl’s 2008 duet album Two.) - Anna Ternheim: Anywhere I Lay My Head
(Echoey demo-quality indiefolk from Swedish poprock singer-songwriter and indie darling Anna Ternheim. Off 2005 EP Shoreline.) - Heidi Talbott: Time
(Lovely, delicate Irish-American tradfolk from “carefully understated” Celtic singer-songwriter Heidi Talbott; from I Love + Light, featured here two summers ago.) - Emiliana Torrini: I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You
(Broken-voiced pianofolk from Icelandic alt-pop singer Emiliana Torrini’s 1996 import-only underground gem Merman.) - Arrica Rose: I Hope That I Don’t Fall…
(Whispery grungefolk from LA indie singer-songwriter Arrica Rose, whose 2008 release LA La Lost first gave us opportunity to rant about doing Tom Waits right - and wrong.) - Shawn Colvin: (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night
(Sweet live coverfolk from Shawn Colvin, released just before her AAA popstar era; from fave 1994 Columbia Records release Cover Girl.) - Madeleine Peyroux: (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night
(Sublime, shimmery Holiday-esque brushfolk from jazz/blues chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux, whose 2006 release Half The Perfect World lives eternally on my mellow playlist.) - Sarah Jarosz: Come On Up To The House
(Sparse acoustic jamgrass from Song Up In Her Head, this year’s debut from bluegrass wunderkind Sarah Jarosz, first featured here back in April.) - Mike and Ruthy: Long Way Home
(Softly strummed late-night americana-string-band music from married folk couple and ex-Mammals Mike and Ruthy’s gorgeous post-wedding album The Honeymoon Agenda.) - Norah Jones: The Long Way Home
(Sultry bluesfolk from everyone’s favorite slippery-voiced popjazz chanteuse Norah Jones, whose new album ain’t bad, either.) - Holly Cole: I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
(Fragile jazzplay from perennial Tom Waits interpreter Holly Cole. Her tribute album Temptation is one of the great ones.) - Vamosbabe & Pascal Fricke: Bronx Lullaby
(Classical jazz guitar and quiet vocals from the second of three Waits cover albums by Pascal Fricke, aka Waitswatcher, a great Cover Me find.) - Botanica: Broken Bicycles
(Eerie, slightly melodramatic folk rock from Botanica, off the same New Coat of Paint tribute album as that everpresent Neko Case cover. Trust me, it grows on you.) - Clara Bakker: Temptation
(Live full-throated bluesfolk with just the right touch of tango from Dutch vocalist Clara Bakker.) - Dave Alvin: Blind Love
(Low-down and bluesy rootsfolk from alt-country progenitor Dave Alvin’s high-production West of the West, a strong tribute to a diverse mix of his favorite California singer-songwriters.) - Hayes Carll: Bad Liver & A Broken Heart
(Broken-down troubadour folk from young alt-country blogdarling Hayes Carll, recorded live on Mountain Stage this past February. [UPDATE: Whoops! Seems this is a Scott Nolan cover, not the Tom Waits song by the same name. Mea culpa - but a great cover nonetheless!)
Tom Waits coverfolk previously on Cover Lay Down:
- Alt-country goddess Lucinda Williams covers Hang Down Your Head and a host of other fitting songs.
- Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks cover The Piano Has Been Drinking. Plus: more drunken coverfolk.
- Contradance band Popcorn Behavior covers The Briar and the Rose, one of a dozen rose songs for Valentines Day.
Category: Covered in Folk, Tom Waits
December 27th, 2009 at 12:04 am
What an epic post. The “Come On Up To The House” cover is now on my top 20 songs to play at my funeral.
December 27th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Jonathan Byrd performs an *amazing* cover of Goin’ Out West… but it hasn’t yet made it onto any of his CDs - any recordings floating around out there?…
December 27th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Nice choice, Martin. Waits’ own version off Mule Variations would work, too - perfectly funereal, in a kind of New Orleans vein.
December 27th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Thanks for this!
I like Neko Case’s cover of “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis”, too.
December 27th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Great post. Its so interesting to hear other people do Tom Waits. I especially like Emiliana Torrini’s cover.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Nice set of songs. I almost wrote you the other day to suggest doing a Tom Waits feature. I picked up Sarah Jarosz’s album when she opened for Dave Rawlings in Austin and noticed her Waits cover.
The Low Anthem covered a Waits song on their latest Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (my #1 album this year). ‘Home I’ll Never Be’ is apparently a Kerouac piece that Tom put to music. His version is bare bones and slow on the piano, while The Low Anthem makes it a blistering groove.
December 28th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Thank you
great selection of covers!
December 28th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Thanks for another well-written post with some versions that I’m looking forward to checking out. To celebrate Tom’s recent 60th, I posted a few more covers including Neko Case’s version of Christmas Card from a Hooker along with a few tunes by Tom:
http://pathfinderpat.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/happy-60th-tom/
December 28th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Since several folks have mentioned it, I should note that - despite a startlingly successful production decision to float Case’s vocals over nothing more than pulled-back organ chords - I think Neko Case’s take on Christmas Card from a Hooker suffers from vamp overkill. Those otherwise unfamiliar with her body of work are not wrong to celebrate anything she does, of course; Case at her worst is still something unique and very, very special. But she can do better, and has, in so many songs, that I find it hard to listen to the aforementioned cover more than once or twice a holiday season.
December 28th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I think my band (The Ruminants) does a pretty cool cover of Chocolate Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC1wBhGMa18
December 31st, 2009 at 7:09 am
Don’t think the Hayes Carll is the Tom Waits cover - it’s Scott Nolan. Great song though.
December 31st, 2009 at 9:31 am
Oh Great! Covers of my all time favourite artist that I haven’t heard!! Thank You very much!!!
Please don’t forget John Hammond’s cover album of Waits songs called “Wicked Grin”. It has the first ever showing of Fannin Street on it. Although Waits’s Fannin Street is in Houston whereas Leadbelly’s Fannin Street is in Shreveport, I think Waits’s song was inspired by the story about Leadbelly’s father telling him “Don’t go down to Fannin Street”.
December 31st, 2009 at 10:01 am
Nice recommendation, bigstevie. Hammond may not be folk, but it’s a great album.
And…whoops - good call, Chris! How funny to find two songs with such unusual names.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for the TW covers. FYI Hayes Carll covers Tom’s “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” on his “Trouble In Mind” Lost Highway release. “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart” is on there too….
January 1st, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Lovely stuff. Thanks.
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Wow! That there is a lovely bit of writing. I am always amazed at your ability to wax so eloquently about music.
That being said (with my reverence for Tom Waits not coloring my opinion, btw), I have to agree about Neko’s cover–I probably wouldn’t have given it a chance if it wasn’t Neko, but at the outset, I had my doubts about most people being able to do justice to a Tom Waits song. I like the Low Anthem cover, though and, trusting your good judgement, I’ll give your posts a spin as well.
Oh–and speaking of funeral songs, I always thought Ol’ 55 would be a good one: “Well my time went so quickly, I went lickety splitly out to my Ol 55…..”
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Oh! And I forgot to mention that Railroad Earth does a FABULOUS bluegrassy cover of Tom’s “Cold Water” — hands down, my favorite Tom Waits cover EVER.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Petra Haden does a very good cover of “I don’t wanna grow up”.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
“New Wave” a cappella group The Bobs did an angry, snarly cover of “Temptation” on their 1991 CD The Bobs Sing the Songs Of . . ..
January 5th, 2010 at 7:46 am
The dates for Kathryn’s tour are up here http://bit.ly/50S8nR plus some info about her new single.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
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