Tom Waits to Release 3CD Set

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blues

Tom Waits is set to release a 3CD set titled ’Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers And Bastards’. It's a wide-ranging collection of 54 songs, including 30 new recordings, equaling over three hours of rare and never-before heard music with a 94-page booklet. "Orphans are rough and tender tunes. Rhumbas about mermaids, shuffles about trainwrecks, tarantellas about insects, madrigrals about drowning, " says Waits. "Scared, mean, orphaned songs of rapture and melancholy. Songs that grew up hard. Songs of dubious origin rescued from cruel fate and now left wanting only to be cared for. Show that you are not afraid and take them home. They don't bite, they just need attention."

Each of the three CDs is separately grouped and sub-titled -- "Brawlers, " "Bawlers" and "Bastards" -- to capture the full spectrum of Waits' ranging and roving musical styles. "Brawlers" is chock full of raucous blues and full-throated juke joint stomp, "Bawlers" contains Celtic and country ballads, waltzes, lullabies, piano and classic lyrical Waits' songs, while "Bastards" is filled with experimental music and strange tales.

In addition to the new work, "Orphans" features a number of tracks finding a home on a Waits' album for the first time -- songs originally recorded for the cinema, the theatre and other projects. They include Waits' unique interpretations of songs by such extraordinarily diverse talents as The Ramones, Daniel Johnston, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, Leadbelly, Kerouac and Bukowski.

As for his latest tour, which took him from Atlanta, Asheville, NC, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago, Detroit, Akron to Cleveland, where Waits played his first club show in nearly 30 years at the House Of Blues, all shows sold out within minutes. Some of these cities Waits had not performed in for over 30 years and it was his first foray into Asheville. Needless to say, the audiences were nothing short of ecstatic at each and every gig and the reviews reflected the fans passion.

Meanwhile, marking his first release since 2004's "Real Gone, " "Orphans" was again produced by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan (his wife and long time collaborator), who were recently named #4 in a recent Paste magazine collector's edition naming the "100 Best Living Songwriters." According to the magazine, "In literature, only a handful of writers have pulled off the near impossible. In music, it happens on every Tom Waits recording."

Throughout his entire and lengthy critically acclaimed musical career -- which has garnered him two Grammys, plus several other nominations, including an Academy Award -- Waits and his fevered imagination have managed to keep evolving with each new disc on his more than 20 recordings. The only genre Tom could possibly be placed in would, literally, have to be his very own category -- Waitsian.

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