r/tomwaits

2026 Festival of the Arts, Abbot Hall, Marblehead, MA

Supposedly it's Kelsey Devereux, the little drummer boy from the painting of the Spirit 0f '76

Who else can you identify? You won’t know everyone, since some are personal friends. My family are hanging out smack dab in the middle. This was two days of working pretty consistently, and I am pretty tickled with it. It seems like the general response has kind of been indifference from everyone else, but that doesn’t make me any less proud of this page! Anyway, who or what do you see?

Hello all!

I'm lucky enough to be a small part of a wonderful performance, "Tom Waits War Songs", that is coming up Thursday, July 9 at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. Led by the incredibly talented Michelle McGregor, her and her amazing band weave through a beautiful story of life, love and loss using the songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. I was able to help on their last performance and as a long time Waits fanatic, it hit every note I was hoping to hear and more. Take a look at the trailer below and please come support this celebration of the music of Tom Waits. I promise, you'll enjoy it!

Website

Tickets

There also will be a live stream available for two weeks after July 9!

https://reddit.com/link/1umuc68/video/6klxlktmt3bh1/player

Tom Waits War Songs is a live concert performance that brings together music, animation, and storytelling to explore the human cost of war.

Built around songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, the show follows the emotional journey of a soldier who leaves, serves, and returns home carrying the invisible wounds of war.

Join us for an intimate, gritty, and unforgettable live performance.

So I just bought this online (Sweden) and had no idea that it was a Russian pressing. I did not even know there was a Russian pressing of this!? A quick little google and it seems that this is the only bootleg album from Russia. Does anyone know more about this?

I’m not mad, but I think I better start reading the fine print when I buy records online!!

The first thing came to my mind when seeing this was “…and in that house there’s a woman…”

The picture is from Robert Adams’ What can we believe where? photobook.

Edited by Me

I've recently finished a complete listen through of every Tom Waits album, and compiled, what I believe to be, a playlist of his essential tracks. Not my top 3 from each album, or my favorite albums in order, just a playlist of not only the best of his best, but which also (I believe) paints a broad listening experience of his various styles. I didn't set any rules for myself, except that I wanted to be fairly choosey, not push myself to at least one song from each album, and that I was going to skip the (true) live albums, to avoid repetitions and keep it slightly more streamlined, not that they aren't good.

The final track per album come came out like this:

Closing Time - 5

The Heart of Saturday Night - 4

Nighthawks at the Diner - 4 (plus 2 intros)

Small Change - 5

Foreign Affairs - 2

Blue Valentine - 3

Heartattack and Vine - 3

One from the Heart Soundtrack - 1

Swordfishtrombones - 6

Rain Dogs - 7

Frank's Wild Years - 4

Night on Earth - 0

Bone Machine - 9

The Black Rider - 2

Mule Variations - 9

Blood Money - 4

Alice - 3

Real Gone - 6

Brawlers - 5

Bawlers - 2

Bastards - 3

Bad As Me - 3

A few notes

1. I included certain intros on Nighthawks that I believe are particularly great at setting the ambiance for the song, but didn't include them in the count. If i listen to this on shuffle it will be a challenge but oh well, I'd consider them part of the actual song.
2. Just because a song is left off, doesn't mean I don't like it, I tried to force myself to be choosy
3. Just because certain albums have more songs doesn't necessarily mean I like them more than others. For example I think Alice is a better album when listened too as a whole than Blood Money, BM just has more standouts. I feel the same about Swordfishtrombones over Mule Variations.

I'm curious to see what people think of this as an essential list. A lot of my friends are only moderate Wait's fans at best. Curious to see which not so obvious ones people think I nailed, or more likely, what travesties I committed by omission. If you hate lists like this, feel free to tell me to fuck off.