Lie to me baby....

Tom Waits recently released a sprawling 3 disc box set called Orphans - each disc has its own theme, respectively Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. It's three years in the making, a collaboration between Waits and his longtime collaborator and wife, Kathleen Brennan. I'm incredibly impressed with the box set so far, although I've only been listening for a short time and haven't really had time to digest the entire three discs.

To give you an idea of the incredible diversity of music on the box set, I'll let Tom Waits describe it in his own words: "On Orphans there is a mambo about a convict who breaks out of jail with a fishbone, a gospel train song about Charlie Whitman and John Wilkes Boothe, a delta blues about a disturbing neighbor, a spoken word piece about a woman who was struck by lightening, an 18th century Scottish madrigal about murderous sibling rivalry, an American backwoods a cappella about a hanging. Even a song by Jack Kerouac and a spiritual with my own personal petition to the Lord with prayer…There’s even a show tune about an old altar boy and a rockabilly song about a young man who’s begging to be lied to. " If you want to read the rest of Waits' description of the box set, click here - you'll surely be entertained by Waits' unique prose and vivid language. 

Waits has even made a music video for the first song off Brawlers, called Lie To Me, a blues tinged rocker that to my  ears evokes Howlin' Wolf and Elvis simulatenously, all filtered through a unique Waitsian lens. This was one song he played live when I saw him on his recent tour at the Auditorium Theatre here in Chicago, and it holds up on the record just like it did live.

Tom Waits is such an inspiration as an artist - someone who's evolved over time, and in his more mature years is still making vital music. He continues to change while retaining a quality that is uniquely Waits and instantly identifiable. He consistently manages to make music that has a timeless quality, that makes you think you've heard it before even if you haven't - the ballads on the Bawlers disc exemplify this quality.

If you're interested in further reading, there's a recent World Cafe interview, a Harp Magazine article, a Chicago Tribune interview, and a Pitchfork interview.