Tom Waits Nighthawke at The Diner

At this stage of the game, any new Tom Waits record is an event. Listening through the music of his entire career is daunting, to say the least, but it's a journey no one else, with the possible exception of Bob Dylan, has taken before. If one listens to the official recordings, from 1973's Closing Time, featuring the songs of an itinerant Beat barroom singer (no lounges please), right on through to the frenetic mania of 2004's Real Gone, one becomes aware of not only the twists and turns of a songwriter wrestling and bellowing at and with his muse, but of a journeyman artist barely able to hold on to the lid of his creativity, let alone keep it on.

The Black Rider is the twelfth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 1993 on Island Records, featuring studio versions of songs Waits wrote for the play The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson and co-written by William S. Burroughs.

There has been no lack of Duke Robillard product on the market; the roots guitarist has recorded approximately ten albums since 2000. But he's been more of an interpreter than songwriter and there haven't been many original compositions on them. That makes this 2010 disc a welcome appearance for fans of the guitarist aching to hear fresh tunes from the Roomful of Blues founder. Perhaps touring as part of Tom Waits' band — this disc's only cover is a roaring version of Waits' "Make It Rain" — inspired him, but these songs combine a deep blues sensibility with a sharp band and a raw instrumental attack often lost when Robillard indulges his jazz and jump blues sides.

"Blood Money" is based on the socio-political play "Woyzeck," originally written by the young German poet Georg Buchner in 1837 as a spare, cinematic piece inspired by the true story of a German soldier driven mad by bizarre army medical experiments and infidelity, which led him to murder his lover.

This Friday Tom Waits will release the 20th anniversary limited edition vinyl reissues of his 2002 albums ‘Alice’ and ‘Blood Money’. New live performances of five tracks per record will also be made available digitally in a digital deluxe version.

This Friday Tom Waits will release the 20th anniversary limited edition vinyl reissues of his 2002 albums ‘Alice’ and ‘Blood Money’. New live performances of five tracks per record will also be made available digitally in a digital deluxe version.

Franks Wild Years is the tenth studio album by Tom Waits, released 1987 on Island Records. Subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts", the album contains songs written by Waits and collaborators (mainly his wife, Kathleen Brennan) for a play of the same name. The shared title of the album and the play is an iteration of "Frank's Wild Years", a song from Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.

In the 1970s, Californian Tom Waits combined texts describing the daily lives of low-status, desperate and wacky characters with a personal image reflecting that same lifestyle, all sung in a raspy, raspy voice. By the 1980s, his work became more and more theatrical as his forays into acting and his compositions (most of them in collaboration with his partner Kathleen Brennan) appeared in various films or plays. As the years passed, Waits reached almost mythical status with his fans as well as his peers, and received two Grammy Awards for Bone Machine (1992) and Mule Variations (1999).