Artist · EveryDisc catalogue

Tom Waits

Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits; December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. In his early work, Waits mixed genres such as jazz, blues, and, to a small extent, folk; from the 1980s to the present day, he has played experimental rock to varying degrees with elements of industrial, dark cabaret, and avant-garde jazz. He is characterized by theatrical, sometimes vaudevillian performances and a unique delivery—a mixture of singing and recitative. Tom possesses a distinctive raspy voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as follows: "It’s like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left in a smokehouse for a few months, and then, when taken out, run over." Lyrically, his songs are stories, most often told from the first person, with grotesque images of seedy places and world-weary characters. Waits was also the composer for films such as Jim Jarmusch’s "Night on Earth" and Francis Ford Coppola’s "One from the Heart," for the soundtrack of which he was nominated for an Oscar. He is a Grammy winner for the albums Bone Machine and Mule Variations. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.