Tom Waits News

Pap · February 2025

Image: https://mcusercontent.com/a0e481164f23cfd122619e92b/images/5979633a-8007-6c61-c7d6-fbaa20c36ddb.jpg

“The Last Ride”

Tom Waits performs & reads poetry in the new documentary about homelessness in the American South

Created by the Italian public television channel RAI3, ‘The Human Factor’ is a series of eight 46-minute investigative journalism episodes that reveal how human rights are violated by authoritarian regimes, autocracies or even within democratic nations, where the most vulnerable and the minorities often face oppression.

Ultima Fermata - “The Last Ride” - is the final episode in the eight-part series and an immersive journey among the "last" on earth: U.S. citizens that experience homelessness who are victims of a system without safety nets and forced to live in extremely marginalized conditions. In “The Last Ride”, their stories are accompanied by the unmistakable voice of Tom Waits. With performances on acoustic guitar and piano as well as reading from his poem Seeds On Hard Ground, Waits provides a through line to the landscape of faces and stories portrayed in the documentary.

Watch “The Last Ride”

Below are three charity groups mentioned in the documentary and links to their websites with more info on how to support them.

The Beat: A Warming Shelter Based in Madison, TN

https://shepherdofthegulf.org/: Homeless Camper Assistance in Biloxi, MS

Shower to the People: Shower and Laundry Services for the Homeless in Nashville, TN

“The Last Ride”: Written and directed by Angelo Loy, Martino Mazzonis and Luigi Montebello for Il Fattore Umano - RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana

Photo credit for Tom’s photo: Luigi Montebello and Davide Rinaldi

Photo credit for the documentary still: Angelo Loy

Pap · May 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBWWjwj3zcY

Pap · May 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbktJytZvTY

Pap · May 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjdow93A2KU

ST66483 · May 2025

Thanks for sharing. Tom Traubert’s Blues is from my favourite album of his - love that song and album. Selfishly I wish he’d perform a few more shows, last on my list of artists to see.

Pap · May 2025

ST66483 said: Selfishly I wish he’d perform a few more shows, last on my list of artists to see.

+1

Pap · August 2025

29 Tom Waits

The anti-hero as a rock star: Low-key, low-voiced, high-concept — the shambolic genius of Tom Waits is in the details. The deft turn of a heartbreaking phrase, a carnival barker’s sly appeal, this Bukowski of song is deceptively unkempt. Waits’ dry humour hits all the right notes, his careful tunes classic enough to be covered by Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash and the Ramones. Cinematic and resonant, Waits’ words are as cool as Beat poetry, his persona and performances wonderfully way out. A troubadour for the ages. KT

Source: The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was A Thing (2021)

Pap · November 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkPIe8kGwH4&list=RDxkPIe8kGwH4&start_radio=1

Pap · December 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3VVplzgh7E&list=RDc3VVplzgh7E&start_radio=1

Loujoe · December 2025

Hell YES^^
Love it

Pap · January 12

https://youtu.be/vjfpowEzdx4?si=BEtzVi2XzXXLQaj8

Pap · January 26

https://youtu.be/T4opT_5u7k4?si=lLIJpMDJnS1xSuJm

Loujoe · January 27

Lol^^

lexicondevil · January 27

That was frickin' hilarious.

Pap · April 1

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021252/uploads/editor/4j/uqd4vsq9feww.png

Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow

Out May 29 on Ace Records
A compilation of recordings from
Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s matchless catalogue
The album features recordings by Solomon Burke, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Marianne Faithfull, Bob Seger, Diana Krall, John Hammond, and more, plus extensive sleeve notes with track-by-track commentary.
Few artists have remapped the terrain of popular music, and culture at large, like Tom Waits. Over the course of five decades, he has forged a singular aesthetic that defies genre and turns the marginal into myth. His work is neither fully inside nor outside the mainstream tradition but moves restlessly between them, drawing from vaudeville, blues, jazz, folk, theatre – and just about anything else that catches his ear – to craft something wholly his own. With his long-time creative partner and wife Kathleen Brennan, he has dismantled and reassembled the idea of song itself, crafting works that exist as both raw expression and high art. This collection honours not only the extraordinary versatility of Waits and Brennan’s songwriting, but the importance of an artist who continues to haunt and inspire from the edges inward.

Pre-Order Now

Tim Simmons · April 16

https://youtu.be/L-57FrioeuE?si=8XP6AmMJ0ZIBL4aA

Pap · April 27

Tom Waits x Massive Attack
New Song “Boots On The Ground”

Sadly for all, this song is never more urgent and timely. The song chronicles the madness and rabid abandonment of mankind to the commands of "The Masters of War”, as Dylan put it. It marks Massive Attack's first new music since 2020 and Waits’s first new recording since the 2011 album, Bad As Me.

The song is available today on streaming platforms and will be followed by a 12" vinyl release. The 12” edition features "Boots on the Ground" on Side A, with an exclusively Waits B-side titled "The Fly” - a track featuring Waits’s trademark droll and sardonic spoken word.

Massive Attack is embracing an eco-conscious vinyl pressing and packaging process for this record to leave a smaller carbon footprint. This ‘EcoSonic’ edition will be 180g vinyl in colors, red, white, and blue, and will be packed at random.

"One day many years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate. Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind's yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style. Man's folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies. Hence, the B-side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12 inch "The Fly" features my appreciation for the winged nuisance." – Tom Waits

Listen & Pre-Order Now