Tom Waits

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WAITS-CORBIJN ('77-'11), by Tom Waits and Anton…

May 08, 2013

One of the many songs that suit Tom Waits's gravelly, Ancient Mariner voice is…

Watch Tom Waits sing with the Rolling Stones

May 07, 2013

Tom Waits joined The Rolling Stones live onstage on Sunday (May 5) to sing…

Steve Vai: The Best of the TVD Interview Archive

May 07, 2013

It's not lost on us that some of the biggest and most talented artists and…

Tom Waits joins The Rolling Stones onstage for…

May 06, 2013

Tom Waits joined The Rolling Stones live onstage last night (May 5) to sing…

Tom Waits Biography

source: WikiPedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. If you find the biography content factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia.

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and has acted in supporting roles in films, including ''Paradise Alley'' and ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''; he also starred in the 1986 film ''Down by Law''. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on ''One from the Heart''. Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places—although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known through cover versions by more commercial artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Ol' '55", performed by the Eagles, and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, ''Bone Machine'' and ''Mule Variations''. In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Waits lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and three children.

Wikipedia This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. If you find the biography content factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia.