walking upstream…
Tom Waits
Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor whose gravelly voice and theatrical, junkyard-orchestra arrangements have made him one of American music's most singular stylists. He began as a boozy, beat-inflected folk balladeer on Closing Time (1973), then reinvented himself from Swordfishtrombones (1983) onward into a clattering, carnival-esque experimentalist, a persona he sustained through Rain Dogs (1985), Bone Machine (1992), and Bad As Me (2011).
the sound in question
1985
Jockey Full of BourbonTom Waits
walk the tributaries ↓
Bob Dylan1960s · Folk / Folk rock / Rock
Waits's Wikipedia biography describes him as 'inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation' when he started out singing on the San Diego folk circuit as a teenager; he taped Dylan's lyrics to his bedroom wall.
listen: upstream & here
1963
Blowin' in the WindBob Dylan
1973
MarthaTom Waits
listen forPlainspoken, story-first folk phrasing on his earliest records, before the growl and junkyard percussion took over.
Howlin' Wolf1950s · Chicago blues / Electric blues
Waits told NPR's Fresh Air, 'I've always looked to [Wolf] for guidance, and probably always will... he does have a voice that is otherworldly,' and NPR described Bad As Me (2011) as paying homage to favorite singers including Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, and Peggy Lee.
listen: upstream & heresource: NPR Fresh Air -- 'Tom Waits ↗
1956
Smokestack Lightnin'Howlin' Wolf
2011
Bad As MeTom Waits
listen forThe otherworldly, throat-shredding howl Waits chases on his rawest, bluesiest tracks.
Louis Armstrong1920s–30s · Jazz
Waits has described his own singing style as sounding like 'Louis Armstrong and Ethel Merman meeting in Hell' -- an explicit nod to Armstrong's gravel-and-warmth vocal DNA inside his own delivery.
listen: upstream & heresource: Wikipedia -- Tom Waits biography (Dylan/Beat Generation influence; 'Louis Armstrong and Ethel Merman meeting in Hell' quote) ↗
1967
What a Wonderful WorldLouis Armstrong
1976
Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)Tom Waits
listen forThe battered, behind-the-beat warmth Waits reaches for on his gentler ballads -- a rasp used for tenderness instead of menace.