Having just finished reading Innocent While You Dream, the new collection of interviews with Tom Waits, I still feel like I'm swimming through Waits' world - meeting catfish, treasure chests, bright golden hooks. He's not just a remarkable artist - he's a remarkable person. Full of lies and wisdom.
Since there's no word of any new work - not since 2004's Real Gone - it was with great pleasure that I stumbled across "Buzz Fledderjon", a Tom Waits b-side left off of Mule Variations and now available as a free mp3 download from Amazon (of all places). Given Waits' recent forays into beatbox, railroad clang, plain ole' sturm & drang, it's a surprisingly traditional back-porch blues... but there's such grace in it, such tenderness, such strangeness and sorrow. It's beautiful. I listen to it on repeat, moseying over the floorboards like a raccoon.
Tom Waits - "Buzz Fledderjon" (mp3), via Tuwa's Shanty.
