Blue Valentine
The Early Years of Tom Waits
During his acoustic singer/songwriter period (the ten years or so up to the 1980s before he turned to more experimental music) Tom Waits wrote a catalogue of classic mournful and wryly ironic melodies for which he is probably still best known.
This was a period that saw Waits writing songs such as Martha, Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You, Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Mathilda), Ol' 55, The Heart Of Saturday Night, The Piano Has Been Drinking, and Closing Time.
His nightclub-style performances are legendary, with a voice that has been described 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.'
The well-known Limerick singer and instrumentalist David Irwin recruited a fine band of musicians to bring us his interpretations of these classic ballads, love songs and observations.