Cyprus Avenue
(Cork Jazz Festival) Monday 25 October 2010
On the 30th anniversary of the Blue Valentine tour, David Irwin and his band recreated the early years of Tom Waits' music.
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.
Here's an MP3 live recording from Dolan's of a duet with co-star Lisa Bresnan called "Never Talk To Strangers".