Tom Waits Blue Valentine CD

After pefecting his seedy beatnik image on albums like SMALL CHANGE and NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER, Waits refined and expanded on it until the 1983 breakthrought of SWORDFISHTROMBONES. BLUE VALENTINE is full of low-rent nightlife imagery and arrangements that leave Waits' jazz leanings behind in favor of a more direct, blues-oriented approach. Lyrically, he's at his most straightforward and narrative, with tunes like "$29.00" and "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" reading like dimestore detective novels. In a customary nod to tradition, he delivers a marvelously stentorian version of Bernstein's "Somewhere." Things close in a low-key fashion with the spare,heart-rending title song, a ballad of shattered love.

Recorded in Hollywood, California in July & August 1978.

Personnel: Tom Waits (vocals, guitar, piano); Roland Bautista, Ray Crawford, "Shine" Robinson (guitar); Frank Vicari, Herbert Hardesty (tenor saxophone); Da Wille Gonga, Harold Battiste (piano); Charles Kynard (organ); Byron Miller, Jim Hughart, Scott Edwards (bass); Rick Lawson, Chip White, Earl Palmer (drums); Bobbye Hall (congas).

Q (10/92, p.101) - 3 Stars - Good - "...mindful that he was getting stuck in a retro groove, Waits switched from piano to electric guitar for much of BLUE VALENTINE....years of nicotine and alcohol abuse were taking their toll nicely on his voice..."