Wicked Grin: Tom Waits Revisited, Kay Meek Centre, Friday, Oct. 13 and Saturday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. John Hammond, under the musical direction of Steve Dawson, performs with Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, Jill Barber, Jim Byrnes and a house band featuring Chris Gestrin (keys), Jeremy Holmes (bass) and Geoff Hicks. Global Roots series.
Steve Dawson can’t find a pump organ.
There are only two reasons to go searching for an 18th century parlour instrument: either you’re a theatrical director staging the funeral scene from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or you’re celebrating (not paying tribute to) Tom Waits.
Dawson’s doing the latter.
“We kind of shy away from the word ‘tribute,’” explains co-curator Fiona Black. “Tribute” connotes Dread Zeppelin, Bjorn Again, and the host of acts that don’t usually fit their heroes’ costumes.
The two-night Kay Meek concert is about interpretation. The show is slated to feature bluesman Jim Byrnes (“Obvious choice,” Black admits with a laugh.), crooner Jill Barber (“the opposite kind of voice from Tom Waits,” Dawson notes), Dawson himself, Los Lobos frontman David Hidalgo and John Hammond.
While Black promises “a lot of bonus tracks,” the set list will be rooted in Hammond’s 2001 album of Waits covers: Wicked Grin.
Produced by Waits, the 13-track release is “an incredibly well-curated Tom Waits retrospective,” Black says.
“That’s our weird, back door into Tom Waits’ repertoire,” Dawson says.
While Barber, Byrnes and Hammond signed on early, there was a struggle to find one last artist.
“We just couldn’t land anyone,” Dawson says.
Ultimately, Black and Dawson decided to take a “shot in the dark” and ask Hidalgo.
“Surprisingly to me, he said yes,” Dawson says.
It seems appropriate. Waits himself once picked Houndog, Hidalgo’s collaboration with Mike Halby, as one of his 20 favourite albums in an article for U.K. newspaper The Guardian.
There’s something intimidating about covering a Tom Waits song and taking part in an “oddball project,” Dawson notes.
“They just didn’t really know what they were getting into. And neither does David (Hidalgo) . . . but he’s willing to take the leap.”
After paying tribute to The Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! in 2015 and David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust in 2016, exploring Waits via Hammond seems a bit of a departure.
When googling Tom Waits, the People Also Ask tab includes the question: “When did Tom Waits die?” (Note: he didn’t.)
His following is “more a cult,” Black says. “Stylistically, he’s all over the map.”
That’s literally true. A website called tomwaitsmap.com directs fans of music and geography to every physical location referenced in Waits’ lyrics, from the trails of Nevada (“Get Behind the Mule”) to a Cuban jail (“Jockey Full of Bourbon”).
No description of Waits seems complete without some ill-advised attempt to describe his voice. It’s gruff and guttural. Frank Sinatra bitten by a werewolf. A hydraulic excavator suffering a bout of melancholy. “Obviously, nobody does a Tom Waits song like Tom Waits,” Dawson says.
But if you can divorce the voice from the words you’re left with great songs, Dawson explains.
“Tom Waits is such a blank slate in that way,” Dawson says.
“He’s timeless,” Black agrees.
For Black, a great part of Waits’ appeal is his lyrics.
There’s “Small Change,” where Waits describes the scene of a homicide. He mentions tuberculosis sufferers who wheeze and cough before adding: “and someone will head south until this whole thing cools off.”
Likely his most famous lyrics are from “Heart Attack and Vine:” “Boney’s high on China white, Shorty found a punk, don’t you know there ain’t no Devil, there’s just God when he’s drunk.”
“You put an eclectic mix of performers in front of that group of songs, and suddenly you’ve got a really cool show,” Dawson says.
And while he describes Waits as a “totally singular performer,” Dawson also credits Kathleen Brennan, Waits’ partner in music.
“She’s just as important to that whole enigma as he is.”
Waits has often been emulated (once leading to his successful lawsuit against Frito-Lay over a Doritos commercial featuring a sound-alike performer) but while it might be flattering, Dawson doesn’t recommend imitation.
“I think that would be a horrific mistake.”
Some songs at the Kay Meek will get full arrangements including a horn section (and possibly a pump organ), others will be delivered bare and stripped and some of it, Dawson says, “is a little unknown.”
“It’s not totally clear to people what they’re in for,” Dawson says. “I think that’s cool and that should be embraced because we don’t necessarily know, either.”
