Ace Records honours the songwriting catalogue of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan with a multi-artist tribute album featuring performances from Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Marianne Faithfull and more, tracing five decades of songs that reshaped American music.
by Paul Cashmere
A new tribute compilation honouring the songwriting partnership of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan will be released on May 29. The album, Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow, arrives via Ace Records and brings together 19 interpretations of Waits and Brennan compositions performed by artists spanning rock, country, gospel, jazz and folk.
The project forms part of Ace’s long-running songwriter series that has previously examined the work of major American composers. With this collection, Waits and Brennan join a lineage that includes figures such as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Carole King, Leonard Cohen and Brian Wilson, recognising the cultural weight of their catalogue.
Few American songwriters have shaped a musical language as distinctive as Tom Waits. Since emerging from the California folk circuit in the early 1970s, Waits developed a body of work that blends blues, jazz, theatre and experimental composition. His early albums, including Closing Time (1973), The Heart Of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks At The Diner (1975), established him as a storyteller chronicling late-night America.
By the time of Heartattack And Vine in 1980, Waits’ songwriting had begun attracting interpretations from other artists. That same year he married Kathleen Brennan, who soon became his creative partner. Brennan’s influence coincided with the radical reinvention heard on albums like Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years, recordings that expanded Waits’ sonic palette and reshaped the boundaries between rock, theatre and avant-garde music.
Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow reflects this long arc. The compilation is sequenced chronologically by the songs themselves, allowing listeners to follow the development of Waits and Brennan’s writing across decades.
The album opens with a live recording of ‘Jersey Girl’ by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, captured at Meadowlands Arena in 1981. Waits originally wrote the song for Brennan and released it on Heartattack And Vine. Springsteen’s interpretation became one of the most widely recognised covers of a Waits composition.
Elsewhere, the collection moves through the Waits catalogue with recordings that highlight how adaptable the songs have proven. Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band tackle ‘16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six’, while Los Lobos revisit ‘Jockey Full Of Bourbon’, a key piece from the Rain Dogs era.
Country-blues singer Lucinda Williams delivers a version of ‘Hang Down Your Head’, the first song officially credited to the Waits-Brennan partnership when it appeared on Rain Dogs in 1985. Jazz vocalist Diana Krall contributes ‘Temptation’, and soul singer Bettye LaVette performs ‘Yesterday Is Here’.
Among the most notable inclusions is ‘Down There By The Train’ performed by Johnny Cash. The recording originally appeared on Cash’s American Recordings project late in his career and holds particular significance for the compilers. The song was difficult to license and is regarded by Waits as a favourite interpretation of his work.
Other performances come from Norah Jones, Solomon Burke, Alison Krauss with Robert Plant, and folk legend Joan Baez. Baez closes the album with ‘Day After Tomorrow’, an anti-war song originally featured on Waits’ 2004 album Real Gone.
Waits has frequently credited Brennan with reshaping his creative direction after their marriage in 1980. Reflecting on their partnership, he once said, “She rescued me. Maybe I rescued her too. Upshot is that we both got into the same leaky boat.”
Even fellow songwriter Bob Dylan acknowledged Brennan’s influence. Speaking on his radio program Theme Time Radio Hour, Dylan remarked that in Waits’ eyes “all the great things that came out of New Jersey don’t hold a candle to Kathleen Brennan”.
Together the pair developed a catalogue that spans recordings from Swordfishtrombones through to Orphans and Real Gone, often blurring the line between rock songs, theatrical narratives and experimental sound design.
Waits has not released a studio album since Bad As Me in 2011 and has rarely appeared on stage since 2008. Despite the absence of new material, his influence remains visible across generations of musicians.
The artists featured on Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow illustrate the breadth of that reach. Gospel groups, rock bands, jazz vocalists and country performers have all found ways to interpret the characters and imagery within Waits’ writing.
For fans, the compilation serves both as a tribute and as a reminder of how the Waits and Brennan catalogue continues to circulate through the work of other artists.
Tracklisting
1. Jersey Girl – Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Live at Meadowlands Arena, NJ – July 1981)
2. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six – Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
3. Gin-Soaked Boy – Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes
4. Jockey Full Of Bourbon – Los Lobos
5. Hang Down Your Head – Lucinda Williams
6. Temptation – Diana Krall
7. Yesterday Is Here – Bettye LaVette
8. Way Down In The Hole – The Blind Boys Of Alabama
9. Strange Weather – Marianne Faithfull
10. I Don’t Want To Grow Up – Ramones
11. Down There By The Train – Johnny Cash
12. House Where Nobody Lives – King Ernest
13. Picture In A Frame – Willie Nelson
14. Hold On – Madison Cunningham
15. The Long Way Home – Norah Jones
16. 2:19 – John Hammond
17. Diamond In Your Mind – Solomon Burke
18. Trampled Rose – Alison Kraus and Robert Plant
19. Day After Tomorrow – Joan Baez
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