John Hammond is a guitarist and singer who has mined the deep veins of traditional country and urban blues since the 1960s. So why he wanted to take on the contemporary street poetry of songsmith Tom Waits might at first seem curious. After all, there's no shortage of blues songs aching to be excavated, and besides, Waits, with his bleak tales of urban realism set to a clever melange of song styles, has had his own following since his first release in 1973.
But after Hammond brings the first verse of Waits' lament "2:19" (as in, "My baby's leavin' town on the 2:19") to a rolling boil, it's clearly a perfect match. On these reworkings of 12 Waits tunes, the expressive power of his rough, wry lyricism is pumped up by Hammond's raucous guitar and no-worse-for-wear vocals.
Hammond and band paint from a thicker, rootsier musical palette than that of the original recordings to plop the listener more directly into the street-smart scenes and wild casts of characters that Waits created.