AUSTIN BROADCAST 1978 & THE 1976 EUROPEAN

One of the most insightful songwriters to come out of America, the Tom Waits of the 70s was part Beat poet, part barfly, all heart-on-sleeve troubadour who could find humour in even the most tragic situations. Yet while his hard-drinking lifestyle threatened to catch up with him in the mid-to-late 70s, Waits was always at the top of his game as a performer, as the two TV specials included on The Austin Broadcast 1978 & the 1976 European Broadcast make clear. The first, recorded for an Austin City Limits TV special just months after the release of his sixth studio album, Blue Valentine, plays like a fever dream from a smoky jazz club, Waits delivering the Great American Songbook classic Summertime alongside some of his finest narrative songs, including Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis and Small Change. The performance filmed in a TV studio in Denmark, on 1 June 1976, finds the fast-developing talent honing his stagecraft. Bonus Track The Piano Has Been Drinking, recorded in 1977, captures that talent exploding in hilarious wordplay.