Tom Waits Travelogue

We love to combine our love of travel with our love of music. Seeing a concert can be an excellent "excuse" to take a trip. Tom Waits is one of our favorite performers, and he performs so rarely that we have taken that we have been known to build short trips around his shows. We are members of the Raindogs Email List, and have made friends with many fellow Waits fans online. We always enjoy going to shows and meeting up with our Raindog pals.

This summer, Tom Waits did 9 shows in the U.S. None of them were in our area, so we chose a pair of weekend shows in Tennessee and made a long weekend out of it. We were lucky enough to get tickets. Our friends Tom and Karen would be driving up from Florida to see the shows, and our friend Kevin decided to go with us. The shows were at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis and the Ryman in Nashville.

Tom and Karen had an extra ticket to the opening night show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. It was on a Tuesday night, and I couldn't take the time off from work. But I convinced Craig to go. We just posted his account of his solo journey on our web site. Highlights include visits to Little Five Points Pizza, Wax n Facts, Criminal Records, and a seafood dinner at Ray's in the City. The Tom Waits concert was fabulous, of course, and Craig even saw the "statue with no butt" that Tom refers to in his between-song banter. The evening was capped off with a drink with the Raindogs at the Sidebar. Matt, Helen, Shane...it was a great reunion.

Then, a couple of days later, we went to Tennessee together. We flew into Nashville and spent the night there. We checked out some honky tonks and ran into Rich Gilbert, a guitarist who used to live in the Boston area. We had seen him play with Tanya Donelly before. He is pretty distinctive-looking, and we recognized him and had a nice chat. He told us to check out his band when we were back in town on Saturday night.

The next morning, we drove to Memphis. When we arrived we went to the Rendezvous for Memphis dry-rub ribs. The experience wasn't quite as good as it had been the last time we were there. The Southern hospitality was a bit lacking. Prior to the show we hung out with all of our Raindog friends at Alfred's on Beale St. The show was absolutely amazing! We were in the fourth row and had a great view. Some of his song choices were totally unexpected. "Yesterday Is Here" and "Circus" were exciting surprises. After the show we had another Raindog party at Pat O'Brien's. It was an excellent time.

Between the pre- and post-show parties, we got to hang out with Matt, Helen, Jarlath, Sarah V., Shane, Shawn, Dawn, Ben, Laurie, Ken(adian), Tom, Karen, Kevin, Ida, Rebecca, Shannon, El Rayo X, Karren, Jim and Tsyganka, Tim and Sharon, Mark, Phil and Cathie, Craig M., Mark and Jerry. It was an amazing time.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the King's Palace Cafe. We went to the studio of photographer Ernest C. Withers, who is well-known for his photos of the Memphis music scene as well as the Civil Rights era. It was great to meet this 84 year old man. He had photographed our friend Frank back in 1955. Frank passed away last year, but he was B.B. King's bus driver for 20 years. We had seen the photograph in several books, and it was great to be able to talk to him. He signed a copy of the photo for us.



Then we drove to Nashville and got there pretty much just in time for the show. We were in the second row of pews at the Ryman, and once again had a great view. The sound was phenomenal. The set list didn't seem as adventurous as the Memphis one, but it was still a fantastic show. I am splitting hairs here.

After the show we hung out with the Raindogs at Buffalo Billiards. Most of the same folks who went to Memphis also went to this show, with the addition of our friend Eric. A great time was had by all.

After that we headed to Layla's Bluegrass Inn to watch Rich Gilbert play. The band rocked. We had some hot dogs and a few drinks, staying until closing time.

The next morning we ate at the famous Pancake Pantry, went record shopping at The Great Escape, did a drive-by of the Nashville Parthenon, and then headed back to the airport.

For full details, see our writeup on our web site.