Tom Waits

Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California) is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor.

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With his gravelly voice (described by the MusicHound Rock Album Guide as "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car"), experimental tendencies and love of pre-rock Americana styles, such as blues, jazz and Vaudeville, Waits has built-up a distinct musical persona. Trouser Press called Waits "at once a throwback and a visionary."http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=tom_waits.

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Lyrically, Waits? songs are known for portraying bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

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Waits has built-up a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters with little radio or music video support. Waits? songs are best known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists, such as The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart. And though Waits' albums have usually been commercially ignored in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.

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Waits has also worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films like Short Cuts, The Two Jakes, Mystery Men and Bram Stoker's Dracula, as well as having a starring role in the film Down By Law.

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December 7: December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 24 days remaining....

1949: 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday....

Pomona, California: Pomona is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 149,473. In 2005, its population was estimated as 160,815 http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/E-1table.xls. Pomona is the 5th largest city in Los ...

Tom Waits related Images and Photos (experimental)

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