Bring a Dollar with You Baby

by Heavy Duty Felt

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With the release of Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits inaugurated a new sound: part Kurt Weill and Weimar-era art song, part Captain Beefheart shamble-blues, part Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and part Beat poetry maverick. He went on to continue and hone this aesthetic with Rain Dogs, Frank’s Wild Years, The Black Rider and Bone Machine. These are great and inspiring records. There’s a difficult synthesis of beauty and strangeness that prompts the listener to marvel at the sonic and conceptual worlds that Waits, his wife Kathleen Brennan and his wonderful array of musicians create.

This piece that I composed – “Bring a Dollar with You Baby,” which is a line from the last verse of “Cold, Cold Ground” on Frank’s Wild Years – endeavors to pay homage to Waits. He’s an indisputable American Master that I have enjoyed and respected for several decades.

Lastly, he’s an accomplished actor. My favorite role of his in in Ironweed, where he plays opposite Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep: “The doctor says I've got cancer; it’s the first thing I’ve ever got.” That observation is pure Waits: funny, sad and profound.

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released May 17, 2021

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Heavy Duty Felt Evanston, Illinois

Heavy Duty Felt is Tony Gudwien. He lives in Evanston, IL. He tries to make the most interesting music he's capable of making.

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