Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps play the music of Tom Waits 6/26/26 Best Video

 Tom Waits was a pied piper to me in the 90s. We “whistled past the graveyard”,we took a left at “9th and Hennepin”, we even sailed one night for “Singapore”. Before streaming, or Spotify we were left to our own devices. In my case, convince the guy who buys cds for your local library that he should purchase any and all work by Tom Waits. This allowed me to spend time with the likes of Rain Dogs, Bone Machine, The Mule Variations, Real Gone, and Swordfishtrombones. While I thought it was just me and the library guy following Tom down raspy voice lane, turns out in a nearby hamlet the geeks that would go on to form Doc C found the same rabbit hole. Doc C has been positively reviewed in this blog many times. Local musical omnivores, they are ideally suited to take on this challenging music. The group has Adam Matlock on accordion, keys, drum pads and vocals, Brian Slattery on fiddle, banjo, guitar, trombone and lead vocals, drummer, standup bass and two guitars on this evening. Chris Cretella and Bob Gorry are responsible for the twin guitar attack. Waits oeuvre is split into two distinct periods, the first is piano-whiskey-cigarettes lounge crooner that gave us such gems as The Heart of Saturday Night or Foreign Affairs. The second period got darker and more experimental thanks to his music and life partner Kathleen Brennan, it is from this period that the evenings music was pulled. Pretty full house of Waitslovers at Best Video made for an enjoyable set. We start with Anywhere I Lay My Head, Temptation, Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Time, Dirt in the Ground, Singapore, Goin Out West (Brian’s theme song), Chocolate Jesus (Bob on vocals), Horse That Ran, Big Black Mariah, Cold Water, Walking Spanish, Earth Dies Screaming, Cold Cold Ground, Come On Up To the House, and closed out with Telephone Call From Istanbul. Brian did most of the singing, Adam sang a few as did Bob. While no one can approximate the Tom Waits growl, the crew performed admirably. The hallmark of this music is the odd instrumentation, harmonium, saw, out there percussion serve as a perfect backdrop for the advanced images conjured by the lyrics. Hearing this music brings me back to a wonderful place in time, thanks to Best Video and Doc C for manning the wheel.