Song by Song is a podcast celebrating the music of Tom Waits, hosted by podcaster-musician Martin Zaltz Austwick and actor-musician Sam Pay. Sam and Martin set themselves the goal of listening to Tom Waits’s back catalogue from beginning to end, and devoting an episode to discussing each track. Song by Song is in no way officially linked to Tom Waits, or endorsed by Tom Waits, or associates. All excerpts are used for criticism purposes - please purchase your own copies of the music at your favourite shop, app, or platform to get the full experience and support musicians' work.
http://songbysong.libsyn.com/website
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 6 days 3 hours 32 minutes
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Over/Underrated: New York Art Rock (rebroadcast special)
While Sam and Martin prepare for Orphans, please enjoy a guest-podcast from our friends Fran and Babs of the Over/Underrated Music Podcast, featuring your regular SbS hosts as guests talking about some NY art rock, David Byrne’s lack of love, and...
episode 1: Orphans introduction
Next week begins season 22, the behemoth that is Orphans. And so we’re all on the same page, Sam and Martin explain how they (and we) will approach these three albums without breaking all our brains. website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter:...
episode 2: Lie To Me / Bend Down The Branches / What Keeps Mankind Alive, Orphans, Tom Waits [332/333/334]
Aaaaand… we're off! Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille rejoins Martin and Sam to tackle the first tracks from our monumental Orphans season, digging into the first tracks of Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. We examine the Elvis influence in another...
episode 3: Low Down/You Can Never Hold Back Spring/Children's Story, Orphans, Tom Waits [335/336/337]
There's both delights and disappointments this week, as Martin, Sam and Jeu Jeu la Foille find a disappointingly straightforward Brawler with LowDown, a delightful and layered Bawler in You Can Never Hold Back Spring, and a creepy story guaranteed to...
episode 4: 2:19/Long Way Home/Heigh Ho!, Orphans, Tom Waits [338/339/340]
Martin and Sam welcome actor-musician Amanda Gordon to the show, getting into the groove of 2:19, the history of Long Way Home, and the strange dark texture of Heigh Ho. We discuss the value of grim interpretation, the lyrical flourishes in Waits's...
episode 5: Fish In The Jailhouse / Widow's Grove / Army Ants, Orphans, Tom Waits [341/342/343]
Returning for another eclectic selection of tracks, Amanda, Martin and Sam listen to a pescatarian jailbreak tune, an unusually conversational murder ballad, and Waits-does-Attenborough. We consider the possible origins of Widow's Grove, truth and...
episode 6: Bottom of The World / Little Drop of Poison / Books of Moses, Orphans, Tom Waits [344/345/346]
Martin and Sam welcome Hannah McGregor for another trio of Waits’s abandoned children: a hobo lullabye, his contribution to the Shrek-niverse and a tribute to one of 1969’s most unusual solo projects. Plus: how hard would it be for two women in...
episode 7: Lucinda / Shiny Things / Bone Chain, Orphans, Tom Waits [347/348/349]
A positive start and slight decline for Hannah, Sam and Martin, with Waits in murder ballad mode, a simple banjo-led song of yearning and the first instrumental of the album. The ‘who’ of our Brawler, the ‘where’ of our Bawler, and the...
episode 8: Ain't Goin' Down To The Well / World Keeps Turning / Two Sisters, Orphans, Tom Waits [350/351/352]
We welcome Nightvale’s own Jeffrey Cranor back to Song by Song, joining Martin and Sam to explore a Lead Belly cover, sentimental material from the film Pollock, and a murderous song of sibling rivalry. We talk about mutability and adaptation in the...
episode 9: Lord I've Been Changed / Tell It To Me / First Kiss, Orphans, Tom Waits [353/354/355]
Jeffrey’s with Martin and Sam for a second Orphaned week, delighting in gospel music, songs of absentee fathers, and approximately 500 Bing Bangs. Waits sidesteps his irony to celebrate religion (or at least its musical traditions), we get down and...