This week, we’ve looked at the first two phases of Tom Waits’ musical career, so that brings us to the third, current phase. For me, it’s harder to characterize his current work, but it’s here that the local public radio station started putting his albums in the “folk” category. It’s not straightforward folk music, by any means, but he does sing more about the things that I associate with folk music. Empty houses, droughts, that kind of thing. Of course, he also sings about Messiahs made of candy and men tortured by their vestigial second face.
