Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan are getting the cover song treatment courtesy of some of their most esteemed peers. Ace Records has announced Where the Willow and the Dogwood Grow, an extensive compilation album that’s out May 29. Among those revisiting the words and music of Waits and Brennan are Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, the late Johnny Cash, Ramones, and many more. Check out the full tracklist below.
Where the Willow and the Dogwood features 19 hand-picked covers in total, including many chosen by the songwriters themselves. The other artists who were chosen to be on the compilation album are Joan Baez, Bob Seger, Marianne Faithfull, Solomon Burke, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Bettye LaVette, Alison Kraus and Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Diana Krall, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Madison Cunningham, King Ernest, John Hammond, and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. (Pitchfork)
Brennan is the longtime co-writer, producer, and wife of Waits, and often credited by her husband for helping push him in a more musically experimental direction.
Where the Willow and the Dogwood:
01 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: “Jersey Girl (Live at Meadowlands Arena, NJ - July 1981)”
02 Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band: “16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six”
03 Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: “Gin-Soaked Boy”
04 Los Lobos: “Jockey Full of Bourbon”
05 Lucinda Williams: “Hang Down Your Head”
06 Diana Krall: “Temptation”
07 Bettye LaVette: “Yesterday Is Here”
08 The Blind Boys of Alabama: “Way Down in the Hole”
09 Marianne Faithfull: “Strange Weather”
10 Ramones: “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”
11 Johnny Cash: “Down There by the Train”
12 King Ernest: “House Where Nobody Lives”
13 Willie Nelson: “Picture in a Frame”
14 Madison Cunningham: “Hold On”
15 Norah Jones: “The Long Way Home”
16 John Hammond: “2:19”
17 Solomon Burke: “Diamond in Your Mind”
18 Alison Kraus and Robert Plant: “Trampled Rose”
19 Joan Baez: “Day After Tomorrow”
Despite being two of the great legends of Americana, Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen have only shared the stage together on one occasion throughout their illustrious careers.
The track in question originally appeared on the 1980 album Heartattack and Vine, with the song acting as a love letter to Waits’ future wife, Kathleen Brennan, who had been living out of New Jersey at the time. Kathleen had entered into Waits’ life during what was a difficult period for the musician who, at that time, was in the process of getting over a turbulent relationship with Rickie Lee Jones, and Brennan offered him a sense of tranquillity.
Springsteen would cover the Tom Waits song live on many occasions, but he added another layer to the tale in the track by including an extra verse.
