EARLY TOM WAITS: LIVE

Above photo by Virginia Curtiss (1974)

Back when I was in high school, I had a buddy whose Dad was really into folk music. For a few years running, he'd pile his son, me and my brother, into his car and take us out to the San Diego Folk Festival. I don't have many memories from the shows we attended, but I do remember that it was the first time I'd heard of Lou Curtiss and his record shop, Folk Arts (then at the end of India St., where Gellato Vera is now). To those not from the San Diego area, Lou Curtiss is probably not a familiar name. But, if you lived here, you'd likely know that he's been championing roots music for a long, long time. He opened his record store and organized the first San Diego Folk Festival in 1967, and just kept going. He later helped book music for the early Adams Avenue Street Fairs and, after that, the Adams Avenue Roots Festival. He writes a column for The Troubadour, and has a radio show, "Jazz Roots," on the local jazz station (heard live on 88.3 FM and online, Sundays from 8:00 to 10:00 Pacific Time). All this and he's an active archivist and researcher for the Smithsonian and Library of Congress.

Folk Arts was, and still is, a magnet for those looking for out-of-print recordings. Shop visitors run the gamut; past customers include Muddy Waters, Horace Silver, R. Crumb, Joan Baez, and local boy-done-good Tom Waits. Waits, a store regular back in the day, said of his friend, “Lou Curtiss is a heroic curmudgeon, entrepreneur and keeper of the flame.” Which brings us to the impetus for this post. When I ran into a post on Captains Dead, with Tom Waits from the 1974 Folk Festival, I had to post a link, for a few reasons. The fact that this is early Waits, without a full band, accompanying himself on guitar and piano, was reason enough. Then, there's chatter between songs, which is really, really, funny in places. And the excellent quality of the recordings didn't hurt. The big reason, though, was to publicly thank Curtiss, for doing what he does, humbly, and without tooting his own horn, for so many years. He's every music lover's cool older brother. The man is a local treasure.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Tom Waits at the 1974 San Diego Folk Festival at Captain's Dead NOTE: As of 11/8/11 these links are dead, but the ones on the link below are still live:
Another live Tom Waits set from 1979, 20 mp3's at Captain's Dead (Right click song titles to download)
Folk Arts Rare Records, Curtiss' record store
The 4th annual SD Folk Festival mp3s at Folk Arts, Sam Chatman, Sam Hinton, Merle Travis and others
Samples from the Lou Curtiss Sound Library
"Lou Curtiss keeps American roots music alive here" at SignOnSanDiego

Above photo of Tom Waits by Virginia Curtiss (1974)