Born in 1949 in Piedmont North Carolina, singer/songwriter and poet Tom House has produced a staggering amount of work. In the mid 70’s Tom
relocated to Nashville where he pounded out over 10 full length albums, wrote and published hundred’s of poems (which have been translated into numerous languages), all the while producing and editing Rawbone magazine from 1982 to 1990. His first recording “Inside These Walls” was released in 1996 which caught the interest of Bloodshot records when his song “Cole Durhew” was included on a compilation cd titled “Across The Alley” and led to a record deal with Checkered Past with whom he released two critically acclaimed albums: “The Neighborhood Is Changing” and “This White Man’s Burden”. Over the next 10 years Tom would go on to release 5 albums on Catamount Records before the labels demise in 2005. Tom has also been involved in such projects as an opera based on William Faulkner’s first novel “Light In August” (collaborating with David Onley, Tommy Goldsmith, and Karren Pell), stage adaptations of the Lee Smith novel’s “Fair and Tender Ladies” and “The Christmas Letters” , a presentation of May Fowler’s novel “Remembering Blue” and a beautiful chapter by chapter in the round adaptation of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”which was performed for over 15 years all over the south.
Tom House has been branded as “a songwriter’s songwriter”, which is often the case with any artist who scribbles outside the lines. His songs have been recorded by David Onley, Jeffrey Foucault, Dave Isaacs and Rebecca Hosking to name a few and have received praise from Esquire, The Austin Chronicle and No Depression. Tom has also shared the stage with such giants as Arlo Guthrie, Loudon Wainwright III, Hayes Carll, Serena Ryder, Roger Mcguinn, Dave Von Ronk, Justin Townes Earle, David Olney, Kevin Welch. “Nothing about Tom House is easy,” says Grant Alden (No Depression). “Not the high, rushed quaver with which he sings, not the words he writes and the life from which his stories emerge. Jesus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a hard and loving record, thoroughly out of fashion, and brilliant. As were its predecessors.” Jerome Clark (amazon.com) says: “No doubt Tom House isn't for everyone, and if he were, he wouldn't be the distinctive artist he is. Musically, his roots are deep in the soil of Southern folk music; if you aren't listening carefully to the lyrics, you might think you were hearing some crack-voiced back-porch balladeer Alan Lomax stuck a microphone in front of half a century ago. He writes with a precise eye and a keen sense of melody, wasting not a word. House is a great American artist, and a shamefully neglected one. “ Richie Unterberger of the All Music Guide says: “He (Tom House) sings in a wracked, twangy voice that verges on, but never crosses the line to, neurosis; his songs keep an unremittingly unpredictable sense of meter and time that often varies within the song; and the compositions, though dealing with some conventional country topics like romance and loss, use words that are bolder and angrier than the standard clichés in both commercial country and folk singer/songwriting."
Mud Records would like to welcome Tom House to the family and hopes that with the release of “Winding Down The Road” we'll be able to give him some much deserved credit.
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Coming Soon! |
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For Lyrics and other info about Tom House please visit: www.tomhousesongspoems.blogspot.com/ |
Other Releases by Tom House can be found through cdbaby.com, itunes, or by mailing $20 to Tom directly.
Booking, press, ordering info and all other inquiries can be sent to:
Tom House PO BOX 120661 |
Brock Zeman 131 Clyde Lane |
Inside These Walls (self-released)
The Neighborhood Is Changing (Checkered Past)
This White Man’s Burden (Checkered Past)
Till You’ve Seen Mine (Catamount)
Jesus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Catamount)
Long Time Home From Here (Catamount)
That Dark Calling (Catamount)
The Last Desperate Man (Catamount)
Fair & Tender Ladies (songs from the play)
Raw Bone (poems/ spoken word/ acappella)
Burning With a Message (self-released)
Been There and Gone (self-released)
The World According To Whiskey (Collection of Poetry Published by New South Press)
Winding Down The Road (Mud Records)
“Tom House is one of the greatest living songwriters out there and I'll stand on Steve Earle's shoulders as he dances on Bob Dylan's coffee table and scream it through a bullhorn”
--Brock Zeman (Mud Records)
“nothing about Tom House is easy. Not the high, rushed quaver with which he sings, not the words he writes and the life from which his stories emerge. The recently released Jesus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a hard and loving record, thoroughly out of fashion, and brilliant. As were its predecessors.”
--Grant Alden (No Depression)
“No doubt Tom House isn't for everyone, and if he were, he wouldn't be the distinctive artist he is. Musically, his roots are deep in the soil of Southern folk music; if you aren't listening carefully to the lyrics, you might think you were hearing some crack-voiced back-porch balladeer Alan Lomax stuck a microphone in front of half a century ago. He writes with a
precise eye and a keen sense of melody, wasting not a word. House is a great American artist, and a shamefully neglected one. “
--Jerome Clark Review of “Jesus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” Amazon.Com
“His music has the feel of one-of-a-kind, the work of an eccentric who can neither speak nor hear any other language. He seems to have gotten his hands on the pen that can write a song that could have been written a hundred years ago”
-- Greil Marcus- Esquire Magazine Dec 1998
“He sings in a wracked, twangy voice that verges on, but never crosses the line to, neurosis; his songs keep an unremittingly unpredictable sense of meter and time that often varies within the song; and the compositions, though dealing with some conventional country topics like romance and loss, use words that are bolder and angrier than the standard clichés in both commercial country and folk singer/songwriting.
--Richie Unterberger All Music Guide
“Tom House's poems carry the tradition of the Troubadour into bars, motels, fundamentalist pulpits, and back yards of the New South. No image of his generation fails to be illuminated by the summer lightning of his intelligence. His work shows how it is possible to heal the divorce that sundered poetry and music at the dawn of modernity.”
-- David Rigsbee, poet, editor of Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Southern Poetry
“Tom House has captured the dark side of the Sun Belt in unforgettable language that will keep coming back to haunt you. Here is a fiercely original, uncompromising voice from way down under, demanding and deserving to be heard.”
-- Lee Smith. author of Fair and Tender Ladies and The Last Girls