Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow arrives as a quietly monumental tribute to one of modern music’s most enigmatic partnerships: Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Released by Ace Records, the compilation gathers interpretations from an eclectic circle of artists, each illuminating the duo’s singular songwriting from a different angle.
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Spanning decades, the collection moves chronologically, tracing the evolution of songs that refuse to sit still. From Bruce Springsteen’s tender “Jersey Girl” to Joan Baez’s aching “Day After Tomorrow,” the record unfolds like a living archive of reinterpretation. Along the way, voices such as Solomon Burke, Willie Nelson, and Marianne Faithfull reshape familiar material into something newly intimate and immediate.
What makes this release especially compelling is its sense of authorship without ownership. Waits and Brennan have always operated at the edges, blending blues, theatre, jazz, and folklore into restless forms. Here, those forms are refracted through other sensibilities, revealing the elasticity of their work.
Accompanied by detailed notes and track-by-track commentary, the album doubles as both introduction and deep dive. It honors not just a catalogue but a philosophy: that songs are living things, meant to be carried, transformed, and passed on.
In that spirit, this compilation feels less like a retrospective and more like an ongoing conversation that continues to echo across generations, inviting listeners to rediscover the strange, beautiful terrain Waits and Brennan first mapped together.
Tracklisting:
1.Jersey Girl – Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Live at Meadowlands Arena, NJ – July 1981)
2. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six – Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
3.Gin-Soaked Boy – Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes
4. Jockey Full Of Bourbon – Los Lobos
5. Hang Down Your Head – Lucinda Williams
6. Temptation – Diana Krall
7. Yesterday Is Here – Bettye LaVette
8. Way Down In The Hole – The Blind Boys Of Alabama
9. Strange Weather – Marianne Faithfull
10. I Don’t Want To Grow Up – Ramones
11. Down There By The Train – Johnny Cash
12. House Where Nobody Lives – King Ernest
13. Picture In A Frame – Willie Nelson
14. Hold On – Madison Cunningham
15. The Long Way Home – Norah Jones
16. 2:19 – John Hammond
17. Diamond In Your Mind – Solomon Burke
18. Trampled Rose – Alison Kraus and Robert Plant
19. Day After Tomorrow – Joan Baez
