Uke Man lifts Waits

Would Tom Waits ever wear shorts onstage? Even to his own tribute night at Skully’s?

More than a few of his admirers who got up and did a song or two for the Tom Waits-a-Thon Saturday had a few Tom trademarks: stubble, cigarette, beat-up hat of dubious character, purposely gruff voice.
Given it was an anything goes affair - billed as a benefit for WCBE - there was a surprisingly high level of Tom-manship; namely, heartfelt readings of his beat poetry-based lyrics accompanied by a near-uniformly high level of musicianship. That’s the good news.

Unfortunately, as the night slipped into scheduling chaos, Tom’s message of individuality was often second to flat-out imitation. Sincere were the motives, true, but an imitator is an imitator. If Tom says anything, it’s be yourself.

It was the kind of night where the best performance was by none other than – are you ready for this? I certainly wasn’t - Ukulele Man.
Mercifully minus his ukulele, Ukulele Man (aka Tom Harker) blew out a mind-blowing version of Waits’s "Jesus Gonna Be Here," from 1992’s Bone Machine, some of Tom’s gruffest, most spirited vocals ever recorded. Ukulele Man was up to it. He gave himself to the lyrics, especially at the start of the third verse, where the music stops and Tom sings: "I got to keep-ah-mah eye-s/ A-keep them wide open."
Ukulele Man was perfectly faithful to how Waits swings his voice like a trapeze artist high above the crowd. There’s a leap, a swoop and then a triumphant catch of "wide open," a vocal feat that’ll catch your ear on disc. I’ll be damned if Ukulele Man didn’t nail it like a union carpenter.

To see him on his tip-toes, throwing everything he had into the singing of Tom, was a sight. Uke also had something else going for him no one else could even think to present. He is naturally blessed with the charisma of old-school "Big Time Wrestling" champ Fred Blassie. And maybe a little Haystack Calhoun.
Tom would’ve no doubt appreciated that.

- John Petric