Mozart, Louis Jordan, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Sun-era Elvis, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, The Ventures, 60s garage/punk/psych, The Byrds, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Kinks, Gene Clark, The Yardbirds, The Stooges, Big Star, Neil Young, Television, The Ramones, Elvis Costello, The Clash.
Tom Stevens has traveled many years and thousands of miles to get back to the place where he began.
Starting at age nine back home in Elkhart, Indiana, Stevens cut his musical teeth in various garage and hard rock bands in the 60's and 70's. His stint with hard-rocking local legends Magi honed his skills to a fine edge, and took him from Nowheresville to Los Angeles in 1979. There he learned that being a big fish in a small pond meant nothing in the Great Cold City that had moved on to a whole new music scene, and he had to start all over again. It was then that he began seriously writing songs.
With the help of friends, Stevens recorded and released a six-song EP on Pulse Records, 1982’s Points of View, later re-released in an expanded version in 1997 as Points Revisited. In 1995 he released Another Room. Both these releases received rave reviews from fans and press alike, fueling a demand for new material which is about to be satisfied by his latest solo release Home, on Avebury Records.
Entirely written and self-produced by Stevens, Home was inspired by his family’s move to a new house in 2003. "I'd moved into a new house and bought a home studio to take down ideas. Having a full recording setup inspired me to complete many songs I had in various stages of assembly, and also write new ones as I settled in with my new environment.", says Stevens. "I enjoyed playing the studio as much as I did playing the guitars."
Most of the songs on Home were written/completed between 2003 and 2005, with a few taken from earlier songwriting periods. The opener Ghost Train is a reverb-soaked, haunted dream of a track that pulls you into its hypnotic spell. Melodic rocker Belladonna is a sardonic paean to L.A., Tom's home in the 80's. In the Basement takes off into country territory with a tale of love-lost regret set to a toe-tapping beat. Death Wish is a wryly mocking observation on the suicides of the famous - and not so famous - and the damage they leave behind for those who care.
Other songs on the album range from rockers Tornado and Weekendland, to the introspective Away From the Great Cold City, to the lovely, atmospheric piece, Flying Out of London in the Rain, which conveys the longing of the road-weary musician at the end of a tour, returning to the love and comfort of the home and family he left behind.
Flame Turns to Blue is a poignant ballad with deeper meaning than may be gleaned at first listening. Says Stevens: “It’s a song of existential hope. Even when things look like they are falling apart, every good thing can renew. Love never really dies, one's faith can if you let it, but I still keep faith in spite of it all."
The title track, Home is a musical walk through Stevens' past and present. It takes the listener on a trip through his memories of growing up in Indiana, and his recognition that this is the place that formed and nurtured him. At the end is his final realization that with all he's experienced, every place he's been in the world through the years, surrounded by those he loves, he is truly where he belongs.
"This is a very strange time to bring out a new release. The industry is starting to declare the CD dead and dozens of indie labels are folding almost daily. But people are as committed to music - new music - as they ever were. I think that wherever this release is exposed, it will make new friends and do very well. I think it's the best thing I've ever done."
Roots-rock has been done to death this decade. but you'd be hard pressed to find it done harder/better. For starters, Stevens helped instigate its original '80s resurgence with L.A.'s LONG RYDERS, just part of a 31-year recording career dating to 1976's MAGI. And Home hits like the best Long Ryders--think "Still Get By" --with shades of Gram Parsons, Buffalo Springfield, 1966 George Harrison, and especially GENE CLARK. If anyone knows Clark, it's Stevens, having backed him on bass before the BYRDS legend's death in 1991. (Clark also cameo'd with Long Ryders on 1984's Native Sons.) The exuberant Home is 10 parts "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" and "Elevator Operator" ("Home") and two parts "Why Not Your Baby" the Stones' "Wild Horses" and Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" ("Flying out of London in the Rain"). Despite playing all instruments in his home basement studio in Indiana (From "Belladonna," he's clearly tired of Hollywood values!), there isn't one under-constructed, underplayed, or under-written second on his first new album in 12 years. All four Long Ryders reunited for a 2004 tour of the U.K. and Spain, but from this, they couldn't have a better co-headliner than their own bassist. (aveburyrecords.com)
– Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover 61
TOM STEVENS
HOME
Sightings of Tom Stevens on any horizon have been rare these last ten years. The splendid Another Room surfaced in the mid-90s and was followed shortly by the retrospective collection Points Revisited, but then, apart from
postings on the Paisley Pop list and an intermittent advert running in No Depression, it was silence.
That silence was broken in 2004 when the classic line-up of the Long Ryders toured Europe and kicked ass. But for whatever reason that stayed a one-off, and Tom returned to his family in Indiana. Something however
had stirred and [he's now released]...his first album for the new millennium.
It's called Home because that's where it was made and that's where it comes from. It's self-recorded and almost absolutely solo; daughter Sarah plays violin and sings on a couple of tracks and "Uncle John" Potthast
adds banjo and Fender Bender on another but the rest is Tom. And he's come up with a stunner, a stone classic.
With its mix of LA folk-pop, psychedelia, and a little bit of country, you could call it a paisley potpourri.
"Ghost Train" starts things off mightily with a drench of reverb and echoing guitars shimmering boldly with a phantom jangle beneath. Then comes the chunkily Pettyish "Belladonna" followed on by the country-hued
Dillard & Clark-esque "In The Basement", on which Potthast guests. Some darker tones surface in "Death Wish" and "Flame Turns To Blue", being songs about passing and loss, though they can't help but retain the vivacity
of the rest of the album. Next up is "Away From The Great Cold City", by some stretch the longest song here; at times reminiscent of Beatle George by way of the Chamber Strings, across its length it demonstrates a marvellous palette of arresting guitar play. The triumphant title track, the keening "Flying Out Of London In The Rain", and "Weekendland" finish up the collection. "Weekendland" is like the Beatles playing country with
Costello singing, while "Flying Out Of London In The Rain" is a road song with a certain kinship, through subject, to "Eight Miles High". About the bitter-sweet jadedness that tends to surface on the flight home it's plaintive
and true; lines like "stuff my soul in the overhead" and its lovely female vocals mean it's probably the standout of the many good things here. For this is an assured and mature collection of performances of fine songs.
It retains freshness over many hearings combining the thrill of recognition with a hardly-diminishing sense of surprise and wonder. Tom has allowed himself free rein, but seemingly as a consequence of his own enthusiasm and excitement about the music he's making. And the result is a real pleasure.
This month we have Regina Spektor with the theme to the film Prince Caspian (but don’t let that put you off, it is really rather wonderful), Mermaid Skeletons with a great song that’s worth it for the chorus alone, the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir, who are as good as their name if not more so and finally the legendary Chip Taylor with the thought-provoking Former American Soldier. Great listening, and if you like the tracks, buy the albums!
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