Hi Bryan Here…

Possibly the coolest guy on the planet is teaming up with photographer Michael O’ Brien on Hard Ground, a collection of poems and images about homelessness.

Singer/song writer Tom Waits will be publishing his first book of poetry in collaboration with photographer Michael O’Brien.  The book will be called “Hard Ground” and is described as a portrait of homelessness, combining Tom’s words and Michael’s images of people who “live on the hard ground”.

Like I said before, this Tom’s debut book.  He has appeared in dozens of films and has had much success on his award winning albums which number around the 20 mark.  But he has never really published any books.  As he remarked in a 1975 interview, “poetry is a very dangerous word”. “I don’t like the stigma that comes with being called a poet,” he said. “So I call what I’m doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue.”

But “Hard Ground” seems very serious and profound.  For this book, O’Brien and Waits went out to portray the common humanity  of people who live on the streets, letting their words and photos communicate on their own terms.

O’Brien was the photographer for Tom’s most recent album.

I will definitely be getting this book.