Tom Laverack: Press

-- With twenty years gone by since his debut album, Tom Laverack has honed his writing and performing into a perfectly matched set. His voice and songs meet one another on varied turf and go gallivanting about the hillsides. World-weariness runs through the the entire set in a way that a man two decades younger couldn't have fully comprehended. "Not much changes from place to place but the scenery," Laverack sings in "Dead Dog". The soulful, horn-bolstered "Running Out Of Road" delivers on its title with a certainty tempered by a still-unquenched thirst for life. "Foolish Enough To Think" weds pop smarts to a rough-and-tumble groove and leathery vocals. The title song, rich with allegory, hypnotizes along the course of its folkish structure, punctuated with Joni Mitchell-like chordal turns and thoughtfully compelling drumming.

It is a rare occurrence when an artist’s compositions frame a film project. But, that is just what has happened to former Just Desserts frontman Tom Laverack and his introspective marvel, Cave Drawings on Sojourn Records.

Three of Cave Drawings' songs, "Precious Little," "No Shame," and "Running Out of Road," were used for Larry Fessenden's feature, The Last Winter. "Precious Little," produced by Mark Ambrosino, stretches the vast, colorful musical landscape of Laverack's mind with sharp, insightful, poetic lyricism. Bolstered by strong sidemen such as Jeff Langston (Antony and the Johnsons) and Marc Shulman (Suzanne Vega), Laverack finds the freedom and the flow in the breezy opening track, "Coney Island Heart." Slowing down with reflection, Laverack's tools of description become the soft spoken prose of "Kickin' Around." And, powering Cave Drawings' rhythmic counterpoint, Ambrosino finds the catchy, simmering soulful stretches brewing inside of "Childhood Friend."

A deeply satisfying listen, Tom Laverack's Cave Drawings rewards with each sublimely successive playing.
Cave Drawings will be released January 22 on Sojourn Records.

Tom Laverack's "Cave Drawings" CD is a contemporary rock homage to the songwriting influences of everyone from Dylan to Zevon and many lyrical master points in between. Not quite political, but deep within the experience of life, Laverack writes from wisdom drenched years that vacillates between hope and misery in a moving pop endearing format. The record opens with "Coney Island Heart" and Laverack sings, "god only knows when you'll believe in me", and the tempo has a freedom to it that touches Cougar and Petty straight-ahead sense. Nice. Track 3, "Precious Little", brings Laverack's vocals into the forefront as he spins that there is 'precious little for you to hang onto'. Track 4, "Childhood Friend", is produced and mastered with a dream-like shimmer in a reminiscent Dylan sentiment as Laverack sings, 'i wouldn't have it any other way, maybe in the end, i just might have to depend on my childhood friend'. It's the most compelling tune on the CD. "Running out of Road" kicks an R&B blues groove as Laverack paints a dead-end ode with Hammond organ supporting the easy beat and intimate tune. The title track, "Cave Drawings", again shows Laveracks' knack and gift for words. He writes, 'i've got these cave drawings, darling, that's all, just to let you know that i was here'. The vocal delivery is sincere and compelling in this complete artistic package

***½
It (Gift Horse) is a simple and thoughtful record… It is a collection of long melancholic songs played with an exquisite sense of balance between keyboards (used here instead of a piano) and stringed instruments. It is not, as one might think, an obvious, traditional lament in the "roots" vein… because Laverack is nearly always only himself. If someone really wanted to make a comparison, I would suggest the name of Bob Dylan (the more mature Dylan of the 80's) whose spirit flutters here and there in the more animated episodes of the album, "Killing Time" (superb) or "Five O' Clock Shadow", both of which display electric instruments used more sparingly elsewhere.

However it is not in the quantity of watts used where one should look for the most profound meaning of Laverack's music, but in the moderate pop spirit of the delicious "Crossin' Kansas", in the "cinematic" blues of "Where Are You?", and most of all, in the sad melodies of "Bodiless, Hot Dog Vendor or Wallet" which can be considered sublime exercises of introspection, able to give voice to an entire universe of abandoned people. If you are in syntony with the idea of another rock writer who entrusts his own soul to the neck of a guitar, then "Gift Horse", is your record.
-(translated by Sandra Kundu)

With pop/rock moods and poetry, along with a vocal style that conjurs Petty and Dylan, Tom Laverack's 14-track CD, "Gift Horse", is a look into the mouth of an artist who is masterful at painting musical tapestries of typically dark adult life. The record starts with "Smile On You", a reality punching confession of the common effort, 'starting out but wishing that you were through, trying to hide that you haven't a clue. .you'll never concede that your pretty little dream will not come true'. Brutal and honest. Track 2, "Hold Out", is a simple subtle inspiring tune of dedication, 'if i fall down i'll try to get back up and i'll catch you rain in this paper cup, and you can call my name, and i will come'. Track 9, "Five o'clock Shadow", is a NYC ode that touches on Lou Reed influence about city street observations, 'i saw these cops holding onto a woman who was crying out and in pain, she fell to the sidewalk with a cops foot on her so that she couldn't run away'. The sweetest melody and sentiment on a record of sometimes brutal discouragement, is found in "Ragdoll". Picking up with the same tone of dedication as "hold out", Laverack sings, 'i could be your rag doll and be there where you are'. The guitar work approaches a pedal steel and adds understated instrumental beauty to the song. Laverack leaves a final imprint of futility in "Hot Dog Vendor" as the protagonist accomplishes little in an effort to not become a hot dog vendor. But, the record overall touches a relative core of universal insecurity in its language. The music serves to prop up a world that Laverack seems to revere and deject at the same time - and end up with glimpses of love and resolve in what are unconditional dedicated songs of partnership. Superb.

Backed by an understated and cleverly arranged ensemble, singer-songwriter / guitarist Tom Laverack offers lyrical gems about everything from alcoholism ("Alcohol") to homogenized rock radio ("Last Rock and Roll Band").
For fans of Mark Eitzel, Bruce Springsteen, Replacements.

The ecclectic folk-rock group Just Desserts' new album Give Up The Ghost (Earhorn Disks), is full of songs that express real emotions, both the good and the bad. The simplicity of the music is what makes it so enjoyable. No pretentious elitism or "artiste" airs, this band is down home and in your backyard. Check out: "Last Rock n' Roll band," "Maybe I'm the One," "Save You from Yourself," "Beautiful Life," "Alcohol," "Road to Ruin," and "Mystery."

"Almost Shook You Up" is a simple, direct, and honest slice of strummed melencholia...the earthy sax solo on the fade pushes it over the edge from good to damn good. "Flashing Blue," an unglorified look at the horrors of detox, is the sequel to the Replacements "Here comes a Regular."

In goes Just Desserts' stark raving, uh, stark "Almost shook you up"/"Flashing Blue" (Bar/None). Singer-songwriter Tom LaverackÍs jagged folk-rock cuts to the bone straight through the most opportune vein, not unlike the song of American Music Club's Mark Eitzel. Recorded live, with Laverack on guitar/vocals and band mate Larry Fesenden on sax/vocals, "Almost Shook You Up" chillingly depicts a numbed-beyond-belief protagonist whose wife has split, whose daughter has vamoosed ("Said she'd rather be anywhere than in this morgue you call a home"), and whose mom just died-and still he's blank. Disturbingly real. So too "Flashing Blue," taken from Sentimental War (I'm ISO it) wherein Laverack and Fessenden trade ragged lines about the jittery dead-endedness of detox hell, accompanied-but never overwhelmed-by mood-manipulating organ, bass, guitars, and drums. Gripping stuff.

...the best of the writing-notably a detox diptych and an acrid call to arms and alms-kept me listening for the sprawling masterpiece I had somehow missed. It wasn't there. But I never got tired of the good stuff. B

This (Sentimental War) is a great record. Buy it. Borrow it. Believe in it.

They say revenge is sweet, but Just Deserts is absolutely delicious...they sound a little like Tom Waits fronting the Violent Femmes...There is something for everyone to get hooked on. Try it you'll like it. I sure did.

Just Desserts is an eclectic five-piece unit which combines a slew of instruments and styles to carve out a sound identity for themselves. They bring a sense of old country-folk tradition (that often resembles Irish dance or drinking songs) that is mixed with a spunky urgency that suggests The Violent Femmes. Their sound often takes rhythmic twists and unexpected mood swings, not only from one song to the next (note the way "Class War"'s lilt gives way to the fierce electric power of "Final Hour"), but in the middle of a song as well, and to startling effect. Best segment: when the saxophone on "Monkey Farm" (a protest of animal testing) squonks and cackles like a hysterical monkey only to subside into the quiet lament "Silent pring." Thomas G. Laverack (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Larry Fessenden (saxophone, vocals) wrote and produced the LP, but the rest of the band-Noah Staein (bass, trumpet), Mark Ellison (guitar, banjo, accordian, harmonica) and Bob Muller (drums, tabla and percussion)-is equally skilled and versatile. The songwriting is as emotionally charged as the vocal performances, which reveal a ragged, somewhat beaten spirit that has more than enough strength and smarts to shed light on the darkest of situations. For full effect, let this one track from start to finish.

...There's some good exciting music here, played on everything from sax to pan flute. The tone, in general, is somber tilting to bitter. From "Same Old Stories": "But ya couldn't put a cork in that jug of gin / Behind the wheel / Ya did a whole family in." The band takes a fairly dim view of humanity, you might say; in the middle of the lyric sheet is a note that reads, "In the time it takes to listen to 'Monkey Farm,' 360 test animals will die in U.S, labs." Yet the music is catchy enough that this may be exactly the way to sell these messages: Get people interested before they even know what it's about.