Hi all. Joni is one of my alltime inspirations. If there's a direct connection to my new album, it's her setting Yeats to music. Indirectly I feel indebted to her courage, inventiveness, verbal acuity and much more.
THE RAIN TAKES OFF HER CLOTHES is acoustic, jazz-rooted music with influence from India and Africa, and deriving from poets such as Mary Oliver, W S Merwin, Emily Dickinson, and Pablo Neruda. Do check it out! Clips on the website; available there and through CD Street. Happy new year! What do they call Santa's little helpers? Subordinate Clauses. Album blurb below. Tom Ross * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * Album of Global Jazz Songs Unveiled! THE RAIN TAKES OFF HER CLOTHES is Tom Ross's long-awaited sophomore work following the critically acclaimed *Horse of Stone* album, which was sponsored by David Crosby. Like *Horse*, THE RAIN TAKES OFF HER CLOTHES is jazz-based acoustic guitar songs by composer-performer Tom Ross. The influence from India and Africa is once again evident in the tones and rhythms, but the textures are leaner, and the debt is greater to poets such as Pablo Neruda (whose line prompted the title song). The lyrics are also based on the work of Emily Dickinson, W. S. Merwin, and George Herriman of the Krazy Kat comic strip. THE RAIN features reedman Charlie Keagle (also heard on *Horse of Stone*), Mike Migliozzi on drums, Josh Zucker on bass, and background vocalist Carin Gado. Ross is on vocals, guitar, fretless 12-string guitar, as well as sequencing and programming. The striking album is wide in its range of moods and topics. In "The Fox's Body," a Zen monk gives the wrong answer to a koan question and is turned into a fox; "The Smile in the Stone" tells of a mason on a medieval church who discovers his mystical ties to the stone; while "Who My Soul Loves" adapts sexy love-poetry from the Song of Solomon. Fans of *Horse of Stone* will find THE RAIN equally satisfying, while notably sparer, and marked by the view of an artist in middle life. Indian rhythms and vocal styling imbue many of the songs, with danceable grooves stemming from the African-American funk of Ross's jazz heritage. THE RAIN TAKES OFF HER CLOTHES is a triumph of song that defies category, and a must-have for the discerning listener. Contact: Mijazi Music 623 Rankin Schenectady, NY 12308 OR CDStreet.com more info: http://www.tom.rossweb.com * Tom Ross Mijazi Music (518) 372-2611