Tom Woodward is a prehistoric bluesman trapped inside the body of a 21st Century gutter-poet. He sings unadulterated acoustic smut for the damp and sodden. He performs regularly, and this year will be appearing at the Australian National Folk Festival before embarking on a series of shows across the land, in an attempt to sell himself to the public as a reliable and trustworthy preacher of wicked & wanton hymns.
Born in Canberra 1984, Tom Woodward wrote his first song at the age of 8, after vomiting up a big mac. The song was called "McDonalds Chuck", and he has not played it since. By the age of fourteen he was regularly performing at the minors night of "The Gypsy Bar", where he began to hone his performance skills. In College he put together "The Henchmen", who went on to a release a self-titled feature album and tour Australia. Keen to pursue music on his own, in 2006 Tom released a solo six track EP, 32-20 Blues, on the indenpendent "Alice Moreau Records" label. Named after an old Robert Johnson song, the title track of the EP is the only cover Tom has ever recorded. In the second half of 2006 he set up his own record label, "Bayonet Records". His debut release, Blue Day Requiem, was self produced, and features some of Australia's best musicians. He has written over 500 songs since he was a child, and can still play at least a quarter of them.
Blue Day Requiem is being nationally released in April. It was recorded on Woodward's independent record label, Bayonet Records. It cost him three and a half weeks of sleep and three months worth of manual labour to produce, but was well worth the effort. If you're feeling impatient to purchase a copy, you could order one here, or if you live in the nation's capital (Canberra), you should be able to find it in a decent record store near you.
Woodward's songs are inspired by a sense of suspicion. He supects that all religions, artforms and cultures are products of existential human wonder, and this is the default state of mind for most human beings, who themselves are a product of natural selection in a universe of whose origins nobody has been able to prove or disprove. This inspires him to create, imagine and wonder, and believes that everybody should be equally free to do so, without impinging on the creative imaginary wonderness of others.
Blue Day Requiem has been described as the most depressing album of the 21st Century. But just as concerned as it is with mortality, melancholia and the macabre, it is also a celebratory depiction of human life. It is aware that lifes joys, euphorias and ecstasies do not come without their partners in crime on the opposite end of the spectrum, and presents a view of life that is both celebratory and poignant, and is not afraid of the darkness that will one day consume us all, but is instead, entranced by it.
Born in Canberra 1984, Tom Woodward wrote his first song at the age of 8, after vomiting up a big mac. The song was called "McDonalds Chuck", and he has not played it since. By the age of fourteen he was regularly performing at the minors night of "The Gypsy Bar", where he began to hone his performance skills. In College he put together "The Henchmen", who went on to a release a self-titled feature album and tour Australia. Keen to pursue music on his own, in 2006 Tom released a solo six track EP, 32-20 Blues, on the indenpendent "Alice Moreau Records" label. Named after an old Robert Johnson song, the title track of the EP is the only cover Tom has ever recorded. In the second half of 2006 he set up his own record label, "Bayonet Records". His debut release, Blue Day Requiem, was self produced, and features some of Australia's best musicians. He has written over 500 songs since he was a child, and can still play at least a quarter of them.
Blue Day Requiem is being nationally released in April. It was recorded on Woodward's independent record label, Bayonet Records. It cost him three and a half weeks of sleep and three months worth of manual labour to produce, but was well worth the effort. If you're feeling impatient to purchase a copy, you could order one here, or if you live in the nation's capital (Canberra), you should be able to find it in a decent record store near you.
Woodward's songs are inspired by a sense of suspicion. He supects that all religions, artforms and cultures are products of existential human wonder, and this is the default state of mind for most human beings, who themselves are a product of natural selection in a universe of whose origins nobody has been able to prove or disprove. This inspires him to create, imagine and wonder, and believes that everybody should be equally free to do so, without impinging on the creative imaginary wonderness of others.
Blue Day Requiem has been described as the most depressing album of the 21st Century. But just as concerned as it is with mortality, melancholia and the macabre, it is also a celebratory depiction of human life. It is aware that lifes joys, euphorias and ecstasies do not come without their partners in crime on the opposite end of the spectrum, and presents a view of life that is both celebratory and poignant, and is not afraid of the darkness that will one day consume us all, but is instead, entranced by it.