"This Desert City" - Reviews

Conclusion: The fifth album by the man from Seattle has become one that fit into the sunny Southern California landscape seems and I'm wondering why it has taken since the last album of 1993 so long. So we have been deprived of some other small masterpieces. A truly outstanding publication in the sea of ​​new releases that you should devote plenty of attention! ............Wolfgang Giese (Rocktimes)

"These are folks who – like these songs' creator and singer -- gave better than they got, making the best of what isn’t… and looking for the smallest pleasures to get them through. Like Warren Zevon, who balanced details and romantic notions of the tenderest sort, Tom Kell conjures the essence of small, forgotten lives. He gives them dignity and the courage to face the endless stream of invisibility. And like Zevon, he has compassion for the ones who bought in, then lost touch of whatever shininess suggested there might be more. ".......................Holly Gleason (No Depression)

"This Desert City" from music veteran Tom Kell is one of the best
records this year I have been able to listen to. So I had better just
title and performer name credited to my design of the year list 2012 '.
Although still fairly early in the year, I can not anyway the
impression that this ten strong songs existing CD also will stand still at the end of December. This could be record of the year 2012!!!! .....
Gerrit Vermij (Hemifran)

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"Tom writes songs as easily as the rest of us speak, its in his DNA"........
Bob Carpenter, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

For Tom Kell it has always been about the songwriting.  From his earliest days as a country-rock pioneer on club and concert stages in his native Seattle and throughout the West Coast, to singing duets with John David Souther, Timothy B. Schmit and Valerie Carter, he has always been lead through his career by his songs.  He writes with a unique sense of time and place, and sings with a voice so full of character and heart, that you feel as though you're standing next to him, seeing the same images, breathing the same moment.

As a resident of Los Angeles for the past 30 years, Tom's songwriting echoes the 'grit and feel' that is LA and captures it perfectly in his new project, "This Desert City."

Tom Kell's 5th solo album continues to deliver his unique, and yet familiar songwriting with the quality and craftsmanship that he's known for, this time taking it to a level of excellence that places his career in its finest hour.  More than any, this is the album Tom has always wanted to make.

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 MP3 of Tom's song 
"Glory Bound"
with Emiko Woods.
(This is one of the songs on their gospel album coming out this summer.)

MP3 of Toms song,

"Waverly Drive"

There's a tower on the corner with a bell that never rings,
There's a cage inside her kitchen with a bird that never sings,
There's a door that never opens, to a heart that barely beats..
There's a box of old love letters, that she'll never read again,
There's a tired old Mercedes that's become her only friend,
There's a road outside her window, she claims "the only one she needs"
Sometimes lonely, finds you in a crowd,
Sometimes lonely, calls your name out loud...

She's got a duplex in Los Feliz, she rents out the bottom floor,
She's had writers punks and actors, some were rich and some were poor,
But she announced the occupation, every time a new one came,
Why does lonely, always feel the same,
Sometimes lonely, calls you by your name...

The sun sits high above the old veranda every day,
The friends she's had for all these years have slowly died away,
The hat she wears on Sunday has begun to tear and fray,
And time goes by.... On Waverly Drive.....

She's got a niece who lives up north and she begs her to stop by,
But every time she comes to visit, the conversations make her cry,
About the boys and the costume jewelry and how the years have make her cold,
Sometimes lonely's, got an ebb and flo,
Sometimes lonely's the only thing you know....

Lone........ly, lone.....ly....

There's a convent and a park across the street with forty nuns,
In the days of silent movies, it was build for havin' fun,
Now it stands for peace and solitude, all the sister barely speak,
Sometime's lonely, brings you to your knees,
Sometimes lonely's the only thinkg you see (need)......

Tom Kell in Concert


MAY 2012

Sunday, May 20th @ 3pm
$15
Call for reservations
(310) 478-4251
Westwood Music Center
1627 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024




YouTube Video of live performance at 
Westwood Music Center , February 2012
"Blue Telephone"
http://youtu.be/95PCkHtD8Yk

With Bob Carpenter, Bob Glaub and Emiko Woods

 I’ve been known to be too patient, I’ve been known to be too blind,

 I’ve been lost and I’ve been found, I’ve been out front, I’ve been behind,

 I’ve been hungry, I’ve been thirsty, I’ve been full and I’ve been drunk,

 I’ve laid down in grand hotels, I’ve kept my things in some old trunk,

 Everything I’ve ever tried, and everything I’ve ever done,

 Every chance I’ve been denied, and every prize I’ve never won,

 All the love that’s come and gone, each time I played the fool,

 It’s  all become the crown of thorns I wear each day for you…

 I’ve spent years and years in sorrow, cried myself a million tears,

 I’ve been locked inside my heartache, tortured by a wall of fear,

 I’ve done backflips through a meadow, crushed the lilies ‘neath my weight,

 I’ve been sad and I’ve been glad, why did you have to come so late…

 Every time I feel redemption, bandage up my broken heart,

 Every time your sweet temptation, calls my name out in the dark,

 I decide for one last time, that sometimes love is true,

 And I put on the crown of thorns I wear each day for you…

There’s gotta be a secret window, some trap door that I fell through,

We both know I’d have never found the road that led me straight to you,

And if holy intervention, is what makes your dreams come true,

Then I’ll be thankin’ God above for years…

 I’ve been known to be too foolish, I’ve been known to be too sad,

 I’ve picked out a heart or two but never needed one this bad,

 I’ve run all around in circles, I’ve been on this road so long,

 How does anything so right come out of everything so wrong,

 How do I accept your blessings, when mercy never knew my name,

 How can I return your love, and somehow make you feel the same,

 How do I convince my heartache, when true love’s overdue,

 And sit beneath the crown of thorns, I wear, each day, for you…