I hope my pony knows the way back home [Archive]

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Scotti Adams

Mar-19-2009, 4:23pm

I just got done listening to Tony Rices "Night Flyer" Cd. To say the least it is an A-One compilation of some of Tony's best work. The very last song is a tune called "Pony" by Tom Waits....all I have to say is..wow...Its no secret that T's voice isnt what it used to be..but to cite Tony..This was "Another tune that I thought 'Well, too bad I aint never going to be able to do this' because by then my voice was gone. But I got to toying around with it one day in a real low voice, which was the only way I could pull it off..so during the recording of "Running Wild" with Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson everbody was taking a break. John Carroll was there, and I hit him and Billy Wolf up with the idea of this tune. Billy set up the mic and I started singing a little bit and then by the time I'd sung it for a few minutes I realized I could probably hold it together enough to sing - not in my normal voice from the past, but enough to hold pitch. This is probably the only tune that I could ever sing with the voice that I have left".

I have to hand it to Tony...its not the old Tony voice but I still get the emotion from that mans voice...Number #1 in my book on all levels.

mandozilla

Mar-19-2009, 6:27pm

That's neat Scotti. It's sad that Tony can't sing with the gusto he used to sing with but at least he did get to sing on one again...that had to make him feel good. :grin:

:mandosmiley:

fishdawg40

Mar-20-2009, 8:52am

Big Tom Waits and Tony Rice fan here. Wow! I can't wait to hear that. Great song by Tom Waits on the Mule Variations.

Here's "Pony" being sung by a 3 year old. Priceless....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagmVZ09420 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagmVZ09420)

Scotti Adams

Mar-20-2009, 5:46pm

..Thats priceless Joe..thanks

fishdawg40

Mar-22-2009, 1:05am

..Thats priceless Joe..thanks

No problem. Actually, thanks to you. I haven't listened to Waits in a while so now I'm on a roll. And it's always cool to hear stories about great musicians appreciating other great musicians work, especially when it's in totally different genres.

jefflester

Mar-23-2009, 3:09pm

KimRoulias

Mar-28-2009, 9:16pm

I heard Tony singing "Pony," too. It's wonderful. Very moving.

fishdawg40

Apr-01-2009, 7:26am

"Pony" is on Sara Watkins' (Nickel Creek) soon to be released solo album.

Here's a nice version from a Watkins Family Hour show:
http://www.archive.org/download/wfh2006-11-02.dpa4061.flac16/wfh2006-11-02t02_vbr.mp3

Nice stuff!

I happened to got to Tom's myspace page the other day and Pony is there.

http://www.myspace.com/tomwaits

Alex Orr

Apr-01-2009, 11:41am

Great, great song. Tony is perhaps my favorite BG singer of all time and Waits is one of my favorite musicians in any genre. I think TR made a lot of us realize that we could sing bluegrass songs without having to have a high lonesome voice. That being said, I find it a bit amusing that Tony was fretting about his voice not being able to do justice to a Waits tune. Heck, now that TR's voice has tragically gone ragged and rough he may be better equiped than ever to cover Waits' tunes. After all, Tom has had the most gloriously ragged voice of just about any singer I can imagine, and the guy actually makes it work for him.