Bone Cootes

San Francisco singer-songwriter Bone Cootes writes songs that cast a jaundiced, slightly absurdist eye on street life and barroom romance, mixing metaphors and musical styles in much the same way as Tom Waits' early material. Cootes sings his offbeat story/songs in a gravelly rasp of a voice, usually inhabiting the character of a sad-sack loser lamenting the bad luck that dogs him. The songs are lyrically vivid, and draw musically from Country Blues, Cool Jazz, folk and rock, arriving at a skewed, off-kilter musical language of their own. Fans of Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman and Warren Zevon will find much to like about Cootes.