Esotouric offers Tom Waits bus tour May 28

Once-A-Year L.A. Bus Tour Follows in Tom Waits' Youthful Footsteps WHAT: 2011 edition of "Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' Los Angeles" bus tour WHEN: Saturday, May 28, noon-4pm WHERE: Bus tour departs from The King Edward Saloon, 131 E 5th Street, Los Angeles 90013 COST: $62/person MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com/waits or call 323-223-2767 Fans of the legendary musician Tom Waits just don't get a lot of chances to get together. Last time he toured, fans in his old hometown of L.A. were out of luck-- all the dates were in the South. So once each year, Esotouric, the bus adventure company whose offbeat tours expose LA's secret history, offers a bus tour celebrating the life and work of Waits, a rare opportunity for fans to scratch that gravelly voiced itch in good company. CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' LOS ANGELES is the definitive tour of Tom Waits' formative creative life and the people, places and late night pastries that shaped it. Calling all rain dogs, gin-soaked boys and Gun Street girls! Climb aboard as your hosts David Smay (author of the acclaimed 33 1/3 series book on Tom Waits' "Swordfishtrombones" album) and Esotouric's Kim Cooper (a Zoetrope Studios intern who'll tell how she used teenage subterfuge to arrange a private concert by the man) lead you on a scrupulously researched ride through Waits' epic misdeeds and shenanigans, from the Trashing of theTroubadour to epic nights at the Tropicana. And oh, there are such tales to tell, from food fights with L.A. Punks and smackdowns with L.A. Police. We'll crawl through the Sewers of Paris, tattle on the Ivar Theater, and get the lowdown on Waits' legendary performances at the Wiltern and elsewhere. Before departing for points rural, Tom Waits left his mark all over L.A., from Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios to Sunset Sound to Skid Row. We'll show you where he found his true love and collaborator, Kathleen Brennan, and how all the pieces came together to transform a drunken, desperate singer into the multi-faceted, multi-media artist he'd become. Raised near San Diego, Tom Waits launched his musical career in L.A., signing with David Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972, living in a famously cluttered room in the raunchy Tropicana Hotel (where he sawed off the kitchen drain board so his piano would fit), and building a reputation as a songwriter willing to risk his own health and sanity to get inside the sadsack characters that peopled songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)," "On The Nickel" and "Pasties And A G-string (At The Two O'clock Club)." By 1980, Waits was 31 and starting to feel the effects of his hard living. While scoring the music to Francis Ford Coppola's "One From The Heart," hemet Kathleen Brennan, whose influence would completely transform his life and his art. After a whirlwind courtship the pair married and began a 30-year creative and personal partnership, beginning with the revolutionary album "Swordfishtrombones," the subject of tour host David Smay's latest book. Passengers gather in the historic King Edward Saloon, the last surviving Skid Row bar since the 2007 closure of Craby Joe's, before boarding Esotouric's luxury coach class bus, where the mood is set with vintage photos and live footage. CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA spans Tom's personal city, from The Nickel (aka Skid Row) to once-ratty West Hollywood, favorite strip clubs and midnight diners, recording studios, night clubs, record labels and film studios, before rolling back downtown for a last bottle of beer at the King Eddy. ABOUT THE HOSTS: Longtime collaborators David Smay and Kim Cooper co-edited the books "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth" ("quite simply the most fun music book I have ever read." -Bucketfull of Brains) and "Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed" ("the perfect book for the advanced record collector" -Ear Candy) before penning their solo 33 1/3 series books on Tom Waits and Neutral Milk Hotel. Kim host Esotouric's true crime and occasional rock and roll history tours. David Smay lives in San Francisco, where he is working on a history of the Beats. For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule Sat April 9 ­ John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend package available) Sun April 10 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A (weekend package available) Sat April 16 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour Sun April 17 - Trace: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist (info at www.lavatransforms.org) Sat April 23 - In A Lonely Place: Raymond Chandler's L.A. Sun April 24 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org) Sat April 30 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend package available) Sun May 1 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South L.A. (weekend package available) Sat May 14 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour Sat May 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A. Sun May 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org) Sat June 4 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour Sat June 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available) Sun June 19 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available) Sun June 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org) Sat July 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour Sat July 16 - Raymond Chandler's L.A. Sat July 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release Sun July 31 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org) Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com For more info on David and Kim's previous books, visit http://www.bubblegum-music.com http://www.lostinthegrooves.com