Esotouric offers Tom Waits bus tour April 21

Once-A-Year L.A. Bus Tour Follows in Tom Waits' Youthful Footsteps

WHAT: 2012 edition of "Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' Los Angeles" bus
tour

WHEN: Saturday, April 21, noon-4pm

WHERE: Bus tour departs from The King Edward Saloon, 131 E 5th Street, Los
Angeles 90013

COST: $63/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‹the closest show was in Phoenix, Arizona. 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 the
Troubadour 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 sad
sack 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," he
met 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 hosts
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 LAVA special event schedule
Fri March 9 - FREE! San Gabriel Mission Archaeological Excavation Tour (info
at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat April 7 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sun April 8 ­ John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend pass available)
Sat April 14 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat April 21 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sun April 22 - FREE! Open House at the historic Stendahl Galleries (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 28 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Mon April 30- The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring John Buntin (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sat May 19 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sun May 20 ­ Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sun June 3 - Crime lab seminar: The Killer Behind the Camera (info at
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