The Dime Store Novels Vol. 1--Live at Ebbets Field

Remember when Waits’ voice was just severely sandpapery, before he started going for that industrial-drilling thing? Revisit those tender years on this import-only live album, reviving a 1974 solo appearance broadcast on the radio in Denver. No one would argue that The Dime Store is Waits’ most astonishing hour; it’s his second set, and he admits to what sounds like two dozen paying customers that he ”shot [his] wad” in the first. But that allows for some odd song choices, and for fans, it’s a welcome trip back to his barely more conventional fisherman-boho years.