He's Got 'Legs'
Singer/songwriter Tom Graham finds balance on his latest CD 
By Matt Smith  

Ahoy, mates! Scranton singer/songwriter Tom Graham's latest disc, Sea Legs, will hit shores, er, stores, this Tuesday. But the nautical title and oceanic CD artwork weren't inspired by a love of swashbuckling or the artist's grizzled-sea-captain beard.

"My father was in the Navy," said Graham, "so I wanted to do something with a little classic naval theme. And then there's also the idea of 'sea legs' itself. The definition is 'the ability for one to adjust one's balance to the motion of a ship, especially on rough seas.' I've been playing music for so long, so it's about the ability to find a certain balance after going so far. And I think I found it right now with this new record."

The self-released disc is Graham's fourth; it was produced and mixed by Graham and drummer extraordinaire Chris Babcock, at the latter's Futopia Studios in Lord Valley. The energy and cohesiveness of the new album is a tribute to the way it was recorded, he noted.

"The songwriting is kind of the same," said Graham said. "It was more the recording process. In the past, I would write songs and have a clear vision of what I wanted them to sound like on the CD; it turned into reproduction. With this disc, I was able to go into the studio with the songs but have them turn out completely different. They evolved quickly. They took on their own form.

"It was very surprising," he continued. "It's actually like a record all the way through - not just a collection of songs. There are different styles and different themes, but it's almost like a journey. It's very cohesive. Nothing on this disc comes out of left field."

Highlights include the Woody Guthrie-esque rambler "Been Replaced by Airplanes," the distorted, bass-driven "Heartsink," and the elegant little ditty "Somebody Tell James," from which the CD's title was derived.

Graham, Babcock, and bassist Brian Keating (ex-The Five Perecent) played most of the tracks at a CD-release show in Stroudsburg last weekend, and Graham said his fans are giving it the thumb's up so far. But the fun of the trio performances, he noted, was stretching out on older material. "I did three CDs before this, plus another record with (the now-defunct) The Can't Help Its. ... Those songs have developed and grown in the last seven or eight years."

The smattering of band shows aside, Graham is booked up with local solo gigs through September. You can catch him at the likes of Cooper's, Jilly's, or Mert's, but just don't hope to catch any Jimmy Buffett tunes.

"I do half and half (originals and covers), or maybe 70 percent originals," he said, "but I don't do 'Margaritaville.' There are a lot of songs like that that I don't play. I play some weirder covers, but I don't play one song that I don't enjoy."

Graham is already gearing up for CD number five. "There's probably around 10 or 15 songs that are done and waiting to be recorded, and another five that are recorded."

And then there are the countless lyrics scribbled in his "tortured-soul artist book." But is Graham a tortured soul?

"No, not really. Life is pretty good. I'm happy. I'm super-excited and motivated. I'm looking forward to doing ... everything."

Sounds like an artist who's found those "sea legs."

'Bus Ride' - Jack Trapani

Traveling on the 'Sea' with Tom Graham
Farley's on a Sunday afternoon is not a high-traffic time, but if you're ready to get on a bus to Stroudsburg, it's the perfect place to be. Farley's bartender/personality Mike Stalter was the man behind a bus trip to Sarah Street Grill in Stroudsburg this past weekend to see Tom Graham perform songs from his new album Sea Legs.

Once the crowd piled on the bus for the hour trip, it was go time. As people got acquainted, beers cracked open - the better to enjoy the new disc.

It started to rain heavily, but that didn't dampen anyone's mood at all. When the bus pulled in the parking lot, the mood elevated to a greater level than I could have anticipated. And while I'm not a Tom Graham diehard, my own enthusiasm rose accordingly.

As we entered Sarah Street Grill, the atmosphere was set for Graham to rock out the album. Before his set began, there was time to test the menu. To my surprise, there was a sushi bar, so a group of us decided to order some. I also went for some French onion soup (a personal favorite). The man himself sat down and chatted for a bit, telling the table "it's great to finally play the music I worked on and play it live."

We finished eating just as it was time for the show to start. As soon as Graham hit the first chord, everyone at the bar was drawn to his lyrical genius. He played material from Sea Legs as well as his other three CDs.

Sound technician Johnny Rydell made sure Graham and his band had the right sound. Said Rydell afterward: "It went great. He is honing his sound, they have a great band, and the show went well."

Halfway through the show, one of Graham's strings broke on his acoustic guitar, but he soldiered on like the consummate professional. The set was amazing, and a nice added touch was a projector playing old cartoons from the 1950s. Graham and his band also used a radio transmitter as an instrument. It was cool and weird at the same time.

The crowd of fans from both Scranton and Stroudsburg was very pleased with Graham's performance. Even an old college friend named Jeremy Wilberts showed up to support him. Wilberts noted: "(Tom) is the next big thing on the East Coast; he will be bigger than the Dave Matthews Band."

Added Stalter: "It was a great room; it sounded great. I appreciate all who came from Scranton on the bus or not. His songs keep getting better."

Just before midnight, Graham finished his set and gave a cheer to us for coming to support him. The bus gang stayed a little longer to congratulate him on a great performance. As the night grew old, we went back to the bus to make the trip back to Scranton while listening to the CD one more time.

  

Graham breaks barriers music on the menu

Alan K. Stout | Weekender Editor

Local musician Tom Graham was looking for a change. For "Sea Legs," his fourth solo CD, he made a conscious effort to tread some new ground as a songwriter and try something different from a creative point of view. He wanted to remove any musical barriers he had set for himself and explore some new territory.

"Every time I would write songs, I would really painstakingly write songs," he says. "I'd come up with everything at the same time and I would have every arrangement beaten to death before I actually recorded it. There was never really any room whatsoever with experimenting. This time, I was more open to the fact that these were songs that were going to take on their own life."

Songs on the new CD include "I'm Leaving, I Mean It," "Somebody Tell James" and "Millie." In his own press release for the album, Graham asks "Who says a song should be this long, or have a great hook? We don't have much structure in the world. Why should we outline works of art?" When asked to elaborate on that comment, he says that the reason he was open to such thinking was that he saw how some of his own songs had changed over the years.

"The songs on the last three CDs have changed so much from when I recorded them," he says. "They just evolved into something that I now really embrace. Now, I'm more open to go in with just a skeleton of a song. The lyrics pretty much stay the same, but the tempo, the instruments, the feel … everything is a lot different on this CD."

As for those lyrics, Graham says he's kept the same approach to writing or nearly 10 years.

"I write songs all the time," he says. "It doesn't have anything to do with records. Some people go out and ride a Harley all day on Sunday. I kind of write songs in the same way. It's just how I live and what I do. Everyday life, reading books, watching the news, interactions with different musicians and people, parents, relatives, friends (all inspire me.)"

For the past year and a half, Grahan played The Can't Help Its, a Scranton-based project that featured former members of Mighty Fine Wine. That experience, he says, also helped him grow as an entertainer and a songwriter

"I became more comfortable in my own skin as a performer," he says. "Also, everybody in that band wrote, and I really liked that collaborative effort, and I brought that to 'Sea Legs' with me. (Co-producer) Chris Babcock - who plays drums and multiple instruments - we really did collaborate on this record. We fought like brothers, and we high-fived like brothers, and this is the record that came out of that."

Two tracks included on the CD - simply because of their intriguing titles - beg for some commentary from Graham:

• "Been Replaced By Airplanes" - "I saw a movie about Daniel Johnson, and really loved it, and really got interested in his music and his lyrics. Then I turned on the news, and there were tornados and floods and plane crashes, and I just thought about God being replaced by things that weren't natural. Airplanes … that's very unnatural. Then it goes on to 'monster tidal waves,' and that's very natural. The whole CD is pretty much about what you think should happen, and what really happens."

• "Soap Opera Stars" - "That's pretty much the state of the world we live in today. Whether it's the idea of a celebrity being a news anchor, a reporter, a musician, or being infamous, like a criminal, people are fascinating by it. You talk about soap opera stars, and you wonder if so-and-so is pregnant again with so- and-so's baby and what not. It's not a reflection of media, but the attention that people have for this, and how they want to hear stories about pop icons. That's what we've come to. That's what people are talking about and that's what people are thinking about. It blows my mind."

"Sea Legs" is available at Gallery of Sound stores and at Graham's shows. A CD release party will be held tonight at The Bog on Adams Avenue in Scranton. Rounding out the Graham power trio will be Babcock and bassist Brain Keating, known within the NEPA music scene for his work with The Five Percent and Six Second Yellow.

"I hope they're entertained," says Graham of those heading to the show. "And that they see the effort and the transformation that we put into these songs."