Australian Folk Noir And Gothic Country Shapeshifter Tom Woodward Releases His Seventh Studio Album, Come, Come, Karma

Tom Woodward has been writing and releasing his unique brand of baroque folk-rock, cosmic country psychedelia, and fuzzed-out lo-fi gems on numerous albums and EPs for the last two decades.

Tom honed his craft in the thriving arts & music scene of Canberra and Melbourne in the mid-2000s before taking his original songs to audiences around Australia, Japan, and the USA.

In 2023, Tom put down the guitar and embarked on a two month walk up the east coast of Australia, ending with a hospital stay and a hard-earned respect for the fragility of life. A year and a half later, he got deported as an illegal alien from the USA.

Now, with Come, Come, Karma!!!, Tom presents his collective prayer for all of the forgotten souls, the scoundrels, and the alienated. Each song drawn together by the celebratory rock ‘n’ roll theme of complete disintegration.

"As I got older, and kept writing songs, I kept falling way behind where I was meant to be as a citizen and a proper respectable person. Come, Come, Karma!!! is a celebration of that exhilaratingly horrific nosedive."

From acoustic guitar to fully realised recordings, musician and producer Adam Casey was integral in bringing a wider musical context to the songs, with a nuanced combination of his encyclopaedic knowledge of musical history and the creative adventure of throwing sonic paint at the songs.

Over the last eight months, the singles from the new album have all received widespread national airplay across community radio, and editorial and review support from the likes of Sunburnt Country Music and BMA magazine.

The first release from the album was the lively rhythmic bounce and Dylan-esque 'Termination Day', a raised middle finger to the forces of tech feudalism and economic totalitarianism as they attempt to imprison our souls. He followed it up with the hypnotic folk meets indie rock sound of 'If You Wanna Stay Alive', a song about survival, before recently releasing 'Sails In Your Heart', a song about the price you have to pay to live an uncompromising life.

Tom's most recent single is 'Phoney Messiah', a song that arrives on the back of some beautifully picked acoustic guitar before the band enters the fray – tumbling along over guitar fuzz and indie rock rhythms. It's a shapeshifting song, in dynamics and tempo. A song in perpetual motion as Tom sings of our dizzying world of false gods and gullible devotees.

Elsewhere on the album, there's the problematic romance of messed-up Jack, and Jill with her saviour complex, and the wistful sway of 'Hurricane You' as it details the lingering, residual damage of the pandemic.

Over the cascading notes of 'Fly Back To You’, Tom keeps gloom at bay via rivers of shit booze, rollies, and parties at the skate park, while the upbeat 'Dancing On A Carousel' is one for "all the alcoholics and people who live between the bars and scrounge their way from one hangover to the next, avoiding all responsibility and finding some honour in the effort."

In the character study of Canberra and its past inhabitants, on 'Strong Strong', Tom has written an ode to the nihilistic heroin culture of Garema Place in the 1990s, explaining that "there was an extremely unique shadowy euphoria between the lights of the middle-class houses. The detritus drifted around like drunken dust mites, causing all sorts of allergies."

Tom's mid-2010s album Beautiful Shadows received critical acclaim in publications such as For Folk's Sake and The Huffington Post and earned him a Canberra Critics Circle award. He has performed at the National Folk Festival, The Multicultural Fringe Festival, and racked up for supports for such luminaries as Abbe May, The Drones, Mikelangelo & the Black Sea Gentlemen, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Machine Translations, Steve Poltz, and many more.

Tom's eclectic musicality and creative work ethic are proof he's in it for the long haul. Having been sentenced to a wandering life by a sardonic and hilarious God, Tom's been laughing, crying, and singing about it ever since. Come, Come, Karma!!!

ALBUM CREDITS

Words and music by Tom Woodward
Back up vocals by Katie Walsh
All other instrumental duties shared between Tom Woodward and Adam Casey. 

Recorded, produced and mastered by Adam Casey @ The True Vine Productions

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