Today we are thrilled to bring you a premiere of the new song by the Tom Cheshire Band! The song is called "New York Waltz" and is off their upcoming album Everything Is New Again. Speaking about the track Tom Cheshire said,
"I was thinking of my heroes Shane MacGowan and The Pogues when we recorded this one. I played it for my folks, and my Mom said it sounds like something you’d hear at a fireman’s funeral in Greenwich Village. And my Dad said they should play it in Yankee Stadium. Well, I’m a Mets fan, but I do want it to be an anthem for New York. I wanted to give thanks to this place because, in so many ways, it saved my life.
'New York Waltz' was actually the song that led to recording our upcoming album Everything Is New Again. One night a few years ago, I was playing at The Earl in Atlanta, and I ran into Randy Michael, who produced and engineered the new record. Randy and I have always been fond of each other and have had great conversations. So after the show, I go out back and Randy’s smoking a cigarette, and I notice there's a tear in his eye, and he says, ‘Tom, that song’—which was “New York Waltz— ‘my arm hairs shot up. You gotta let me record that.’ And the next thing you know, we’re in the studio.
‘New York Waltz’ is a really magical song. Years ago I had been asked to sing on a 9/11 tribute album, and I was originally doing a cover of 'America' by Simon & Garfunkel. There was a lot of space in the music at the end, so I said, ‘Let it run man, let me freestyle,’ and off the top of my head, I just started singing what became ‘New York Waltz.’
Later, my good friend and bandmate Mike Shina worked up a version based on the freestyle I’d done. He’d just gone through some rough personal stuff in his life. A lot of my songs also come from fighting through sadness. Mike suggested I do this song as a duet—‘Let’s get a woman to sing with you,’ but I said, ‘Nah, it’s you and me, baby,’ and that's him singing the second line: I notice things change, sometimes get worse, and I know I'm not the man that you wanted… Just gut-wrenching stuff. And while we were recording it, all of us, everyone knew. You hear stories about the first time the Stones jammed in someone's mom's basement, and they’re just smiling and their arm hairs are standing up. Recording 'New York Waltz' felt like that.
At the end of the song, I'm really just speaking in tongues, just screaming stuff, you know? I'm screaming, I'm feeling fucked up, but at the same time it was good to be home again. And that’s really how I did feel. I was a mess. I was a mess when I got there. But something told me it's good. That everything's gonna be alright.”
"New York Waltz" will hit streaming services everywhere on January 26. Everything Is New Again will be out on March 8 and you can pre-order it right here. Listen to the song below!