Tom Laverack

Sojourn Records is proud to be releasing NYC-based singer/songwriter Tom Laverack's new record, Cave Drawings. Over the years, Laverack has played numerous venues in New York City, from CBGB’s to LaMama, and from the Mercury Lounge to the Living Room. He has had the privilege of playing on bills with Freedie Johnston, The Tom-Tom Club, The Mekons and Philip Glass as well as many other gifted performers.

Four years in the making, Cave Drawings showcases the best of Laverack's songwriting, bolstered by Mark Ambrosino’s refined production and including great performances from a stellar band, including Marc Shulman (Suzanne Vega), Jeff Langston (Antony and the Johnsons) and Mark Ambrosino (Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder). The record offers an emotionally and musically diverse range for the listener. While tapping into the classic 50's and 60's style of production, the music is folk-rock with a soulful delivery.

Having drawn comparisons to an array of distinguished singer-songwriters, Laverack shows his preoccupation with the darker sides of life, while retaining a quiet belief in the sacredness of our connections. As David Greenberger proclaimed on NoDepression.net, “With twenty years gone by since his debut album, Tom Laverack has honed his writing and performing into a perfectly matched set. His voice and songs meet one another on varied turf and go gallivanting about the hillsides. World-weariness runs through the entire set in a way that a man two decades younger couldn't have fully comprehended.â€ï¿½

Laverack began writing and performing music when he was sixteen, living a majority of his adult life in New York City. He and his long time musical collaborator, Larry Fessenden, started the band Just Desserts in the mid-eighties and released their first album Sentimental War (Earhorn Disks) in 1987. Recorded with Wharton Tiers (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr), Sentimental War was a concept album and acoustic-driven folk-rock tour-de-force, which received rave reviews and extensive college radio airplay. Just Desserts also released the paired down EP, Cold Hearts and Whiskey from which Bar/None Records issued a limited-release '45' featuring the song “Almost Shook You Up.â€ï¿½

In 1997, Just Desserts released their second full-length album, Give Up The Ghost (Earhorn Disks), garnering high praise and extensive college and AAA radio airplay and David Avery of CMJ wrote, “For fans of Mark Eitzel, Bruce Springsteen, Replacements.â€ï¿½

In addition to their collaboration as Just Desserts, Fessenden has written and directed feature films and has featured Laverack's solo recordings in all of his movies beginning in 1991 with No Telling, a film Laverack also scored. Laverack contributed two songs to his second feature film, Habit, a release that went on to earn him an “Independent Spirit Someone To Watch Awardâ€ï¿½, and composed the song “Hold Outâ€ï¿½ (from the CD Gift Horse) for Fessenden's film Wendigo, which earned the director further accolades and awards, including winning the 2001 Woodstock Film Festival.

Fessenden’s most recent film, The Last Winter, which was produced by Jeffery Levy-Hinte (“Thirteenâ€ï¿½, “Laurel Canyonâ€ï¿½), featured three songs from Cave Drawings and the track “Running Out of Roadâ€ï¿½, was written for the film and was highlighted during the ending credits. As An Honest Tune’s Bill Whiting raved, “It is a rare occurrence when an artist’s compositions frame a film project. But, that is just what has happened to former Just Desserts frontman Tom Laverack and his introspective marvel, Cave Drawings. Three of Cave Drawings' songs, ‘Precious Little,’ ‘No Shame,’ and ‘Running Out of Road’…stretches the vast, colorful musical landscape of Laverack's mind with sharp, insightful, poetic lyricism. A deeply satisfying listen, Tom Laverack's Cave Drawings rewards with each sublimely successive playing.â€ï¿½

Prior to Cave Drawings, Laverack released two additional full-length solo CDs: Out of the Blue (Megalith Records), produced by Daniel Egger, was released in 1999 and featured a variety of home recordings (excerpts from earlier recordings that had never been released) and Gift Horse (MayYing Music), produced by Gideon Egger, was released in November 2005 and featured an eclectic collection of songs highlighting Laverack's unique brand of songwriting.

Laverack, along with Mark Ambrosino, are founding partners of the independent label, Sojourn Records, an innovative label highlighting the importance of partnering with artists, leveraging technology,and assisting great artists to connect with great audiences.