One night, legendary doorman Dave Noel was sitting on the back steps of the OG basement complaining about all the musical tribute shows in Nashville. You know, the ones where multiple musicians play the music of one artist. Dave’s buddy asked him, “What tribute show you would actually pay to see?” Noel said, “Tom Waits.” 

Tom Waits isn’t for everyone. One critic described Waits’s voice as “soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.

And yet. 

Get Behind the Mule: A Tom Wait’s Tribute has been a hit. It is about to hit its 20th year. Even though the tribute event hasn’t happened — it’s tomorrow — the event has already raised over $20,000. All that money will go to Second Harvest Food Bank. 

Allison Gower, die-hard Tom Waits fan first and event organizer second, says that money is really impactful. “Every dollar is equivalent to four meals.”  Which, if my math, which is poor, is 80,000 meals.”

Feeding those in need is the core meaning behind Get Behind the Mule — a reference to a Tom Waits song inspired by blues man Robert Johnson’s dad. “He was trying to encourage his children to participate in sharecropping and saying ‘Get behind the mule, this is about community. Get behind the mule this is about feeding ourselves and feeding our people” says Gower.

Get Behind The Mule will feature 11 performers all playing Tom Waits songs tomorrow night, December 5th, at the 5 Spot.