24th Street Blues, by Tom Heyman

The Mission is on Fire - Shot edited and directed by Bill Shupp

24th Street Blues

by Tom Heyman

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A 58 page Illustrated songbook including musical notation and tablature. Each song is accompanied by a unique painting or drawing by Deirdre F White. Extensive liner notes and more!!

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Full Digital Discography

7

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 24th Street Blues, Go To Blazes...And Other Crimes, Show Business, Baby, That Cool Blue Feeling, Ballads Blues and Union Dues, Deliver Me, and Selling Sand. , and , .

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1.	24th Street Blues 04:09		buy track
2.	Desperate 03:13		buy track
3.	Barbara Jean 03:12		buy track
4.	Sonny Jim 04:13		buy track
5.	Hidden History 03:42		buy track
6.	The Mission Is On Fire 03:56 video	lyrics	buy track
Down on 22nd street there’s a deep hole in the ground It won’t be there much longer now man, just take a look around Right next door the gleaming tower, stands so clear and stark Sixty people lost their homes it barely left a mark Try and square the circle but the pieces just don’t fit And the Mission is on fire, and there’s some people getting rich Downtown in some paneled room they're looking at the plans Working on the optics, now pouring drinks and shaking hands you can say ‘but for the grace of God’ and calculate the cost to stay and fight the battles when the war’s already lost Someone’s sitting on a goldmine, just waiting for the pitch and the Mission is on fire, and there’s some people getting rich Out on 29th street now it’s happening again The sirens wail, the buildings burn flames are dancing in the wind Folks just go about their business, as the afternoon drags on They're coiling the hoses, another city block is gone But the sun will rise, the smoke will clear, the birds will start to sing It’s just a simple sacrifice, one more burnt offering Here come the lawyers and the landlords, and you can't tell which is which and the Mission is on fire, and there’s some people getting rich
7.	Quit Pretending 03:13		buy track
8.	Like A Lion 03:25	lyrics	buy track
Like a Lion My old man he came in like a lion He ain’t going out like a lamb Most days now I get so tired of trying I’m just doing the best I can I knelt, I rang the bells I poured the wine Professed my faith at least a thousand times But I always hedged my bet, it ain’t done nothing for me yet Crossed my fingers, crossed my heart, crossed the line My old man he came in like a lion He ain’t going out like a lamb Most days now I get so tired of trying I’m just doing the best I can I headed west to leave myself behind It’s a tricky thing to slip the ties that bind You know that blood’s a heavy thing, there’s a sadness it can bring Not a day goes by when it don’t cross my mind Give me silence give me sleep Soft and gentle dark and deep When I wake I’ll have nothing to outrun At the end of the day I might think I know what to say But words can’t change the things we know we’ve done I tried to see the world in black and white So simple, cut and dried, just wrong and right Now all that’s certain fades away All I see are shades of gray I keep an open heart and hold on tight My old man he came in like a lion He ain’t going out like a lamb All these years he just keeps trying He’s just doing the best he can I’m just trying to be like my old man
9.	Searching for the Holy Ghost 02:41		buy track
10.	White Econoline 04:52		buy track
11.	That Tender Touch 04:04		buy track
12.	Desperate (Redux) 04:08		buy track

about

-- When speaking of San Francisco these days, it seems like it is stereotypically presented as either a city full of young tech nomads lining up for artisanal coffee, or as a blighted, urban hellscape of fentanyl zombies and street crime. But with his sixth solo album 24th Street Blues, Tom Heyman sings of a more rank-and-file San Francisco, balancing the encroaching darkness of an overdeveloped cityscape with the fragile, abiding beauty of the Golden Gate City.

“If you stay in one place long enough you really start to see it change.” He explains, “Around 2010, the city started to feel like a movie that was sped up, jerking and lurching forward at a dangerously fast, celluloid-shredding pace with market forces feeling like a locomotive bearing down on anything or anyone in its path.”

For over two decades, Heyman and his wife have lived in a sprawling, dilapidated, converted-storefront rental on 24th Street – deep in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district. 24th Street Blues details his observations and interactions from years of living and working in the neighborhood as it weathered the storms and the aftermath of plutocratic expansion. When listening to the hardscrabble sagas that thread these songs together, it doesn’t sound like Heyman deliberately sought to create a concept album so much as he inadvertently followed the Mark Twain credo, “Write what you know.”

Here, the characters of his songs strive to exist (and sometimes perish) under looming cranes that dot the city skyline. Heyman braids timeless sounding singer-songwriter narratives with Barbary Coastal Americana that at times recalls the rusty, boiler-room reverberations of The Basement Tapes or the smoldering boogie of JJ Cale. Other moments are reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot’s beautifully sparse melodies and John Prine’s penchant for an economy of words. Over mostly acoustic tapestries, Heyman sings stories of displaced families, endangered bohemians, migrant workers, sidewalk hustlers, surviving musicians, juvenile delinquents, weathered barkeeps, junkie friends, unhoused encampments, cannabis farmers, and slumlord arsonists.

24th Street Blues arrives packaged with a 60-page songbook comprising lyrics and music charts accompanied by a gorgeous collection of paintings and drawings that were designed as companion pieces for each song. These were created by Heyman’s wife Deirdre F. White, an artist and educator acutely tuned into composing images of modern dystopian inequality and the housing/mobility challenges of the American West.

In addition to his solo work, Heyman has spent many years as a sought-after journeyman guitarist and pedal steel player recording and touring with a varied array of artists including John Doe, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet, Penelope Houston, Roy Loney, Hiss Golden Messenger, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz . His pedal steel playing is one of the distinct sonic threads woven through many of the songs on 24th Street Blues. The record was produced Mike Coykendall (M. Ward ) and mixed by Scott Hirsch (Hiss Golden Messenger).

24th Street Blues presents portraits of a San Francisco where dues are never paid in full, but flowers still bloom from the ashes of the digital goldrush. Like any good long-player, these songs work a deeper magic on the listener with repeated listens. His lyrics take residence in the periphery of your mind like the spectral passages of a Denis Johnson novel. Whether he’s darkening the doors of the city’s Victorians or sharing a drink with a veteran bartender, Heyman has haunted the enduring and evaporating pockets of San Francisco’s heyday long enough to become one of the living ghosts of his own songs.

credits

released October 6, 2023

Recorded by Mike Coykendall at Blue Rooms, Portland OR
Additional recording by Adam Rossi at AR Audio, San Francisco, CA
and Doug Hilsinger Mobile Rig at Bohemian Neglect HQ, San Francisco, CA
Mixed by Scott Hirsch at Echo Magic, Ojai, CA
Mastered by John Greenham at Clearlight, Los Angeles, CA
Music transcription and tablature by Adam Perlmutter
Design by Brian Mello
Book layout and art photographed by Justin Frahm
Paintings and drawings by Deirdre F. White

1. 24th Street Blues
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar
Rusty Miller piano, bass
Scott Hirsch percussion

2.Desperate
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, slide guitar
Mike Coykendall acoustic guitar, bass, percussion
Rusty Miller drums, percussion

3.Barbara Jean
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar
Mike Coykendall 12 string guitar
Rusty Miller drums, bass
Mike Brenner lap steel guitars
Greg Loiacono harmony vocals

4. Sonny Jim
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar
Rusty Miller acoustic guitar, piano, bass, drums, percussion
Mike Coykendall percussion

5. Hidden History
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar
Rusty Miller piano, percussion

6.The Mission is on Fire
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar
Mike Coykendall 12 string guitar
Rusty Miller bass, drums
Mike Brenner lap steel guitars

7. Quit Pretending
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar
Rusty Miller piano

8. Like a Lion
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar
Rusty Miller bass, organ, percussion
Mike Coykendall drums
Greg Loiacono vocals

9. Searching for the Holy Ghost
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar
Mike Coykendall acoustic guitar, bass, percussion
Rusty Miller drums, percussion

10. White Econoline
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar
Rusty Miller drums, bass

11. That Tender Touch
Tom Heyman vocals, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar
Mike Coykendall 12 string guitar
Rusty Miller drums, piano, bass

12. Desperate (Redux)
Tom Heyman vocals
Rusty Miller piano

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Tom Heyman San Francisco, California

tomheymanmusic.net

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