Hem--No Word From Tom

Since the Hem’s birth in 1999, the New York group has been making a quiet but impressive mark on the alt/country world. Their latest release Funnel Cloud was supplemented earlier by the collection of covers and b-sides from over the past 7 years. No Word From Tom is a sorrowful collection, featuring tear-dripping acoustic instrumentals matched with Sally Ellyson’s fragile vocals. The cover of Brook Benton’s "Rainy Night in Georgia" sums up the album, singing of overcast hopeless days and somehow finding the strength to go on. No Word From Tom also features "The Present," a lost track from Eveningland, and contains some of the best lyrics on the release: "I have wandered / By the dust here on my feet / For every present / That I have squandered / On every false heart that I meet." The album goes on to feature songs uncut from previous releases, covers from R.E.M. and Pee Wee King, a few lost songs recorded during touring, and even songs taken from Ellyson’s first lullaby demo tape ("The Golden Day Is Dying" and "All The Pretty Horses"). Hem’s infusion of alternative and folk music is impressive on their studio albums, but here in this collection of outtakes and lost tunes it shines even brighter. No Word From Tom creates a timeline of Hem’s musical growth from behind-the-scenes, taking the songs most intimate and most important to the artists themselves and crafting a release that could stand alone as a studio album. Hem shows that even when playing b-sides and covers, they are at their best.

(Published at MusicEmissions.com)