Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States.

Per Waits, the album consists of

A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner, about 60 tunes that we collected. Some are from films, some from compilations. Some is stuff that didn't fit on a record, things I recorded in the garage with kids. Oddball things, orphaned tunes.

It is divided into three discs, each a separate collection in its own right. The first, Brawlers, is blues and rock-based; the second, Bawlers, is centered on melancholic ballads; the third, Bastards, features spoken word pieces and other experimental works. The album includes influences of other genres, among them folk, gospel, jazz and Americana.

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards received universal acclaim from critics, who lauded its experimentation and composition, and Waits's vocals. It was the second highest-scoring albums of the year on Metacritic, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It was also a fair commercial success, charting in the United States Billboard 200, as well as in Australia, Switzerland and Austria, reaching the top twenty in the latter. The roots of the songs are diverse; some are Waits's covers of songs by other artists, such as Phil Phillips's "Sea of Love" and the Ramones's "The Return of Jackie and Judy"; some were written by Waits for other artists; "Down There by the Train" and "Long Way Home" were written for Johnny Cash and Norah Jones, respectively.

The Orphans Tour was conducted in support of the album prior to its release.