Tom Waits

Tom Waits, rock hall-of-famer and longtime Sonoma County resident, popped up on the Grammy Awards nominations list last week.

Waits was nominated in the best alternative album category for “Bad As Me,” a collection of reinvented roots and rock, and his first studio album of all new music in seven years.

Other nominees in the alternative album category are M83 for “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” Björk for “Biophilia,” Gotye for “Making Mirrors,” and Fiona Apple for “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.”

Waits’ web site (tomwaits.com) offers this bit of historical insight:

“The ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ category has been a head scratcher since its 1991 inception, regarded as a slot for respected artists whose work defies labels. Waits’ first Grammy, for the avant garde industrial 1992 album, ‘Bone Machine,’ was the second album to be awarded in the category.”

The 55th annual Grammy Awards will be televised Feb. 10 on CBS-TV.