Freak Scene #119: tr willits Comes Full Circle on 'all of us'
Plus, Connecticut's soft spot have a thing for '90s alt-rock on their new EP
This week in Freak Scene, Northampton singer and songwriter tr willits has come back to making music after a lengthy hiatus, and Stamford band soft spot loves the sound of ’90s alt-rock on their new EP. (Everybody goes by lowercase names this week.)
Tom Willits has done a lot of things over the years. He’s been a recording artist, record producer, artist manager, entrepreneur and teacher, but writing songs and performing them was always his favorite.
“It was what I did best,” Willits says. “I mean, I started performing when I was in seventh grade.”
The April release as tr willits of all of us marks the first album in 24 years for the Northampton singer, who performs Tuesday, May 26, at the Iron Horse (tickets), and June 11 at the Hartford Public Library (free). The 11 folk-rock songs on the album are linked by themes of love and community, a concept reflected in Willits’ choice of collaborators. The musicians include percussionist Matthew King of Taproot and bassist Chris Fournier, both of whom taught with Willits at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts charter school. Drummer Jack Silverman attended PVPA and later worked with Willits at Music and Poetry Synchronized (MAPS), an educational program for students that Willits started in 2005. The album also features guitar from his son-in-law, Zack Forray, while his granddaughter Lucy Forray contributes backing vocals.
“I'm thankful. I'm blessed to be able to do this,” Willits says. “I'm really proud of what it is.”
Though the album itself came together fairly quickly after Willits started writing songs in January 2025, it took several years of strategizing before he was able to free up his schedule. After decades in the music business, Willits turned to teaching in the early 2000s. After a decade as the songwriting and vocal technique instructor at PVPA between 2004-14, Willits turned his focus more fully to MAPS, which brings together middle and high school students from different states — as well as cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds — to collaborate on writing music, poetry and visual art.
“I had run it so long, I had raised most of the money, and I was very concerned about how I was going to get out without leaving people in the lurch,” Willits says.
Eventually, Willits came up with a plan to turn over the organization to schools using MAPS programming, including Northampton High School, Great Path Academy in Manchester and Milner Middle School in Hartford. With a path forward for MAPS, Willits stepped down last June, and went into the studio in August — just as he was getting over a nasty bout of RSV.
“I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to sing the parts,” Willits said.
His voice ended up sounding rougher than usual, but it suits the songs, which have a worldly feel to them. On many of these tracks, he’s seeking peace of mind in a tumultuous world. He fingerpicks an acoustic guitar at the start of “it’s my time” before a wash of cymbals and piano flesh out the arrangement. Later, the whirring sound of a Hammond organ and hand percussion power “memory,” where backing harmonies swell up around his lead vocals and a chugging electric guitar comes in midway through. Though Willits wrote most of these songs early in 2025, some of them date back further: “17150” is from 2019, while “the traveler,” dates from 1975, when he was fronting the Tom Willits Band.
Raised in the Boston area, Willits went on tour soon after he graduated from high school, opening for Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Peter, Paul & Mary, among others, while releasing albums. Then, in the ’80s, the record label he had founded, Wild Card, merged with Broadbeard Productions, making Willits part of the team that managed Debbie Gibson’s rise to stardom. He put his own performing career on hold then to focus on the business side. That’s also around when he and his wife moved to Northampton, where their two daughters grew up.
“I was intending to keep on making records, but then, you know, we had 50 employees,” Willits says. “It was a big operation that at that time took everything I had.”
Though he released the album Keep the Faith in 2002, he was too busy to record an immediate follow-up, what with the marketing company MRW he started in 2004, teaching and MAPS. Finally finding the time to make all of us feels a bit like coming home.
“You can imagine how great it is — this is a full-circle moment for me,” Willits says.
Soft Spot Evoke ’90s Alt-Rock on New EP
We’ve talked here previously about how music from the ’90s is on the upswing, and soft spot is the latest example. The Connecticut foursome is steeped in the sound of post-Nirvana alt-rock on 1-800 soft-spot, the band’s new five-song EP. Specifically, it sounds like soft spot have been listening to a lot of Alice in Chains, and maybe some of the Seattle band’s more metal-leaning progeny. The group performs tonight, May 22, at Café Nine in New Haven (tickets).
The Stamford quartet favors brooding, overdriven guitars and minor-key vocal melodies. Opener “Temporary Bliss” glowers through a scrim of dense rhythm guitar and subtle leads from Will Vellek, held down by cavernous drums by Marc Marenco. On “Running Away,” the guitars writhe and twist behind vocals from Gianni Carpanzano that alternate between downbeat and full-throated. Soft spot turn down the angst a little on “Stars,” where sparking guitars and a thudding bassline from Dave Eisermann frame a simple refrain from Carpanzano. He mostly repeats the same couplet throughout the song — “She thinks she missed the train to Mars / She’s out back counting stars” — but the reference is vivid and specific enough to bear repeating.
The new EP follows soft spot’s 2025 album This Will Make You Cry. The group is working in largely the same vein here, though 1-800 soft-spot puts greater emphasis on an overall sense of atmospherics. Since the group began releasing music in 2022, they’ve shown an affinity for a sound that evokes a decade they weren’t old enough to have really experienced first-hand. There’s something almost reassuring about that — it’s like an inside peek at how musical styles are handed down to new generations of fans and musicians that keep them alive.
Upcoming Concerts
These are new shows announced this week. The full concert calendar is available here for paid subscribers.
Here's the Bobo Lavorgna gig update: The Killingworth bassist plays this Sunday, May 24, in the Bargain on a double bill with American Elm at the Katherine Hepburn Center in Old Saybrook (tickets). He's also playing in the CT Hope Collective June 13 as part of LocalPalooza at Three Saints Park in Bethany (tickets) and June 17 at Sacred Heart University Community Theater in Fairfield.
Coming to the Iron Horse in Northampton: Carolyn Wonderland Aug. 23 (tickets), Vienna Teng Sept. 20 (tickets), Panic Shack Sept. 25 (tickets) and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet Oct. 8 (tickets). We usually skip tribute shows here, but this is a gray area: Billy Prine performs the songs of John Prine, his brother, Jan. 24, with opener Scarlett Egan (tickets).
The Drake in Amherst hosts the Band Memo Aug. 7 (tickets).
Trampled by Turtles perform Sept. 18 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven (tickets). Synthwave duo the Midnight are there Oct. 8 (tickets).
The Space Ballroom in Hamden hosts Laundry Day Sept. 10 (tickets).
That’s a wrap on this week. Thank you for reading! Previous issues are available in the online archive. Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen and are gratefully accepted. If you’re able, please consider a paid subscription!
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