The performer's chameleon-like prowess (he's also a member of musical poetry group Tons of Fun University) has earned him fans in poetry, hip-hop and rock circles, and even attracted the attention of Tom Waits. The gravelly voiced legend was so impressed by [Avery]'s cover of his song Big in Japan that he asked the 30-year-old to open two shows for him in Berlin in 2004, and invited him onstage to perform three songs.

"With all of the barfly façade of the man, the coolest thing was this beautiful, in-love family and their special relationship," Avery says. "It's really them against the world. Everyone asks, 'Did you go to a bar and chain smoke and get drunk?' but it wasn't like that."

"Performing live is when the songs become human beings," explains. "They start out as a scribble on a napkin and they're like a crazy person on the street talking to God. Then something on a napkin that you were in your bedroom playing on the piano and singing to nobody -- and don't know if it's good -- becomes the soundtrack to a movie or a soundtrack to people's lives.