Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A Little Light Music: Coverfolk For Our Longer Days





As a teacher, I’m used to waking in the dark, like a sneak thief rising in the night, stealing time from sleep while the spouse and children slumber. Past open doors and tiny sighs I go silently, to navigate the narrow stairs, start the coffee in the stove’s tiny flourescent overhead, check morning email at the kitchen counter with nothing but the laptop glow to illuminate the keys.

These days, by the time I come up again, fully dressed, to kiss them each in turn on my way out the door, their faces are already visible in the deep wan dawn. And that’s a difference from February, when it took the hallway light to ensure that I did not trip on books or paper dolls, knock clumsily against bedframes, and awaken the kids.

Even as Winter wanes and the afternoons turn warm with sun, it’s still dark when I wake up. But leaving the house in full-bore sunrise is a harbinger of Spring.   And though daylight savings will cost us an hour this Sunday, turning the clock back to an early darkness, such change is temporary.

On the car radio, the weatherman counts the added minutes: three more today, and the sun bright in my rear view mirror as I crest the hill between towns, the city spread out below me no longer in shadow. Soon, the work I wake into will be aglow again with blue.   Today, then, let’s bring on the light.



Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk sets and features each Wednesday, Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:34 pm | 5 comments
Labels: Uncategorized

Saturday, March 6, 2010

(Re)Covered, XV: More covers of and from
Talking Heads, Pat Wictor, Lori McKenna, Mark Erelli & Paul Simon!

Our music library may be vast, but we’ve never claimed to be completists here at Cover Lay Down. There’s always something missed or previously unheard, and always something new, too, released just in time to taunt us in the aftermath of a topical post.

Serendipitous addenda come from fellow bloggers, readers, labels, artists and library visits into our welcoming ears and hands. From there, they make their way back to you via our (Re)Covered features, wherein we share new and newly-rediscovered songs that dropped into our laps just a bit too late to make it into earlier features.


Our recent post covering the Talking Heads songbook has proved to be immensely popular, netting huge surges in traffic after receiving mention from both Metafilter and Very Short List. As is generally the case, with popularity comes an increase in suggested also-rans, and though many of the songs readers sent along were not folk at all - for example, I had already considered and rejected Guster’s uber-funky alt-jamband take on Nothing But Flowers and Moxy Fruvous’ slammin’ live cover of Psycho Killer as far too rock for our readership, and passed over Miles Fisher’s electrocover as fun but far too weird, when compiling our original post - this Jason Spooner track, recommended by fellow Star Maker Machine regular FiL, is a great slow-burn acoustic folk jam that fits the bill perfectly.



In an interesting email exchange with Pat Wictor after our recent feature on the NY-based singer-songwriter attempted to used his recent career path to exemplify the challenges artists face in moving from “emerging” to “established”, Pat humbly suggested that I had made the common mistake of confusing buzz with name-recognition and much more typical under-the-radar career growth - an error all the more frustrating because I myself have addressed this issue of bloggers mistaking buzz concentration as an indicator of popularity in previous posts, specifically in regards to the shortened buzz-and-fall cycle which has accompanied the rise of the rapid-fire blogging world. Mea culpa.

As Pat points out, his career continues to grow, albeit in more subtle ways out of the “new artist” limelight; recent developments include growing audience sizes, his first major tours of California, Texas, the Midwest, and the Carolinas, and a move from opening act slots to co-bills in much larger spaces. But that doesn’t mean he’s rich and famous yet, folks. Instead, says Pat, he’s engaged in “the long, slow work of building an audience, person by person,” and that’s where a blog can be a fine vehicle, indeed. Here’s a matched set of subtly different covers of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s You Got To Move from Pat’s work with frequent stage-sharer and fellow 2006 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Abbie Gardner (of similarly up-and-growing folk trio Red Molly) - one from his album, one from hers - to help keep these artists on your radar where they belong.



We’ve featured local singer-songwriters and frequent touring companions Mark Erelli and Lori McKenna here in fits and starts over the years: our first-year Mother’s Day post offered a pair of now long-gone coversongs from the housewife-turned-singing sensation; the release of Mark’s 2008 album Delivered occasioned a similar subfeature, including several covers which have suffered the same fate.

But their recently recorded cover of Mary Gauthier’s Mercy Now, which came to me via Bottom of the Glass, is a full-bore delight, with driving beat, lightness, and harmonies that lend a bit more hope and perhaps a touch more steel to what seemed to be an untouchable original. And sending you off to purchase the recent 1% For The Planet benefit compilation from which it comes is a great way to support ecological causes, to boot. As a bonus, in lieu of reviving old posts ad infinitum, I’ve included a few favorite othercovers from those previous posts.

Bonus:



Finally, in other covernews, the new Peter Gabriel all-covers album Scratch My Back is, by most accounts, sappy, maudlin, emotionless and tame; it wasn’t even that hard to find a reviewer willing to call it “the worst cover album in the history of cover albums.” But the good news is that it’s part of a reciprocal project, which means upcoming Peter Gabriel covers from each of the artists whose work Gabriel mangles on his own release. And if Paul Simon’s cover of Biko, released in tandem with Gabriel’s cover of Boy in the Bubble as the second “Double A-side” single from the project, is any indication, we’re in for a great ride.

Our Paul Simon cover feature is yet another part of our long-dead archives, and we’re surely overdue to revisit his songbook, so expect another round of Simon covers to come sometime in 2010. In the meanwhile, stay tuned to the usual indieblogs for Peter Gabriel covers from Bon Iver, Regina Spektor, and more in the weeks ahead.



As an added bonus, since we’re looking back that far today, here’s another stunning Peter Gabriel cover from an album featured in our very first post here at Cover Lay Down, way back in September of 2007.



Cover Lay Down posts new features and coverfolk sets every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:32 pm | 3 comments
Labels: (Re)Covered, Jason Spooner, Lori McKenna, Mark Erelli, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Revisited: Eliza Gilkyson Covers
Dylan, Guthrie, Greg Brown, World Party, The Bare Necessities and more!





Austin’s Eliza Gilkyson was the focus of our second post here at a fledgling Cover Lay Down, and the very first artist to get the full treatment; I had recently discovered the long-standing singer-songwriter, and was eager to get things off on the right foot by tapping into my own excitement with the folk world as I experience it.

Of course, back then, the vast majority of you weren’t here - a truth that justifies the occasional repost, I think, especially for those artists who really do form the core of modern folk identity. But it’s also true that things have changed since October 2007, when my daily readership was in the single digits, and we only posted two or three songs per post.

Since we first featured her, Gilkyson’s 2008 Red House Records release Beautiful World was named “Eliza’s masterpiece” by the All Music Guide; her two-track appearance on Down at The Sea Hotel, a lovely if not entirely consistent collection of folk and pop songs reinterpreted for children by a select cadre of established folk artists, turned out to be among the albums greatest, strongest gems.

That same year, Eliza was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the national Folk Alliance conference, and Joan Baez included two of Eliza’s songs, Requiem and Rose of Sharon, on her own Steve Earle-produced album Day After Tomorrow. And - perhaps as a result of all this recognition - in two-and-a-half years, Gilkyson’s Wikipedia entry has grown from a single sentence to a slightly more substantive entry, which acknowledges the down-to-earth artist for her own canon and her tireless work for social justice and peace, not just her family connections.

I’ve also unearthed several more of her albums, thanks in no small part to our local public library system, and found more covers as well - most notably a sweet live-album audience sing-along take on her father Terry Gilkyson’s most famous cultural contribution, a song called Bare Necessities, which most folks will recognize from Disney’s The Jungle Book. Here’s the original entry, as-is, plus a generous helping of newly-added covers from Eliza Gilkyson’s beautiful world. Feel free to sing along.


Eliza Gilkyson has apparently been flying under the folk radar for quite some time now — her Wikipedia entry lists no birth date, guesses at her age, and is comprised entirely of a single sentence about her musical family connections and a list of her 15 studio albums over a 28 year career.

I must admit, it was a surprise for me to find Gilkyson so unwritten. If her regular appearance on folk collections is any indication, she’s well-respected as a solid voice within the folk community, appearing with names from Ani to Shawn Colvin. Heck, someone whose 2004 album was nominated for a Grammy in the Contemporary Folk category, and who played a feature set at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival back when her 2000 cut “Hard Times In Babylon” was all over the folkwaves, deserves more than a stub.

To be fair, her relatively recent rise in familiarity, if only within the apparently non-wikipedian folk community, is also due to her appearance on two cover albums — 2002 Greg Brown tribute Going Driftless and 2001 Dylan recast A Nod To Bob. The former is a masterpiece of the modern folk community; the latter is a generally solid all-folk tribute album to Dylan; both contain covers from a wide breadth of excellent folkies and singer-songwriters, and will surely come up again here on Cover Lay Down.

Gilkyson’s cuts on these albums are equally powerful, melodic, raw and twangy; though you can hear the weary age in her voice, there’s something plaintive, simple, even hopeful about her interpretations. But don’t take my word for it. Take an earful, and hear for yourself.

REPOST BONUS TRACKS:



Her catalog is vast, and most of Gilkyson’s older work is out of print. But though I can’t claim to have heard it all, what I have heard is worth owning. Especially recommended: penultimate album Paradise Hotel, which includes that wonderful cover of 80s one-hitter World Party’s Is It Like Today, and her 2000 Red House Records release Hard Times in Babylon, and not just for the title song. Get them direct from the label — Red House deserves your support. You can hear more Gilkyson on MySpace, too.

Posted by boyhowdy at 8:47 pm | 7 comments
Labels: Eliza Gilkyson

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Single Song Sunday: Ring of Fire
(A dozen folkcovers of the Carter/Cash classic)





According to Wikipedia, 80% of the world’s major earthquakes take place in the Ring of Fire, a volatile region of the Pacific that spans a 40,000 kilometer horseshoe of coastland and island nations from New Zealand and Japan to Alaska, Mexico, and a huge swath of the American continents. Last night, for example, an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile, killing hundreds, and leaving as many as a million people homeless. The resultant tsunami activity - earthquakes move water like a kid rising out of a bathtub - is bearing down on the Americas, and has already proved a real threat to Pacific islands from Hawaii to French Polynesia.

Why so little relative death from an earthquake as much as 100 times more powerful than the quake which recently hit Haiti? Infrastructure and population density, mostly. Chile has money; its buildings shuddered, but most did not fall. Whether the waves that follow will hit already-broken communities, adding significantly to the death toll, remains an unknown.



June Carter didn’t have the seismic activity of the Pacific in mind when she wrote of her burning love for Johnny Cash way back in the early sixties, of course - instead, as the story goes, she took her titular phrase from the line “Love is like a burning ring of fire,” which she found underlined in one of her uncle A.P. Carter’s Elizabethan poetry books.

But the consuming conceit of loving an addict and alcoholic is a complex and effective device, a metaphor of “the transformative power of love,” as Roseanne Cash puts it, that has rung true through the ages. Ring of Fire is one of Johnny Cash’s most covered tunes, and generally cited as such, despite having been recorded first by June’s sister Anita on her 1962 Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New, which is where Johnny first encountered the haunting lyrics. According to Cash, adding the mariachi horns came from a dream, and the south-of-the-border punctuation seems to have clicked, as it was his version that caught the ear of the culture, eventually settling in as #87 on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songs of all time.


Johnny Cash would have been 78 this week. Other blogs have been celebrating by noting the release of his final posthumous collection of new material American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the last of the deliciously folk series of Rick Rubin-produced “American” recordings which Cash released in the final years of his life - a set of records that form the core of my own Cash collection, as, perhaps more than any of his life’s work, they serve as evidence of the true folk sensibility of the artist.

Originally, my intent today was to pay tribute to the Man in Black by offering some favorites from that series, which is chock full of poignant, perfectly broken covers of Tom Petty, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and other songs stripped to the bone and retranslated as spiritual guideposts, a man looking back on a life spent walking the line between pain and redemption. But in the context of the most recent global disaster, there is perhaps no better way to celebrate his influence and soul than through a spectrum of folk and roots artists’ coverage of Ring of Fire - a song originally written to express a troubled love for Cash himself, ultimately redeemed by Cash and his loving partner as a dark celebration of love and its trials, and eventually grounded in the popular imagination as a song from the man’s own soul.

For to love the world’s music is to love the world. And as the walls of our safe havens shake and crumble, and disasters crash the beaches that we have built as bulwarks around us, we are reminded evermore that the world needs our love, just like Johnny needed June, to be whole.



Speaking of helping hands and natural disasters: Thanks to all who participated in our recent “pay it forward” fund drive - together, we raised over $80 for Doctors Without Borders and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts!

As a very special thank you to my readers, all those who give five dollars or more to help cover server costs at Cover Lay Down before the end of March will receive a homemade live bootleg mix of covers from this past year’s Clearwater, Grey Fox, and Falcon Ridge Folk Festivals. Click here to donate, and learn more about the project.

Posted by boyhowdy at 8:50 pm | 4 comments
Labels: Johnny Cash, Single Song Sunday

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pat Wictor Covers:
Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan, Son House, Dave Carter & more!





Success is a fickle and elusive concept in the modern folk world. Being well respected in such a small community of fans may keep you on the road, but it takes an awful lot of coffeehouse sets to pay a mortgage. It’s no secret that even well-recognized names performing in the folk vein are lucky if their new albums sell a few thousand copies. For every one of the tiny handful of acts in each generation - From Dar to Dylan, from Patty Griffin to Nanci Griffith - that manage to break the barrier between small folk radio and mainstream recognition, there are hundreds of excellent acts on the circuit for whom success is measured in smaller increments of rise and fall.

Pat Wictor is an interesting case in point. After leaving a teaching career in 2001 to focus on musicianship full time, his fourth album, Waiting For The Water (2004), reached #4 on the FolkDJ playlist by February of 2005; his subsequent release, Heaven Is So High…And I’m So Far Down (2006), was a critical breakthrough, netting him nationwide playlist slots and plenty of positive press in the folk publications.

Being voted one of three “Most Wanted” artists at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s emerging artists showcase that year netted the New York artist a feature spot on the mainstage the following year. Similar accolades from the Kerrville Folk Fest in 2007, plus a nomination for emerging artist of the year at the International Folk Festival, seemed apt confirmation of his well-deserved welcome from the folk community.

But as many artists discover the hard way, keeping the buzz going after the “new” label wears off can be an uphill climb.

[Update, March 2: after further research and discussion, I see that I mistook Pat's move from "new and peaking" to a more settled spot on a more national scale as a loss of status and recognition in the folk community - which was, it turns out, a misrepresentation of Pat's own experience. I'll address this more formally sometime in the next week or three; in the meanwhile, my commentary on his excellent musicianship stands, and Pat's newest album, like the rest of his work, remains highly recommended.]


Like many singer-songwriters of his generation, Pat Wictor’s turn in the spotlight as a rising star has not necessarily been the first step on a larger ladder to fame and fortune. 2008 release The Sunset Waltz was a solid album, but it’s noticeably absent from Wictor’s website bio, perhaps suggesting that it did not receive the same critical reception as his two previous works. And noticeably, Pat’s presence on festival mainstages has waned significantly since 2007. Last year, his only even semi-official appearance In 2008, for example, my only experience of his performance at Falcon Ridge was a tiny unmiked vendor-sponsored set in the aisle of the vendor area, attended by a small crowd of perhaps twenty wandering souls and shoppers, and me. A far cry from the mainstages, indeed.

I’ll admit, catching Pat Wictor’s casual off-stage performance at Falcon Ridge ‘08 was my first chance to hear him play live; my volunteer work at Falcon Ridge often keeps me from the stage, and I’m no longer young enough to stay up until the wee hours of the morning at the song circles on the hill. But finally having the chance to encounter Pat Wictor’s performance in person was a revelation. Thing is, though I had thoroughly enjoyed the few tunes I had found on his website in previous years, now that I’ve had the chance to see him, and spent some time steeping myself in his catalog, I really, really like Wictor’s work.

Wictor’s undeniable talent as a performer and songwriter, coupled with the relatively unique combination of bluesy, fluid, slide-guitar-driven folk and spiritually uplifting lyrics, are a potent mix. His warm, mellow tenor drips with Dave Carter’s gentle soul, and a soulfulness that is as light and graceful as Odetta’s was deep and dark. Combine this with his powerful, gentle presence - there’s something genuine and earnest about Pat that comes across through both his studio work and his live performance - and you’ve got something rare and precious, indeed.



Pat Wictor isn’t the kind of artist that’s going to make a splash on Contemporary Pop radio, and that’s okay - it’s clearly not his bag. He continues to release his work on his own in-house label, the professional nature of which speaks to a solid attention to his craft, but also seems an indication of a continued existence under the radar. His current tour calendar is sparsely populated with house concerts and co-bills. Four years after the wave of popularity, it’s hard to tell if this is an artist who will still be on the popular folk radar at all a decade from now.

Still, if there was any question that Wictor deserves to stay on our radar, his newest album Living Ever-Lovin’ Live answers it profoundly. Recorded live during a series of intimate 2009 concerts, the album captures an excellent songwriter and performer in fine, confident form, his gentle nature and optimism coming through every graceful lick, and each audience interaction.

A DIY project in every way - self-released, and recorded by the artist as well - Living Ever-Lovin’ Live features several new originals, unreleased takes on crowd favorites, and a trio of familiar blues and gospel songs done up with aplomb. The end result is a sweet, beautiful record, mature and thoughtful, playful and peaceful in turn, refining our impression of Wictor’s genuineness and artistry - and reinforcing my conviction that this is one artist who really should not be forgotten.

Wictor may no longer be eligible for recognition as a new artist, but as Living Ever-Lovin’ Live aptly demonstrates, he deserves our support for a continued canon of work that is well worth our collection and celebration. Here’s a few well-treated covers from his last few albums, shared with permission from this fine folk artist himself; listen and then pick up a copy of Living Ever Loving’ Live direct from Pat Wictor’s website. Perhaps, with our help, we’ll see this potent performer on the main stage once again, where he belongs.




Remember, folks: Cover Lay Down exists first and foremost to promote the artists we feature, so that folk music may continue to stand as a thriving component of culture and community. If you like what you hear, please consider pursuing the links above to purchase work from Pat Wictor, and from all the artists we present.

Posted by boyhowdy at 9:43 pm | 2 comments
Labels: Pat Wictor

Monday, February 22, 2010

Monday Exclusive: NEW tradfolk from Decemberists side project Black Prairie





Hope no one minds the mid-week jump-in, but I just opened an email announcing brand new Decemberists side project Black Prairie - their first show isn’t until next week, at San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival - and was thrilled to discover a beautifully dark, moody acoustic Americana take on traditional folk song Red Rocking Chair attached that just begged to be passed along.

According to the press release, the Portland-based band, who will be releasing their album Feast of the Hunters’ Moon on Bluegrass-and-more label Sugar Hill Records on March 9, features predominantly instrumental string band compositions from three members of the Decemberists - guitarist Chris Funk on dobro, bassist Nate Query, and Jenny Conlee’s accordion stylings - with violin and guitar from fellow Oregonians Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld, and gorgeous here-and-there vocals from Tornfelt on a few tracks as well. As Red Rocking Chair reveals, the resulting sound has elements of gypsy music and bluegrass, coupled with a fluid yet modern indiefolk sensibility; if this song is any indication, the project is poised to take SXSW by storm.

The combination of label and talent speaks volumes about both the great work going on over at Sugar Hill, and the continued development of the Portland scene. More significantly, in this particular case, the appearance of Decemberists/Death Cab producer Tucker Martine, the backgrounds of the various members, and the promise of both a few more traditional numbers plus originals “containing multiple movement that ebb and flow”, leave me more than eager to hear the rest of the album.

Check out the exclusive track below, plus jumpin’ gypsy/klezmer jamgrass track Back Alley on their MySpace page, and then join Black Prairie’s facebook page to stay abreast of a group that may well prove to be the next big thing in both the ongoing string band revival and the continued evolution of folk music.



Apologies for the quick-and-dirty “press release” post style - it’s rare for a coverblogger to be so early in the blogosphere with something this juicy, and I just couldn’t resist. We’ll be back Wednesday with our usual full feature.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:37 pm | 1 comment
Labels: Uncategorized

Sunday, February 21, 2010

To The Stars: Coversongs of Space





It starts with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Goodnight Moon, and before you know it, you’re out in the yard long after bedtime, the winter cold against your upturned nose, holding hands with Daddy and tracking yellow-red Mars through the trees on a clear and moonless night.

From there, looking up into the dark for more than a moment is never done without soulsearching. Summers, we lie on our backs in the folk festival fields to watch the meteor showers, and wonder at how brief the light, and how hot the distant fire. Even tonight, on the long ride home after dark, the moon followed us again, as if to remind us that though we ourselves might wax and wane in our skins, the night skies are our constant companion, our truest metaphor for everything that is holy and mystical.

Our tendency to point and ponder into space is essential to the human condition: an embodiment of and focal point for our love of mystery, and of the endless, boundless potential of the universe around us. Historically, the everpresent heavens have featured heavily in our explanations for how the world works. In an age of science, the pursuit of the unknown and the fears and excitement which accompany our upward gaze after the sun has set and the heavens turned infinite have not faded, just transformed, from stories told by the constellations to stories of the space station, now finally complete, its glorious picture window framed in moonrocks, its view of the world and its cradle of sky there for the taking.

In a way, that is, we depend on outer space to help us understand our inner space. For the skies are the limit, they say - of imagination, and of our understanding - and so we imbue them with everything we are, and wish to be. Fear and fancy, side by side: the moon, the stars, the sun, the space between, and everything else we see but cannot touch, except inside our secret selves.


There’s a rich vein to be mined in the myriad of ways we see the firmament. Over at Sci Fi Songs, John Anealio has inaugurated his new Interstellar Jukebox series with a set of “Space” songs, each contributed by a writer, blogger, or musician which he admires. Though I’m proud to announce that my own round two contribution, a Roches cover of an old Harry Nilsson tune, is due to appear in a day or two, there’s no reason to wait; head over for some great writing and song choices from the sci fi set, and stick around to serve your inner geek via your talented host’s weekly-posted originals, coversongs, and other “odes to androids, princesses, and vampires” while you’re there.

And here’s a set of coverfolk that casts the nets a bit wider, covering the full spectrum of our mixed emotions about space and all it contains. As always, if you’ve got an on-theme coverfolk song to share, we’d love to hear it; feel free to leave mention in the comets below.




Cover Lay Down posts new features and coverfolk sets each Wednesday, Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:41 pm | 8 comments
Labels: Uncategorized

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Tidbit Thursday: Jeff Pianki covers Loggins and Messina
plus Disney, Dr. Seuss, Vampire Weekend, and A-Ha covers here & elseblog

Credit where credit is due today to other bloggers for turning me on to the following cover artists and songs.


First, major kudos to Chad of the newly-resurrected, totally refurbished Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands for finding and promoting Jeff Pianki, a young upstart who knows how to play and how to play the social media rising star game. The Michigan-based artist, who posts his own new covers at both YouTube and Tumblr, refers fans to his homegrown last.fm collections for mp3s, but I suspect he won’t mind if we host his newest, an utterly amazing bedroom folk cover of Loggins and Messina classic Danny’s Song which, truly, blows every last hint of sappiness out of the original, replacing it with a tenderly broken lo-fi indie greatness.

Pianki seems poised for greatness, too: though he’s not released an official album yet, or even a single studio track, according to his Facebook page, the artist will be opening for Gregory and the Hawk, aka Meredith Godreau, when she comes through his area in May. Makes me wish I lived in Michigan, too.



Elseblog, thanks to Kurtis of the now fully-revived Disney covers blog Covering the Mouse, who asked me throw in a guest post, and posted my contribution yesterday. I chose a particularly international cover for the occasion, in keeping with the multi-national chaos currently overwhelming Kurtis’ Olympic-hosting home province, but to be honest, I found it elseblog myself: at Spanish coverblog Torre De Canciones, who continues to impress with otherwise-undiscovered coversongs that quite often suit our penchant for the gentle and acoustic here at Cover Lay Down.

To prove my point, here’s the pseudonymous Spanish sensation Anni B Sweet with a dreamy, delicate popfolk uke-and-guitar cover of A-Ha classic Take On Me, posted by her blogging countrywoman just this week. Add Torre De Canciones to your feedreader, head over to Covering The Mouse to check out and stream French gypsy-punk band Famille Grendy’s acoustic cover of Chim Chim Cher-ee, and in general, give daily thanks to the Internet for being just plain awesome.



Oh, and speaking of awesome music elseblog: we’re featuring Canadian artists over at collaborative blog Star Maker Machine this week in honor of the Olympics; near as I can tell, my first contribution marks the first time Moxy Fruvous’ amazing nerd rap version of Dr. Seuss kiddie classic Green Eggs and Ham has been on the web since Cover Lay Down moved on from its old host in 2008.

Head over to Star Maker Machine to catch the tune, and to pick up more great musical content from “Canada: America’s Hat”.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:31 am | 2 comments
Labels: Elseblog

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Covered In Folk: Talking Heads
(featuring 6 covers of Naive Melody and 10 more!)





My brother was the Talking Heads fan in our household. As such, my strongest memories of the group are primarily visual: David Byrne in his trademark oversized suits; album cover images, most especially the stark black-and-tan cover of Stop Making Sense; the New Wave theatricality of the concert video espied in passing as I wandered through the living room looking for books.

By the time we were old enough to venture out to concerts on our own, the band, while technically still together, was primarily involved in solo projects, due in no small part to David Byrne’s tight hold on the musical output released under the Talking Heads moniker, and the resulting on-again off-again bad blood which lingered throughout much of their career as a foursome. Though we did spend a memorable evening in a basement dive bouncing around to Tom Tom Club, a spin-off from married musicians Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth which first formed in ‘80, neither of us ever made it to a Talking Heads show, and now it’s two decades too late.


That’s not to say that I don’t recognize their songbook when I hear it, of course. Like so many of our Covered in Folk focal points, Talking Heads play a significant role in the radioplay of our culture. Though their entire reign produced but one American Top 10 hit (1983’s Burning Down the House), their songs are peripherally familiar, choruses heard in record shops while browsing, melodies locked in our heads from almost three decades of movie soundtrack placement and cultural cache.

Though their canon is oft-covered in the jamband world - Phish took on Remain in Light in its entirety for one of their infamous Halloween shows; Dave Matthews and Widespread Panic have recorded covers as well - there’s less Talking Heads coverage in the rest of the musical spectrum, leaving us pushing the definition of “folk” even more than usual in today’s top-heavy set. Yet there’s something about This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) that lends itself to folksong, as our broad set of covers of the song aptly demonstrate. And - as with any band so steeped in the popular consciousness - the songbook lingers, its neurosis-laden, experimental lyrics and easy-to-manage chord progressions available to all, leaving us with a few more gems from the folkworld.

    From the sparse and chilly drone-and-chant of The Old Believers to the fluid, pensive contemplation of Shawn Colvin’s cover, this paean to the feeling of home is the Talking Heads song that seems to offer the most flexible opportunities for coverage. Gunnar Madsen goes for the most delicate version, just guitar and faint jungle drums to match his strained voice; on the other end of the musical spectrum, Bloomington, Indiana rockers Mysteries of Life come in with an alt-country surf rock piece that, while not folk, has plenty of rootsy charm. Acoustic surf-rocker Trevor Green goes worldbeat with a laid-back jam. Even popular indierockers Arcade Fire come in for a turn on the tune, offering a folkrock take with a Jamaican touch, thanks to some well-placed steel drum.
    Yet another lo-fi bedroom cover from The Morning Benders. Though their new album reveals a band much more rock-oriented than their early covers release might have suggested, the raspy, unrehearsed band-around-the-campfire feeling serves the obscure selection quite well, I think.
    Originally recorded for an in-studio Paste session back in 2008, the rising stars of Irish folk rock strip it down to a singer-songwritery guitar-led indie folk ballad with just the right touch of banjo. Perhaps the most delicate cover in our short set, and - as such - a delicious treat from Bell X1.
    This Jim Bianco track comes from Robin Danar’s mixed-bag all-covers Altered States collaborative collection - just one of many TV, film, and compilation appearances from one of indie music’s hardest-working singer-songwriters. A touch of Tom Waits’ vocal booziness and more than a hint of electro-americana blues make for an appropriately alien landscape of sound.
    Indie darlings The Editors go weary No Depression country rock in this live acoustic take, apocryphally from a 2008 BBC session.
    Okay, it verges on a track from one of those mass-produced “Pickin’ On” cover albums. But the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers are a true-blue bona fide newgrass jamband whose cover comes off like a bluegrass Led Zeppelin, and they get bonus points for demonstrating that there was a picker’s lazy delight hiding in here all along.
    A deliberately mellow, bossa-beat cover from Prozak for Lovers II, Bruce Lash’s oft-maudlin yet oddly endearing attempt to transform popular songs of disenfranchisement and alienation into something soothing and warm. Lash’s virtual acoustic gigs in Second Life under the name Winston Ackland are well worth finding, if you’re into that sort of thing.
    Roadhouse bluesrock from the reigning queen of white-girl electric guitar blues, recorded live and released on mid-nineties double disc Road Tested.



Bonus points today for a pair of delicate covers from David Byrne’s prolific solo career, plus a surprisingly sensitive take on Richard Thompson from the man himself.



As always, Cover Lay Down exists first and foremost to promote the continuation of folk music; if you like what you hear, we encourage you to follow the links above to purchase and support the next generation of folk.

That said: our month-long “pay it forward” promotion ends tomorrow at the stroke of midnight, and our bandwidth bills are running sky-high these days. DONATE to Cover Lay Down today without delay, and we’ll regift 20% of your generous donation to Doctors without Borders, and another 20% to our local food bank.

As a very special thank you, all donors to Cover Lay Down will receive our Summer 09 Festival Coverfolk Bootleg, an exclusive 17 song compilation of coverfolk featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, Sarah Jarosz, Tim O’Brien, Crooked Still, Tracy Grammer, and more, recorded live by yours truly, and available nowhere else. Click here for more details, and to tender your gift. Thanks, as always, for supporting our collaborative mission.

Posted by boyhowdy at 3:17 pm | 25 comments
Labels: Covered in Folk, Talking Heads

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sweets for the Sweet: Songs of Sugar & Candy for Valentines

Part five in an ongoing series.

With two little girls in the family, and a deliberate tendency towards inclusion over babysitters, Valentine’s Day seems to have become a family affair by default. This year, for example, what was originally intended as a suggestion for a romantic afternoon has somehow turned into plans for a nice brunch out with the four of us, followed by a family hottub soak - though I’m not saying what might follow once the kids are abed.

It’s nice to think of Valentine’s as a platform for love on a larger scale. And, as long-married couples well know, though it is truly both sin and stumble to miss Valentine’s Day altogether, missing the mark the other 364 is a bigger sin by far. Hallmark notwithstanding, it is the careful craft of the life together throughout the year which really matters - and planning and capturing the romantic moments as they come is a big part of that.

As such, I think it’s important to take Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to not only mark our love, but to reflect on our expression of it, and consider what we can do better in deed and word as the year goes on. And though I tend to be a romantic soul by nature, I’ve been tired this year, missing opportunities more often than not.

Which is the whole point of the flowers and chocolate, in the end - to make our offerings as neither overture nor apology, but as a confirmation of love, and renewal of commitment to that love.

Happily, my sweetheart is a doozy of a gal: sweet and sassy, tender and confident, solid as a rock, understanding in all ways, and always sure of what I need before I can put it into words. Most years I’m her candy man in more ways than one come Valentine’s Day, but she’s been skipping desserts as of late, so this small virtual sampler of Valentine’s candy will have to do - until the kids fall asleep, anyway.



As noted above, we’ve had four Valentine’s Day posts in three years here at Cover Lay Down, and all remain relevant and live - so whether you’re looking for a dozen songs about roses or one of several sets of sweet songs about love, don’t forget to head back in time for the following previously posted tributes to the ones we love.

Posted by boyhowdy at 12:10 am | 3 comments
Labels: Valentines Day Coverfolk

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