Single Song Sunday: I Still Miss Someone
It’s been a long, long time since we compiled a Single Song Sunday post. But as the year comes to a close, it is our wont to turn to the past. And tonight, as I sift through the detritus of a year heavy with transition, I find my thoughts turning to those who we will be leaving behind in 2008.
Regular readers may recall that we lost our beloved cat this year. We also lost my father’s father, the last of his generation, a genial yet emotionally closed man who grew up hard and proud of his self-sufficience, yet who was, in my eyes, nonetheless sweet and gentle to the end. Too, moving on from one teaching gig to another meant leaving behind a whole community which I had grown to love and live in comfortably. And though we have come to live with the distance between us and the friends that grow ever farther in time and space, there are those that we would call, and do not or cannot, and miss terribly every day.
Over the next week at Star Maker Machine, we’ll be paying tribute to those musicians who passed this year. But for all of us who have lost someone this year, be it to death or divorce or just plain old life-changing distance, here’s a set of covers of one of my favorite Johnny Cash tunes.
The song I Still Miss Someone seems to lend itself inevitably to a sort of slow countryfolk; something about the blue-eyed narrative subject, perhaps, and the metaphors of nature coupled with the image of being alone at the party, though it’s also hard to shake the ghost of Johnny Cash. As such, you’ll find but four true folkcovers below: Mae Robertson’s sweet solo folkpop lullaby, the ragged lo-fi folkstring and vocal harmonies of prodigal Arlo and Willie folkdaughters Folk Uke, the lovely bluegrass-tinged tradfolk sound of five piece stringband Joy Kills Sorrow, and the slow singer-songwriter approach of folkfemme supergroup Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dar Williams, Shawn Colvin, and Patty Griffin (courtesy of a last-minute pass-along from fellow folkfan and Star Maker contributor Susan).
But though the nature of the song drives the pace and twang, even on the folkier side of the line between true country and hybridized countryfolk, there’s plenty of diversity here. Settings run from Robert Earl Keen’s warm Texan twangfolk to Julie Delaney’s slow, warm mariachi ballad; the tone ranges from Ryan Adams‘ glistening, broken alt-languid blues take to the light, sparse countryfolk duet voices of Nanci Griffith and Rodney Crowell. And with the possible exceptions of the sparse yet playful Whiskeytown cover released as a bonus track rarity earlier this year, and an oddly dirgelike yet carnivalesque take from alt-country collective Willard Grant Conspiracy, most of the set consists of tender, wistful covers, which manage — as Cash intended, I believe — to simultaneously ease the pain, and both curse and celebrate the very act of missing someone as that vital spark which keeps the past with us always.
Songs heal in so many ways: this one heals and soothes me, and I hope it heals and soothes you, too. May the ones we’ve loved and lost live in our hearts forever, and be carried forward with us into time immemorial.
- Mary Chapin Carpenter w/ Dar Williams, Shawn Colvin, and Patty Griffin: I Still Miss Someone
(live; from a Barnes & Noble promo disk) - Robert Earl Keen: I Still Miss Someone
(from Gravitational Forces) - Folk Uke: I Still Miss Someone
(from Folk Uke) - Mae Robertson: I Still Miss Someone
(from Smile) - Julie Delaney: I Still Miss Someone
(from Echoes) - Nanci Griffith and Rodney Crowell: I Still Miss Someone
(from Other Voices, Too) - Joy Kills Sorrow: I Still Miss Someone
(from Joy Kills Sorrow) - Willard Grant Conspiracy: I Still Miss Someone
(from Mojo sampler Cash Covered; more WGC here) - Ryan Adams: I Still Miss Someone
(bonus track from Jacksonville City Nights) - Whiskeytown: I Still Miss Someone
(from Stranger’s Almanac: Deluxe Edition)
Got another great folkversion of I Still Miss Someone? Send it along!! All submissions will be considered for an upcoming and long overdue edition of (Re)Covered, a regular feature here at Cover Lay Down in which we revisit old features through new and newly discovered coversongs.
Category: Johnny Cash, Single Song Sunday
December 28th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Great List. Linda Ronstadt has also covered the song on her early eponymous album on Capitol records.
December 28th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Thanks, Annie. I like Linda’s cover, and had Emmylou’s, too — but both seemed a bit too country for inclusion here.
December 28th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
How about Joan Baez? : ) Folkie classic.
December 28th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
NY Times audio slideshow of those who passed on in 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/28/magazine/20081228-livesmusic-magazine/index.html
December 28th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Owyn: Great resource! I’ll pass it along to the SMM crew!
P: The classics, eh? I have a love/hate relationship with Baez, but should probably go dig this one up as well — thanks for the reminder!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Did you know that Stevie Nicks covered this song on The Other Side of the Mirror? It’s very different than any of the versions here, but since it’s the first place I’ve ever heard it that’s the one I love the most. It’s not folk nor country but she’s got a great love and respect for country music, so you can tell her heart is really in it.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Where can I download mp3s of the Ryan Adams and Mary Chapin Carpenter versions?
December 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Melanie: just right click on the links above and save to your hard drive! And remember to go out and buy the works of these musicians if you like the samples you hear here!
December 31st, 2008 at 2:29 am
thank you for these versions
btw, i like the jon langford (of mekon/waco bros fame) version he did when he put out his tribute to johnny cash a number of years ago, which is oop. i think it is called the dark and lonely world of johnny cash. the band he played with was the pine valley cosmonauts
December 31st, 2008 at 4:09 am
I’ve just discovered your blog while searching for covers by Stevie Nicks, my favorite musician. You’ve put a lot of research into your niche and I’m enjoying browsing. I’ve linked to your Single Song Sunday feature, a great presentation of the creativity of covers. Thank you and I’ll be back.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Fairport Convention did a nice version of it, ca. 1968.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Hey, there….
What a great posting. I have always thought of Johnny Cash as a folkie with country leanings; what a magnificent writer he was!
Two of my favorite covers of I Still Miss Someone are Leo Kottke’s version (off of Great Big Boy) and also the Chet Atkins/Suzy Bogguss duet (off of Simpatico).
With kind regards,
Kevin
January 20th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I have a “cover” of Bob Dylan and J. Cash singing this one together on their 1969 live collaborative session. I admit I like it as a duet, even though it is in essence a lonely song.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Great tribute. One thing I’ve done in memory of my cat is to click on the Animal Rescue Site’s tab each day. It takes just a second, and I click the other tabs there as well.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
December 30th, 2009 at 10:54 am
[...] year’s final post - a Single Song Sunday feature on Cash classic I Still Miss Someone - found me musing on death, loss, and change after a rough year in the Howdy [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
John Doe and the Sadies covered “I Still Miss Someone” this past year, on their “Country Club” album. Much more country than folk, but not half bad.
http://www.yeproc.com/artist_info.php?artistId=12948