Love Is A Rose: A Coverfolk Bouquet
(on memory beyond Valentine’s Day)
I’m tired, I say. What should I write about tonight?
Flowers, she says. It’s almost spring. And she smiles at me, as if to say I love you.
Another Valentine’s Day come and gone, and now I’m running ragged against our usual Sunday deadline after a rare evening out without children, just my love and I amidst the white linen and wineglasses, a dozen other couples, and a small cadre of harried, presumably single servers.
It’s time well spent, though I regret any lost opportunity to read to my kids at bedtime. Recent studies have shown that time spent has more power on our sense of selves than money spent on things. Experiences last longer than the moments they take. And on Valentine’s Day, even with the wife and kids asleep upstairs, this means that love remains in the air, as it is wont to do.
This is not to sell gift-giving short, of course. Valentines given are experiences, too, our symbols by definition far more than the objects we use to represent our love. Which is to say: the dozen roses I sent my wife on Friday will live on our table for a week or more, bringing their scent and color to a world still cold and crisp with the last weeks of winter, but even beyond that, their meaning can transcend their brief cut life. The flowers may fade, just as someday soon tonight’s courses will fade and blur into memory. But like our experiences themselves, the flowers will move on to the compost heap, to become fodder for yet another crop of green and growing flowers in the fast-approaching Spring.
Here’s a dozen roses for your table this week. Experience them all, and choose wisely how you keep their meaning: each has the potential to last a lifetime, or an average of three minutes each, depending how you measure your time. And, as always, if you like what you hear, follow artist and album links below to independent and artist-preferred purchase sources, and buy a CD or two. Valentine’s Day may be over, but it’s never too late to show you care.
- Redbird: Love is a Rose (orig Neil Young)
(outtake collected on the web; more Redbird here) - Honeysuckle Rose (orig. Fats Waller)
(from a 2006 Daytrotter Session; more Erin here) - Clare Bowditch: Blood Red Rose (orig. Kev Carmody)
(from Cannot Buy My Soul: the Songs of Kev Carmody; more Clare here) - Trappers Cabin: Rose Parade (orig. Elliott Smith)
(from the Trappers Cabin website) - Pentangle: Sally Go Round the Roses (orig. The Jaynetts)
(from Basket of Light) - Laura Cantrell: When The Roses Bloom Again (orig. AP Carter)
(from When The Roses Bloom Again) - Mary Gauthier: For Rose (orig. Jonathan Pointer)
(from Filth and Fire) - Popcorn Behavior: The Briar and the Rose (orig. Tom Waits)
(from Popcorn Behavior) - Bruce Springsteen: Give My Love To Rose (orig. Johnny Cash)
(live in 1999; more Bruce everywhere) - Slaid Cleaves: White Rose (orig. Fred Eaglesmith)
(from The Songs Of Fred Eaglesmith; more Slaid here) - Salamander Crossing: Indigo Rose (orig. David Hamburger)
(from Bottleneck Dreams) - Madeleine Peyroux: La Vie En Rose (orig. Edith Piaf)
(from Dreamland)
Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional holiday and otherday.
Category: Valentines Day Coverfolk
February 15th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
[...] Is The Mojo Of The Day « Cover FreakFrom the HIP | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiserwhat i like ( The House Of Fun): Lazy SundayLove Is A Rose: A Coverfolk Bouquet (on memory beyond Valentine’s … Killing Machine - [...]
February 15th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Good theme and I’m glad to see “Give My Love to Rose’ made the cut!
February 18th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Surprised not to see a cover of “A Good Year for the Roses”- I don’t know of any good covers of it outside of Elvis Costello, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t one out there somewhere.
February 18th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I actually had the Costello and a couple of others, Rick, but nothing truly folk…still, there’s more than enough rose songs for another dozen next year!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Hey, BH ~ I just remembered I heard Shindell do this at Falcon Ridge a few summers ago - I’ll put the word out “on the street” to see if I can find a copy for you…
February 19th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
If you’re talking about Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky covering A Good Year for the Roses live at Falcon Ridge 2007, I actually did have it…but felt the balance on the recording wasn’t up to my usual standards. If there’s a different recording out there, I’d love to have it; in the meanwhile, click above for the one I do have, for comparison and collector’s interest.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Hey, BH - Niiiiiiice - thanks! I was there for that performance (sounds great to me) - will keep trying to find a copy that better suits your sound standards…
February 20th, 2009 at 6:52 am
[...] Click here to go to CLD to check Redbird covering Neil Young’s “Love Is a Rose”, Bruce Springsteen covering Johnny Cash “Give My Love To Rose”, and Popcorn Behavior covering Tom Waits’ “The Briar and The Rose” [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 8:16 am
[...] Love Is A Rose: A Coverfolk Bouquet (on memory beyond Valentine’s Day) [...]