Live and In Studio:
Covers from Daytrotter, Hinah, World Cafe, KCRW, the BBC and more!
Far be it from me to mistake “unplugged” for folk; as we’ve been discussing since day one here on Cover Lay Down, if folk is anywhere, it is predominantly in the sense and sensibility, not in the accident of instrumentation or performance.
But there are an increasingly large number of folkblogs and small folk labels such as Song, By Toad and Hinah running their own sessions, and sharing them via the web. And though they’re not exclusively folk, the musicians that other small-scale, live-session-producing blogs and recording studios like Daytrotter and HearYa favor are generally authentic, quite often storytellers of one or another, and — surprisingly frequently — define themselves as performing under the folk umbrella.
Similarly, due to the limited amount of space available, and the transient nature of such visits, the cover performances which tend to emerge from radio station sessions, especially those which lean towards roots and singer-songwriter music, are most often characterized by a particular sort of stripped-down intimacy which could easily be mistaken for folk, even if the artists performing don’t always categorize themselves as such.
We’ve featured plenty of session work on this blog, of course; after all, there’s something about live performance which engenders coverage. There will certainly be more to come, too, as artists and bloggers, radio stations and small labels feel their way through the changes in the industry which fragment the power of the popworld and its chart-watchers. But with tomorrow’s Danny Schmidt house concert just hours away, intimate live sessions are on the top of my mind. Here’s some of my favorites from a very large and ever-growing collection of covers captured live and in studio.
Live Daytrotter sessions:
- Bell X1: I Fought The Law (orig. Sonny Curtis and the Crickets)
- Lissie: Wedding Bells (orig. Hank Williams)
Live Hinah sessions:
- Matt Bauer: Sea Lion Woman (via Nina Simone)
- The Transmissionary Apple Sea: Dream Weaver (orig. Gary Wright)
Live HearYa sessions:
- Joe Pug: Return of the Grievous Angel (orig. Gram Parsons)
- Justin Townes Earle: Your Biscuits Are Good Enough For Me (orig. Bo Carter)
Live on WXPN’s World Cafe:
- Patty Griffin: Crazy (orig. Patsy Cline)
- Cry Cry Cry: Auld Lang Syne (trad.)
Live on BBC’s Peel Sessions:
- Laura Cantrell: Hong Kong Blues (orig. Hoagy Carmichel)
- Cat Power: Wonderwall (orig. Oasis)
Live on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic:
- The Dandy Warhols: Eight Days a Week (orig. The Beatles)
- Rufus Wainwright: Harvest (orig. Neil Young)
Live on KEXP:
- Madeleine Peyroux: Between The Bars (orig. Elliott Smith)
- Ben Gibbard: They Don’t Know (orig. Kirsty MacColl)
Live at A Tree Falls Productions (a.k.a. my house!)
- Danny Schmidt: Buckets of Rain (orig. Bob Dylan)
Artists rock, of course. But today, we’re celebrating the places where they play, acoustic and quiet, intimate and stripped to the bone, so that you can find ‘em. So visit a small venue, and tune in to the ongoing sessions your local radio and ‘net-based session producers create anew each day. Because without such small spaces, new artists would have nowhere to go to begin their careers, and you’d have nowhere to hear ‘em.
Cover Lay Down posts new features Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional otherday. Coming soon: April.
Category: Shawn Colvin, Uncategorized
March 28th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Nice choices! However Dream Weaver was orig by Gary Wright not REO.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
So it is! Thanks, Liberty!
March 29th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Great post! Very enjoyable, well thought out, and interesting read-through.
Cheers
March 29th, 2009 at 5:26 am
I’m a longtime follower of you blog and I’m lovin’ it, you’re one of my favourites.
First time comment, and a small remark about They don’t know. It sure was a hit for Tracey Ullman, but was written and performed also by the Late Grate Kirsty MacColl.
Keep up the good work!
greetings from Holland
March 29th, 2009 at 8:44 am
D’oh! Thanks for the correction on Kirsty MacColl’s They Don’t Know, grandmaster!
I actually knew this one, but someone tagged the song incorrectly when they first pulled it off the radio, and I guess I didn’t notice; that’s what I get for writing such a hurried post!
March 29th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Thanks for the shout out and for pointing out the JTE cover. I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t even know.
The Morning Benders also did a nice cover of the Ronettes “Why Don’t The Let Us Fall In Love” and the now defunct Cracklin Moth covered Daniel Johnston’s “Walking The Cow” in a HearYa session.
Great post.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Well, at least I got SOMETHING right today.
Thanks for the extra pointers, Oz. Y’all do great work over at HearYa.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Not to pile on…
I’ve been catching up with all things cover-wise - let me the last to hope that your various health issues are under control. I hope you’re doing well now. That having been said, it is my unfortunate duty to advise you that “I Fought The Law” was not originally by The Clash. In fact, the version they probably patterned theirs after (by the Bobby Fuller 4) was ALSO a cover - the original version was by, of all groups, the Crickets (the same Crickets that backed Buddy Holly).
Love the blog - thanks again for all your hard work.
March 29th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Dude!
“I Fought the Law” was not a Clash original. They were covering the Bobby Fuller Four’s original recording from 1964. The song itself was written by Sonny Curtis, guitarist with Buddy Holly’s Crickets.
March 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for all the corrections, folks. Clearly, I fail the internets this week.
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
[...] Click here to go to CLD to check the Dandy Warhols covering The Beatles’ ”Eight Days a Week”, Rufus Wainwright covers Neil Young’s “Harvest”, Joe Pug covers Gram Parson’s “Return of The Grievous Angel”, Transmissionary Apple Sea cover Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver”, Sonny Curtis and The Crickets take on Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought The Law”…not a classic rock tune but a good cover of Kirtsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know” by Ben Gibbard. [...]
April 10th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Madeleine Peyroux! Word.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Great choices, Boyhowdy!
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
A few months too late, but something else I saw on this post: the Nina Simone version of the song is called ‘See-Line Woman’, not ‘Sea Lion Woman.’ There are plenty of versions of the song with the ‘Sea Lion’ in the title, just not the Nina Simone version.