Newgrass Voices: Sarah Jarosz covers The Decemberists; Sara Watkins goes solo; new coverage from The Greencards
The inbox is filling up fast with Spring releases, but the unseasonable heat’s got me thinking ahead to festival season. How to reconcile these seemingly disparate urges? Why, by featuring new works from a trifecta of femme-voiced artists I’ve seen at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival! Enjoy the tunes, and the change in the weather…
The new Sara Watkins is all over the blogs, and it’s a killer, albeit with caveats. But this newgrass-lovin’ folkie’s eyes and ears are first and foremost on nineteen year old emerging star Sarah Jarosz, a Texas-based picker, vocalist, and songwriter who came off fresh-cheeked and cowboy-booted this past summer at Northeast bluegrass mecca Grey Fox. Sarah-with-an-h has inherited the innocence that Sara-without has shed since her time with Nickel Creek, and this sweet cover of the Decemberists’ Shankill Butchers proves it, turning what was a gypsy ballad of local retro-hoodlums into something pensive and mystical and darkly gorgeous while retaining just the right measure of melodic naivete.
The rest of Song Up In Her Head is much of the same: full and complicated, primordial and neo-traditional and original all at once. It’s Little Red Riding Hood looking with wonder into the forest, with just a touch of the introspective adolescent watching her peers develop their dark side, and wondering how much of herself is in them. It’s full, and rich, and exquisitely produced by Tim O’Brien, who knows how to pick ‘em, bring out their full sound, and set ‘em up for glory.
The up-and-coming Jarosz is already poised, if still a bit bashful and dewey around the edges; her voice is pure, and her playing keen and masterful; it’s no wonder she draws a crowd of peers and horizon-watchers wherever she goes. Song Up In Her Head, which will have the full support of label Sugar Hill, doesn’t drop until June 16, but I’ve got label permission to share, and the song is well worth celebrating now; listen to a few more new tracks on Sarah’s MySpace page while you watch the buzz grow, note that her friend’s list there is a veritable who’s who of today’s young bluegrass superstars, and prepare to see Sarah Jarosz blow the socks off the neo-grass world as she continues to develop confidence.
- Sarah Jarosz: Shankill Butchers (orig. The Decemberists)
(from Song Up In Her Head, coming June 2009)
- Bonus bootleg video: Sarah Jarosz covers Tom Waits live at Old Settlers Festival in April of 2008; a wonderful studio version of the song appears on the new album as well.
PS: there are some partial YouTube covers of Sarah Jarosz covering Gnarls Barkley classic Crazy at Grey Fox out there, but I’ve been unable to find a full recording. Anyone got one?
Speaking of Sara Watkins: did I mention her new album has a handful of well-chosen covers hiding among the original tracks? Reception has been deservedly mixed — as others have noted, her attempts at covering Jon Brion’s Same Mistakes and Tom Waits’ Pony are maudlin and a bit unfocused — but her sweetly swinging countrified take on Jimmie Rogers standard Any Old Time, and a gentle indiefolk take on Norman Blake’s decades-old Lord Won’t You Help Me, are worth the price of admission for coverfans.
It seems like every blogger but me got a copy of Sara’s solo debut from Nonesuch, but I was lucky enough to inherit someone else’s free ticket for tonight’s show at the Iron Horse in Northampton; though Sara’s airy voice was overshadowed by her stellar uke and fiddlework until the last few songs of the set, after being blown away by a holy host of great covers from the fourth row (including all four of the above-mentioned songs, a surprisingly fun ukulele cover of Different Drum, a solid take on gospel classic River of Jordan, and a double-cover encore of John Hartford fave In Tall Buildings and Dylan standard Forever Young) I’m happy to trade in my pride for secondhand songs.
The live John Hartford cover below, taped earlier this week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in performance with brother Sean, producer and ex-Led Zep bassist John Paul Jones and ?uestlove of Fallon’s house band The Roots, comes via Culture Bully; Fiddlefreak first streamed Lord, Won’t You Help Me. If you’re interested in label-sanctioned originals, Slowcoustic has All This Time, while Sean has Where Will You Be; listen, then pick up Sara Watkins’ self-titled solo debut here.
- Sara Watkins: Lord, Won’t You Help Me (orig. Norman Blake)
(from Sara Watkins, 2009)
- Sara Watkins w/ Sean Watkins, John Paul Jones and ?uestlove: Long Hot Summer Days (orig. John Hartford)
(live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, April 2009)
- Bonus Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands memorial bootleg: Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins, and Glen Phillips cover Elliot Smith’s Between the Bars live in some parking lot way back in 2004.
Last but not least, Fascination, the newest release from genre- and border-busting newgrass trio The Greencards, dropped just this past week. After keeping it on rotation all week, I’m pleased to report that the album, which debuted at #23 on the indie charts, proves the band is just as poised for greatness as their solo sisters above.
The Greencards aren’t new, but the trio is newly Americanized, having relocated to Nashville last year to take advantage of the US newgrass market after two strong albums put them on the map, and their newest outing finds them in excellent form. Strong songwriting, lead singer Carol Young’s powerful, sultry midrange, some blazing fast stringwork from the boys and a penchant for mellow, high-reverb production make for a rich mix — poppier and more fluid than Nickel Creek — but they sure can make the old tunes swing authentic and wild when they want to.
As with previous ventures from the “two Aussies and a Brit”, Fascination is predominantly originals, with one exception: Davey Jones, a tune originally penned and recorded by Cape Breton altpop singer, songwriter, and producer Gordie Sampson. The original is up for an International Songwriting Competition award, and can be heard on Gordie’s website; the cover is a fair bit more tender, but offers a solid introduction to the best of both artists. I’ve included a bonus track from each of the Greencards’ last two albums — a lovely Patty Griffin cover and a surprisingly true-to-the-original Fleetwood Mac cover, both of which I seem to have missed in earlier features — to get you in the mood to buy Fascination.
- The Greencards: Davey Jones (orig. Gordie Sampson)
(from Fascination, 2009)
- The Greencards: What You Are (orig. Patty Griffin)
(from Weather and Water, 2005)
- The Greencards: Second Hand News (orig. Fleetwood Mac)
(hidden track from Viridian, 2007)
Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features Wednesdays and Sundays. Coming soon: my kids help me review some kidfolk, and my cup runneth over with new discoveries.
Category: bluegrass
April 28th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
That Tom Wait’s cover is pretty schweet. That’s by far my favorite song on Mule Variations. I always thought that tune need to be redone by someone with a gigantic chorus that would come in on the hook.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I first saw Sarah at the Austin Friends of Traditional Music’s midwinter festival back in 2003–IIRC, she was eleven then. At that point she was mostly a potential as an artist, and not helped along by a large band that included much of her family, but since then she’s come very, very far.
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:55 am
[...] Click here to go to CLD to check the Greencards’ cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Second Hand News” [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:55 am
[...] Click here to go to CLD to check the Greencards’ cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Second Hand News” [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
[...] Coversongs about SleepFor Pete’s Sake, Sing! A tribute to Pete Seeger on his 90th birthdayNewgrass Voices: Sarah Jarosz covers The Decemberists; Sara Watkins goes solo; new coverage from The…Single Song Sunday: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Kate Rusby, Eva Cassidy, Kate Wolf, Nanci [...]
June 6th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
[...] the best music comes by accident. Case in point: last month’s Sara Watkins show was strong, but I was equally blown away by opening act Brooke Brown Saracino. I seem to have [...]
June 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
[...] Newgrass Voices [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:46 pm
[...] always, Grey Fox has young talent aplenty. Rising sensation and freshly-minted high school graduate Sarah Jarosz, who we featured here in April in anticipation of the release of her debut CD Song Up In Her Head, [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
[...] Friday and Saturday at Grey Fox Bluegrass Fest, July 16-19, PLUS new CDs from both newgrass angel Sarah Jarosz and cajun & swing combo Red Stick [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am
[...] down the street from Berklee, nurtured the talents of Aoife O’Donovan of Crooked Still, and Sarah Jarosz, who we featured in April, will attend the school this [...]
September 20th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
[...] on Cover Lay Down: Mutual Admiration Society cover Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars live in some parking lot after a [...]