Cover Lay Down

As the past recedes, the process of discovery and uncovery continues unabated. Though what’s written is written, mailbags still swell, and readers still follow up on our work here at Cover Lay Down with news of covers from far and wide.

Happily, there’s (Re)Covered: an ongoing feature in which we return to subjects gone by in order to continue to bring you the newest and the best in coverfolk. Today, our tenth installment in the popular series.


Cover Lay Down was one of the first blogs to tout Arrica Rose last year; it was hard not to rave, given how well her cover of Tom Waits stacked up against the competition. Now, after a year building buzz with the likes of Paste Magazine and iTunes on the strength of her previous full-length outing La La Lost, Arrica Rose is back with Pretend I’m Fur, a seven song EP rich and consistent enough to stand in for a full album, and though it doesn’t drop until Monday, I just couldn’t wait to spread the word.

Less grungy and a little more introspective than Arrica’s last outing, Pretend I’m Fur is deceptively gentle on the surface, but as before, there’s a poetry of strength driving the songwriting, and the shimmery indiepop production that producer Dan Garcia brings to the project is a perfect complement to Arrica’s fragile, gorgeously broken voice and confessional lyrics. The result is a stunning EP that rings of the best of Feist, Lisa Loeb, and Melissa Etheridge all at once.

I especially like the Bee Gees cover; it’s playful and sweet, with more than a hint of Etheridge in its understated guitarpop production and vocal style. As with Arrica’s Tom Waits cover, it offers a perfect deconstruction, breathtakingly transforming the tragic disco ballad into something intimate, full of longing and eminently radio-ready. Check it out, and order Pretend I’m Fur direct from Arrica’s website.

• Arrica Rose: Tragedy (orig. Bee Gees)
  (from Pretend I’m Fur, due May 11)

Bonus Bee Gees coverfolk: Shawn Colvin covers the Bee Gees, too. Not sure how I missed this in our previous feature on Bee Gees covers, but that’s what the (Re)Covered series is for, I suppose.

• Shawn Colvin: Words (orig. Bee Gees)
  (from These Four Walls, 2006)

After a full feature on some new newgrass voices just last week, I’ve got newgrass on my mind again tonight after an absolutely incredible double feature with The Boston Boys and Joy Kills Sorrow, a pair of quintets hosted by the Boston-based, not-for-profit Notlob Folk Concerts series.

We’ve posted a cover or two from Joy Kills Sorrow here before, but I continue to be enamored of both their overall sound and their new lead singer Emma Beaton, who I first wrote about after this winter’s Boston Celtic Music Fest, and who has just dropped some new stunning originals and JKS tracks at her MySpace page. The Boston Boys have just finished recording their debut album, so watch this space next month for a cover or two from the high-energy rockgrass band — I’m especially curious to see if the Otis Redding song they covered tonight will have made the cut, and disappointed that there’s nothing to offer here, but their MySpace page offers a pair of tracks worth hearing.

While we wait for new disks from tonight’s featured artists, here’s a pair of previously-posted tracks well worth reviving: A Joy Kills Sorrow cover from their first album, before Emma Beaton came on board, and a tradfolk tune featuring Emma and three members of The Boston Boys: Sam Grisman on bass, Eric Robertson on mandolin, and Stash Wyslouch on guitar.

• Joy Kills Sorrow: I Still Miss Someone
  (from Joy Kills Sorrow; previously posted in Single Song Sunday: I Still Miss Someone)
• Emma Beaton and Friends: Red Rocking Chair
  (from Emma Beaton’s MySpace)

Bonus Newgrass coverfolk: friend and fellow Falcon Ridge folkie Stacey sent word of a brand new Beatles cover from Bearfoot, yet another newgrass quintet who she saw down in Boston yesterday. Stacey’s recommendations are always good, and this one, from their brand new album on Compass Records, is especially sweet and lovely.

• Bearfoot: Don’t Let Me Down (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Doors and Windows, 2009)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: one of the things I love best about keeping this blog is you. Case in point: these two surprisingly different covers of an oft-covered and seldom-transformed tune which were sent in by reader Joe after last month’s Single Song Sunday feature on Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Jazz siren Deanna Kirk’s pianopop changes up the beat on Sandy Denny’s signature song just enough to provide a pulsing push, replacing wistfulness with mere distance; Dutch singer-songwriter Linde Nijland echoes earlier acoustic covers from Kate Wolf and Joni Mitchell, but with a still-lighter touch, focusing the song and simplifying it by hardly straying from a single vocal octave.

• Deanna Kirk: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (orig. Sandy Denny)
  (from Mariana Trench, 1996)

• Linde Nijland: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (orig. Sandy Denny)
  (from Linde Nijland sings Sandy Denny, 2003)

Finally, and in other covernews, Wears the Trousers streamed a set of covers from altfolk siren Marissa Nadler last week; from there, Stranger Dance compiled the list in mp3 form, and adds the originals of each for comparison’s sake. Nadler’s neofolk is gorgeous, and though we did post a few tracks of hers here before, I’ve been meaning to talk about her in more depth for a while now; I’m jealous that someone else got there first, but happy to pass along my highest recommendation for both the blogs and the artist.

The aforementioned lists are sweet, but they aren’t comprehensive, even if we set aside the news of hearing more from Nadler later this year on upcoming tributes to Judee Sill and Elizabeth Cotten. Here’s one of those tracks we shared once upon a time, plus one that I’ve yet to see on the blogs at all, since they’re otherwise neither here nor there:

• Marissa Nadler: Famous Blue Raincoat (orig. Leonard Cohen)
  (from Songs III: Bird on the Water, 2007)
• Marissa Nadler: Ballad to an Amber Lady (orig. Pears before Swine)
  (from the Tom Rapp tribute For The Dead In Space, Vol. II, 2003)

Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features Sundays and Wednesdays. Coming soon: a long-awaited return to the world of kidfolk.