Glen Phillips Covers:
Huey Lewis, Van Morrison, The Beatles, Bjork, Gillian Welch + more
…plus new and old collaborative covers with Sean and Sara Watkins!
Glen Phillips made a name for himself as founding frontman for Toad The Wet Sprocket, a high school rock band made good; if you’re a child of the eighties like myself, or just a fan of retro alt-rock radio, you’ve heard his distinctive voice plenty of times, most notably on cultural staple Walk On The Ocean. Indeed, my own personal experience with the artist, now pushing forty, is restricted to a single lawn-seat glimpse at a mid-nineties H.O.R.D.E. festival, an event most memorable for being the first and last rock concert which I was able to convince the girl who would become my wife to attend.
But though Toad broke up before the turn of the century, this is no “where are they now” retrospective. For the past decade, the singer-songwriter with the distinctively strained voice and an ear for wry hook-laden songs has been busy pursuing his craft in other venues, drifting from label to label, releasing solo works and collaborations at a relatively frequent rate, and covering a broad set of tunes in concert and beyond. (For example, his Beatles cover, which you’ll find below along with several live covers, comes from an excellent all-Beatles-cover soundtrack to the truly awful 2009 Eddie Murphy vehicle Imagine That.) And although not all of Phillips’ output is legitimately folk, the vast bulk of it is singer-songwritery stuff, and it’s all good.
Glen Phillips’ three solo albums have veered from the full-blown singer-songwriter pop of his debut Abulum to the more Toad-like production of both faster and more atmospheric tracks on his incredible sophomore Lost Highway release Winter Pays for Summer, and back to both styles for his fluid, dynamic 2006 masterpiece Mr. Lemons — it says everything it needs to that I have favorites on all of them, and that each of those favorites fits a different mood. Though diverse, each album comes across as authentic, melodic, strong, and thoughtful: a rarity, in a world where most artists go through some sort of slump in their solo careers, and overall a powerful package indeed.
Phillips’ most notable collaboration, especially for folk fans, is an ongoing partnership with Sean and Sara Watkins, founding members of Nickel Creek and - like Phillips, Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, and a strong group of other musicians - regulars at L.A.’s Largo. In 2004, this partnership came to fruition with Mutual Admiration Society, a lighthearted, folkpop-meets-bluegrass album originally recorded in 2000 with all three members of Nickel Creek, and eventually released on the Sugar Hill label. I discovered the project last year in my local library, and, finding that it exists predominantly under the cultural radar, have worked tirelessly to spread the love to friends and neighbors ever since.
(Total aside: Bonus points to M.A.S. for featuring live Nickel Creek and Watkins-led covers of both the Jackson 5 hit I Want You Back and Britney Spears’ Toxic on their MySpace page; we’ve featured both Sara & Nickel Creek here previously, so I’ll let y’all head over there on your own to pick up these tracks.)
This week, the collaboration continues, and the task of promoting Glen Phillips, both solo and with the talented Watkins siblings, gets a heck of a lot easier with the release of a new project called Works Progress Administration — starring Glen, Sean, Sara, fiddler Luke Bulla, and members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Elvis Costello and the Imposters, all from the Largo scene. Most of the tunes were penned by Phillips, and though Sean’s straining to hit the high notes in a few places, that songwriting, plus incredible musicianship and strong harmonies, has resulted in an absolutely stellar set of songs well worth the purchase price. Check out the Kinks cover from that album below, order the whole thing here, and then check out this full set of Glen Phillips coverfolk to whet your whistle while you wait for Phillips and friends to bring the WPA tour to your town.
- Glen Phillips: I’ll Follow the Sun (orig. The Beatles)
(from the Imagine That soundtrack, 2009)
- Glen Phillips: I Want A New Drug (orig. Huey Lewis and the News)
(from Mr. Lemons, 2006)
- Glen Phillips: Revelator (orig. Gillian Welch)
(from the Unlucky 7 EP, 2006)
- Glen Phillips: Crazy Love (orig. Van Morrison)
- Glen Phillips: One More Dollar (orig. Gillian Welch)
- Glen Phillips: American Tune (orig. Paul Simon)
- Glen Phillips: Redemption Song (orig. Bob Marley)
- Glen Phillips: Hyperballad (orig. Bjork)
(from various live shows, 2003-2007; more at archive.org)
- Mutual Admiration Society: Trouble (orig. Jon Brion)
- Mutual Admiration Society: Think About Your Troubles (orig. Harry Nilsson)
(from Mutual Admiration Society, 2004)
- Works Progress Administration: I Go To Sleep (orig. The Kinks)
(from WPA, 2009)
What, you’re still here? Seriously, you people. Go buy WPA, and then, if you haven’t already, pick up the Glen Phillips back catalog. Or, if nothing else, head over to his webpage and click on the donate button.
After all, as I pointed out to some cheeseball who wanted to pay me to promote their artists just this afternoon, Cover Lay Down is proudly non-profit, avidly pro-artist, and fully supportive of the peer-to-peer recommendation and promotion model which characterizes music blogs at their best.
Which is to say: our love is not for sale. But Glen Phillips’ work is, and it’s well worth the price.
Previously on Cover Lay Down: Mutual Admiration Society cover Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars live in some parking lot after a show.
Category: Glen Phillips, Nickel Creek
September 20th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
As a longtime TTWS/Glen Phillips fan, I wanted to add a couple of things:
Thanks for posting these songs. I saw Glen perform Hyperballad a few years ago during a solo set and loved it.
Toad reunited a while ago and has been touring the past few months (looks like the last shows were canceled due to poor ticket sales.) I saw the band a couple of months ago on this tour and was underwhelmed. Glen’s voice was straining a bit too much and the songs felt lifeless. But it was nice to see Todd sing again, and the rest of the crowd seemed to dig it.
I’d also like to say that the WPA disc was a huge disappointment for me. It just felt like a bunch of LA folks trying to replicate Texas roots/folk after visiting Austin a few times and it just rang false to me. As a Texan, I hear too much of this kind of type of music and I hear it done better.
That said, I love your site! Keep up the good work.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Thanks for the counterpoint, S. Certainly, we’ll have to agree to disagree — I liked the new album plenty, especially the slower songs such as Rise Up and the above-posted cover. But then, I don’t have the Texan scene in my head to frame it, so perhaps the context makes a difference.
The news about the Toad reunion was on my mind, too, but I was already running long. Sorry to hear that Glen’s voice didn’t hold, though; perhaps the happy medium here is Toad, acoustic and on tour?
September 21st, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I grew up on Harry Nilsson, The Point to be specific, and was/am a big Toad fan. To finally hear Think About Your Troubles from MAS was the highlight of my day, easily. I’ve heard most of WPA, and I agree that it’s a great disc with a few highs and lows; Rise Up is my favorite, by far.
I was looking forward to the Toad reunion heading to the northeast, but it wasn’t to be this year. Is Glen still doing the cruise ship circuit?
Great blog, my first time stopping by!
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I saw Toad twice this year and although Glen’s vocals have changed over the years, he belted out every tune and the band sounds great.
Don’t forget Glen’s cover of “Between the Bars” by Elliott Smith.
Regarding WPA - “Rise Up” is one of Glen’s finest songs.
Not only should you look into his back and recent catalog of solo work, he has other projects that are current. Plover w/ Neilson Hubbard and Garrison Starr; and RemoteTreeChildren w/ John Askew. He has also appeared on various artists’ albums, including MC Frontalot’s latest.
Glen was on the Rock Boat, following year on the Rock Boat w/ Toad. Last year, he went on Cayamo, solo. This year, WPA will be on Cayamo.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 pm
p.s. The recent Toad show in SC was canceled by the promoter of the event b/c of lack of community support - it was an event - not specifically a Toad show (they were performing there but there were more events than the Toad portion) Therefore, Toad had to cancel their show in FL b/c the SC cancellation affected the schedule, and it costs a lot to fly across the country for one show, mid-week. They will reschedule in that area. In all, Toad’s other scheduled shows since their latest reunion have commenced as planned. I forgot, I went to three this year. One venue was sold out the other two were outdoors and plenty of people were there. Another venue nearby, which I did not attend, sold out as well.
p.s.s. Thanks again for posting about WPA.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:28 am
So much extra information, L! Thanks for chiming in! As I noted in my second paragraph, not all of Glen’s output is folk; this is a folk blog, so the collaboration with MC Frontalot, and the experimental/electronic work, seemed a bit less relevant to our focus, but it’s all good…
September 24th, 2009 at 11:22 am
No problem, happy to help. Plover is a bit folk-y, perhaps? And, although, it may not be folk, Glen also released another solo album: “Secrets of the New Explorers”. There are excellent live shows of Glen, MAS, WPA and another project of Glen’s from a few years ago on archive.org. (The project: Weekly Review Traveling Road Show - w/ Kim Richey and Griffin House is folk and Nickel Creek (minus Chris) made an appearance at one of their NYC shows and that and other shows are also up on archive.org.)
I’m seeing WPA in an old barn - should be swell!