(Re)Covered Singer-Songwriters:
New CDs from Caroline Herring, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka & Catie Curtis
Great news in the world of singer-songwriter folk in the past few weeks, as four of our favorite folk artists have emerged from the studio with smashing new albums. As each has been featured previously here on Cover Lay Down, we’re styling the features as part of our ongoing (Re)covered feature, which looks back at older posts in order to help keep familiar names and perennial faves on the radar where they deserve. Enjoy the sneak peeks, and don’t forget to follow links to purchase what you love…
Caroline Herring’s Lantana was one of the first new albums we featured here at Cover Lay Down; both album and artist set an almost impossibly high standard for the blog which we have struggled to maintain ever since. Now the Texas-based singer-songwriter and one-time SXSW best new artist who first captured our hearts with her deep and often heartbreaking look at the inner lives of women everywhere has come back with Golden Apples of the Sun, a stunning, celebratory new album, due in November on Signature Sounds.
Golden Apples of the Sun turns this southern girl’s lyrical eye inward to great effect. The originals are exquisite, featuring deep, deliberate, mature songwriting coupled with that stripped-down sound and breathy, gracefully fragile voice. But to my immense joy, Herring’s growing awareness of her forebears and influences here comes to a head in a wealth of coverage. Her comprehensive transformation of Cyndi Lauper’s oft-covered True Colors into an almost unrecognizable dustbowl folktune is both surprisingly intimate and perfectly, plaintively Caroline; in keeping with its gentle yet confessional bent, the album also includes a truly beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s Cactus Tree, plus strong melodic takes on two traditional American folk standards.
We’re tentatively scheduled for an interview when Caroline hits the Iron Horse in Northampton the first week of November; in the meanwhile, here’s an older track from Lantana, plus two of the four newest, which you can enjoy while you wait for Golden Apples of the Sun and its companion EP Silver Apples Of The Moon, a Signature Sounds web-only release which will include covers of Kate Wolf and The Carter Family.
- Caroline Herring: True Colors (orig. Cyndi Lauper)
- Caroline Herring: See See Rider (trad.)
(from Golden Apples of the Sun, due November 2009)
- Caroline Herring: Midnight on the Water (orig. Kate Wolf / trad.)
(from Lantana, 2008)
I first featured Cliff Eberhardt in anticipation of his stellar stagework at this year’s Falcon Ridge Folk Fest. Now Eberhardt’s new album 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions has dropped, and it’s a doozy of a set, including ten new originals, a recast version of his own signature song The Long Road, and strong new studio covers of both John Hiatt’s Back of My Mind and folk classic 500 Miles.
Recorded at the Austin-based Blue Rock Studios, and “flavored”, as the press release notes, by the vast diversity of sound that has come to define Texas music, 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions marks a new step in Eberhardt’s artistic journey, one which trades the sparse bluesy tones of his last album for a fuller sound without sacrificing a whit of the intimacy, the honesty, or the plain-spoken truth for which this gruff-voiced artist has been known since his early days in the Fast Folk movement.
If you’re in the Boston area, and reading this post in its first hours, check out Eberhardt’s CD release party tonight at seminal folk club Passim; in the meanwhile, download the newest covers, plus a previously-shared cut from way back when, and then head over to Red House Records to purchase 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions direct from the label.
- Cliff Eberhardt: 500 Miles (trad.)
- Cliff Eberhardt: Back of My Mind (orig. John Hiatt)
(from 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Session, 2009)
- Cliff Eberhardt: Romeo and Juliet (orig. Dire Straits)
(from Mona Lisa Cafe [out of print], 1995)
Not sure how I let the newest full-length from Boston-based singer-songwriter Catie Curtis fall between the cracks when it emerged onto the scene this past summer. But after bumping into Hello Stranger while killing time in a local record store this Thursday, I’m filing it under “better late than never”, with a quick reminder to label reps, promotional types, and fellow fans that the world of folk is vast, and we really do depend on you to help keep us apprised of all the great stuff out there.
Hello Stranger is somewhat of a shift for working-class champion Curtis, who we celebrated last year for her poppy Death Cab for Cutie and Morphine covers, running the gamut from gentle fiddle-and-banjo acoustic roots music to true blue bluegrass. But Catie’s genius and talent are not lost here, only reframed to great effect. The album works, in part, because of Catie’s clear love for both good production and the sound of good old back porch music, not to mention a serious helping of Nashville, where the album was recorded with southern luminaries from Mary Gauthier to Allison Brown, co-owner and founder of the Compass Records label which released the record.
The result: a gorgeously produced set of songs that teeter on the edge of newgrass, perfectly balanced and perfectly autumnal. Here’s an older one from the archives, plus new covers of Cat Stevens and Richard Thompson, with a five-star recommendation for the rest of the set.
- Catie Curtis: Walking On A Wire (orig. Richard and Linda Thompson)
- Catie Curtis: Tuesday’s Dead (orig. Cat Stevens)
(from Hello Stranger, 2009)
- Catie Curtis: Soul Meets Body (orig. Death Cab for Cutie)
(from Sweet Life, 2008)
Finally, beloved father figure and mentor to the younger folkset John Gorka reveals another addition to the canon in the forthcoming So Dark You See. Though as I wrote about last February, Gorka’s earlier albums are warm, sensitive, and potent, and as such remain well worth celebration, I continue to have mixed emotions about his recent work, which trends towards the treacly.
But though the production on some tracks continues to teeter on the edge of overwrought, and Gorka’s aging vocal strain remains evident in places, So Dark You See is overall a move back in the right direction, and there are a handful of especially solid tracks on this new album, including both an original entitled Utah and an appropriately rich, mournful cover in tribute to the recent passage of hobo poet and folksinger Utah Phillips, and my favorite track, a lovingly sparse acoustic blues cover of old jazz standard Trouble in Mind.
So Dark You See hits stores and digital venues on October 13th; though only completists will likely want the whole thing, I highly recommend browsing samples via the usual sources, and picking up the best at the usual per-track cost. Full tracks are not yet available, but here’s a partial clip of Gorka covering Trouble in Mind at a soundcheck last year, and a favorite from his earlier work to carry the buzz into the weeks ahead.
- John Gorka: The Lockkeeper (orig. Stan Rogers)
(from The Folkscene Collection Vol. 1, 1998)
Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk sets, reviews and themed posts every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday.
Category: (Re)Covered
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Mona Lisa Café is still available on eMusic
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Well, yes, mDan…and a good point. As a blogger, I tend to link to physical media when the original release was physical; when it’s not available, I use the term “out of print” consistently, though this doesn’t always reflect whether or not one can still download tracks.
Any suggestions on how to make this clearer for folks? Perhaps “out of print; digital media here?” I HAD been partnered with Amie Street for a while, but it tends not have older music.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] (Re)Covered Singer-Songwriters: New CDs from Caroline Herring, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka & Cat… coverlaydown.com/2009/10/recovered-singer-songwriters – view page – cached Folkfan since childhood, coverfan since my teens. In my other life, I teach. In summer, I staff folk festivals. — From the page [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Hi Boyhowdy,
Nice blog you made about John Gorka. You wrote “Full tracks are not yet available” and that is not true.
Take a look at the John Gorka video site and please go to the news about So dark you see page.
Thanks
Jos
October 6th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
[...] Go to Cover Lay Down’s review >> [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
[...] otherday. Stay tuned later this week for some live tracks and an interview from tonight’s Caroline Herring and Chris Smither concert in [...]
November 11th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
[...] Coming soon: features on new and (re)covered artists, plus an interview with Cover Lay Down fave Caroline Herring, whose new cover-laden disk Golden Apples of the Sun continues to garner high [...]
November 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
[...] of southern women’s voices struggling with their own claims to power and the lack thereof. As we wrote last month on the cusp of its release, Herring’s newest album, Golden Apples of the Sun, is a stunner, too, and I’m happy to [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
[...] the hat to genre covers, a handful of new tribute albums, and an interview with singer-songwriter Caroline Herring, whose stunning, intimate new CD Golden Apples of the Sun hit the ground running this [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
[...] studio and house of singer-songwriter solicitation this year included note of new releases from Caroline Herring, Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey, Sometymes Why, Eilen Jewell, and Richard Shindell; as the archives [...]