Cover Lay Down

This Saturday, January 9th, is gearing up to be the most frustrating night in recent local folk music history, thanks to a huge convergence of talent in the Boston area. I’ve got third row tickets to see Greg Brown at Sanders Theater - a great place to see a folkfan’s favorite wry basso and sensitive songwriter, who once told me a hilarious anecdote about being asked to sign a woman’s breast, “and I had to hold it down with my other hand, it was so jiggly” - so I’m not really disappointed, per se, in my prospects for the evening. But it’s still hard to count the days, knowing I’ll be missing the belowmentioned.

But I’ve also been hoarding the Greg Brown covers against an omnibus post to come, and I’d rather do it right than rushed. So although I’ll include a pair of great GB covertunes at the end of the post today just to keep the juices flowing, in the meantime, here’s a quick survey of what’s going on in and around town, the list itself a reasonably solid statement on the breadth of what we consider folk here at Cover Lay Down, and - as such - a good compliment to Sunday’s restatement of the heart of my fandom.

Were it any other night in Boston, I’d surely try to make it to catch The Low Anthem at the House of Blues, their penultimate show before a grand European tour and some late Feb/early March dates in major cities across the states before heading down to SXSW. I’ve heard nothing but raves about this year’s hottest indiefolk band, and finally got a chance to spin their newest record Oh My God, Charlie Darwin over the holiday break; sure enough, the album is excellent, a balanced combination of relatively hushed indie rock and upbeat alt-country, a bit like a plugged-in Old Crow Medicine Show with Steve Earle and Springsteen sitting in, with a bit of extra cowpunk for good measure.

The Jan. 9 show, a benefit for Hot Stove Cool Music, will also feature State Radio and members of Hanson, Cheap Trick, Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, and Letters to Cleo; money raised will go to support underprivileged youth and families in the Boston area. Here’s a raucously rocking stringband cover from Oh My God that Payton reminded me about in the comments of our recent feature on the songs of Tom Waits - and a few more delicate covers from the songbooks of several others who will share the stage to boot.

• The Low Anthem: Home I’ll Never Be (orig. Tom Waits)
  (from Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, 2008)

• Amie Miriello: Disarm (orig. Smashing Pumpkins)
  (promo/MySpace release, 2008)

• Dar Williams: Troubled Times (orig. Fountains of Wayne)
  (from Promised Land, 2008)

Those who have Friday night and Saturday afternoon free, and prefer their folk a little closer to the old country, will surely want to check out this year’s Boston Celtic Music Fest, which returns to its roots this year with a multigenerational set of artists playing pan-Celtic tradfolk at its most traditional. Like last year’s BCMFest exploration of the more marginal and hybrid forms of modern Celtic folk and its offshoots, which I raved about several times in these pages, this year’s festival, which takes place in a set of intimate, close-hewn church halls, attics, and stages in the midst of Harvard Square, promises an utterly delightful time, with floor and pew seating among the artists themselves, and I’m hoping to get into town early enough to catch the Celtic Beatles Tribute at 2:45 - woo hoo! - before heading out to supper and the Greg Brown show.

BCMFest actually kicks off Friday night with a choice of a stage show at Club Passim starring John McGann & Flynn Cohen and a few other acts, or an Urban Ceilidh featuring Laura Cortese and more, and runs through Saturday, culminating in a huge finale concert with tributes to Liam Clancy, Tommy Makem, Jerry Holland, Seamus Connolly and others. Here’s a Cortese favorite, and a pair of Irish-influenced Beatles tunes to whet your tin whistle.

• Cara Dillon & Sam Lakeman: Wait (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Rubber Folk, 2005)

• Fionn Regan: Getting Better (orig. The Beatles)
  (live on BBC Radio, 2007; more here)

• Laura Cortese: Just Like Heaven (orig. The Cure)
  (from Even the Lost Creek, 2006)

Over to the left a bit on the Massachusetts map, and closer, to be honest, to our usual neck of the woods, there’s more Irish music from two members of the Clancy Legacy over at the uNi Coffeehouse in Springfield, a very promising Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem kidfolk and CD release show midafternoon in downtown Northampton to benefit a local preschool, and shows by both folkblues queen Rory Block and grunged-out acoustic newfolk blog darlings The Duchess and the Duke at the everpopular Iron Horse in Northampton.

All are tempting. But if I were staying in town this Saturday, I know where I’d be: at The Black Moon Lounge in Belchertown, where local favorites Jim Henry and Brooks Williams will play an acoustic set together on the night of the ninth, reprising a good bulk of their 1997 covers album Ring Some Changes, plus some other “classic covers” and originals to boot. We featured both artists separately in our first year - Jim here; Brooks here - and included work from the one-shot collaborative album in each post; each is amazing on his own, but the live pairing is a rarity, and cheap at five bucks a head: a show not to be missed for the middlestate set.

• Jim Henry & Brooks Williams: Minor Swing (orig. Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli)
  (from Ring Some Changes, 1997)

• Jim Henry: Deep River Blues (orig. Delmore Brothers / pop. Doc Watson)
  (from One Horse Town EP, 2005)

• Brooks Williams: May You Never (orig. John Martyn)
  (from Nectar, 2003)

Even farther away, Works Progress Administration — the new project from Glen Phillips and ex-Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins, which we featured back in September when their debut album was first released — will be playing a triple-bill with Grant Lee Phillips and Vienna Teng at NYC’s City Winery. Three of my absolute favorite cover artists, in one venue, just three hours away…sigh. Here’s three reasons why it’s heartbreaking to miss this particular convergence:

• Glen Phillips: I Want a New Drug (orig. Huey Lewis and the News)
  (from Mr. Lemons, 2006)

• Grant Lee Phillips: So. Central Rain (orig. REM)
  (from nineteeneighties, 2006)

• Vienna Teng: Cannonball (orig. Damien Rice)
  (from a live MVYRadio SXSW session, 2007; more here)

And - back where we started - though I’m saddened not to be able to be in a half-dozen places at once, I’m eager to see Greg Brown up close and well-mixed, especially as my only previous experience with his performance is at folk festivals, where sound is often skewed a bit towards the distant hills, and the crowds, though beloved, never cease their low murmur. We’ve peppered this space with Greg Brown covers, both of and from, since the blog’s inception, and for good reason: the respected lyrical poet and Red House Records founder is a voracious interpreter of popular and traditional song, and well-covered in his own right, too. Here’s a singleton cover of, and a singleton cover from, in anticipation of a full tribute set to come in the near future.

• Eilen Jewell & Dan Fram: Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home (orig. Greg Brown)
  (unknown source; more Eilen Jewell here)

• Greg Brown: Don’t Let Me Down (orig. The Beatles)
  (from In The Hills Of California, 2004)

In other news, farther on the horizon but closer to home wherever you live, Merge Records - the same label that produced that amazing self-coverage record towards the end of last year - have started pre-distribution of Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a huge double-CD set benefit tribute to New Zealand singer-songwriter Chris Knox, who suffered a debilitating stroke last year, and whose late eighties work with Tall Dwarves and as a solo artist helped set the stage for my late adolescent love of ragged EnZed alt-rock-guitar-driven grungepop. No promo tracks here, as the folks at Merge don’t want to undercut the benefit for Chris, and I can’t blame them. But head over to the project page to sample and purchase the lot, most especially the Bill Callahan and Bonnie “Prince” Billy covers.

And speaking of upcoming tributes: Manimal Vinyl has just announced a huge David Bowie tribute to benefit War Child UK, with tracks to begin leaking by mid-February. Again, not exclusively folk - Duran Duran will even be turning in a track - but with Keren Ann, Amanda Jo Williams, Devendra Banhart, and Carla Bruni on the roster, there’s bound to be some lighter fare for the indiefolk crowd. Wears the Trousers has the current set list; don’t forget to pick up their entirely nufolk Odetta Tribute while you’re there if you haven’t already done so.