Category: (Re)Covered


(Re)Covered, XV: More covers of and from
Talking Heads, Pat Wictor, Lori McKenna, Mark Erelli & Paul Simon!

March 6th, 2010 — 10:32 pm

Our music library may be vast, but we’ve never claimed to be completists here at Cover Lay Down. There’s always something missed or previously unheard, and always something new, too, released just in time to taunt us in the aftermath of a topical post.

Serendipitous addenda come from fellow bloggers, readers, labels, artists and library visits into our welcoming ears and hands. From there, they make their way back to you via our (Re)Covered features, wherein we share new and newly-rediscovered songs that dropped into our laps just a bit too late to make it into earlier features.


Our recent post covering the Talking Heads songbook has proved to be immensely popular, netting huge surges in traffic after receiving mention from both Metafilter and Very Short List. As is generally the case, with popularity comes an increase in suggested also-rans, and though many of the songs readers sent along were not folk at all - for example, I had already considered and rejected Guster’s uber-funky alt-jamband take on Nothing But Flowers and Moxy Fruvous’ slammin’ live cover of Psycho Killer as far too rock for our readership, and passed over Miles Fisher’s electrocover as fun but far too weird, when compiling our original post - this Jason Spooner track, recommended by fellow Star Maker Machine regular FiL, is a great slow-burn acoustic folk jam that fits the bill perfectly.



In an interesting email exchange with Pat Wictor after our recent feature on the NY-based singer-songwriter attempted to used his recent career path to exemplify the challenges artists face in moving from “emerging” to “established”, Pat humbly suggested that I had made the common mistake of confusing buzz with name-recognition and much more typical under-the-radar career growth - an error all the more frustrating because I myself have addressed this issue of bloggers mistaking buzz concentration as an indicator of popularity in previous posts, specifically in regards to the shortened buzz-and-fall cycle which has accompanied the rise of the rapid-fire blogging world. Mea culpa.

As Pat points out, his career continues to grow, albeit in more subtle ways out of the “new artist” limelight; recent developments include growing audience sizes, his first major tours of California, Texas, the Midwest, and the Carolinas, and a move from opening act slots to co-bills in much larger spaces. But that doesn’t mean he’s rich and famous yet, folks. Instead, says Pat, he’s engaged in “the long, slow work of building an audience, person by person,” and that’s where a blog can be a fine vehicle, indeed. Here’s a matched set of subtly different covers of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s You Got To Move from Pat’s work with frequent stage-sharer and fellow 2006 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Abbie Gardner (of similarly up-and-growing folk trio Red Molly) - one from his album, one from hers - to help keep these artists on your radar where they belong.



We’ve featured local singer-songwriters and frequent touring companions Mark Erelli and Lori McKenna here in fits and starts over the years: our first-year Mother’s Day post offered a pair of now long-gone coversongs from the housewife-turned-singing sensation; the release of Mark’s 2008 album Delivered occasioned a similar subfeature, including several covers which have suffered the same fate.

But their recently recorded cover of Mary Gauthier’s Mercy Now, which came to me via Bottom of the Glass, is a full-bore delight, with driving beat, lightness, and harmonies that lend a bit more hope and perhaps a touch more steel to what seemed to be an untouchable original. And sending you off to purchase the recent 1% For The Planet benefit compilation from which it comes is a great way to support ecological causes, to boot. As a bonus, in lieu of reviving old posts ad infinitum, I’ve included a few favorite othercovers from those previous posts.

Bonus:



Finally, in other covernews, the new Peter Gabriel all-covers album Scratch My Back is, by most accounts, sappy, maudlin, emotionless and tame; it wasn’t even that hard to find a reviewer willing to call it “the worst cover album in the history of cover albums.” But the good news is that it’s part of a reciprocal project, which means upcoming Peter Gabriel covers from each of the artists whose work Gabriel mangles on his own release. And if Paul Simon’s cover of Biko, released in tandem with Gabriel’s cover of Boy in the Bubble as the second “Double A-side” single from the project, is any indication, we’re in for a great ride.

Our Paul Simon cover feature is yet another part of our long-dead archives, and we’re surely overdue to revisit his songbook, so expect another round of Simon covers to come sometime in 2010. In the meanwhile, stay tuned to the usual indieblogs for Peter Gabriel covers from Bon Iver, Regina Spektor, and more in the weeks ahead.



As an added bonus, since we’re looking back that far today, here’s another stunning Peter Gabriel cover from an album featured in our very first post here at Cover Lay Down, way back in September of 2007.



Cover Lay Down posts new features and coverfolk sets every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

3 comments » | (Re)Covered, Jason Spooner, Lori McKenna, Mark Erelli, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads

New and (Re)Covered:
Carolina Chocolate Drops, Patty Griffin, and Suzanne Vega

January 27th, 2010 — 07:55 pm

The mailbag is bursting with delight - so full, in fact, that I’ve decided that next week will be New Artists, Old Songs Week here at Cover Lay Down, featuring a whole host of new artists who have kindly sent along their demos, one-off tracks, and pre-releases in anticipation of greater recognition for the next generation. It is, as always, an honor to be able to share these folks with you; I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do, and pursue the links provided here to support their emerging talent.

While we compile and winnow the wonderful new voices that have come our way in the last several weeks, let’s clear the palate a bit by regrounding our ears in a few more familiar faces and thematically relevant songs which have popped up in the inbox alongside that cornucopia. Here, that means yet another installment of our popular (Re)Covered feature, with news, new songs, and newly-found tracks that have come our way, and should be coming your way, too, now that the new year has turned.


I finally managed to catch the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who we first featured back in April, last weekend at the Somerville Theater, and was utterly thrilled to find they are even more stunning in concert than I had imagined. Their infectious joy in not just recovering but truly rejuvenating a whole set of found song, from old country blues and minstrel-show jazz to stringband and rural jugband classics, is evident in every smile, holler, and nuanced move on an array of authentic instruments, from quills and autoharp to banjo, fiddle, guitar, voice and bones. And as performers and ethnomusicologists, their patter and performance offers a first rate journey through the folk traditions of Black America.

New album Genuine Negro Jig, which will include a studio version of their infamous Blu Cantrell cover and a delicious take on Tom Waits’ Trampled Rose alongside a whole new set of resurrected stringband and old-time jazz and blues tunes done in their inimitable Piedmont style, drops on February 16. Here’s two delightful cuts from the newest - the aforementioned Blu Cantrell cover, and a sweet, wry newly-recorded version of old stringband classic Cornbread and Butterbeans - plus a live cut to keep your feet moving in the meantime; for more, preorder Genuine Negro Jig, sit back, and wait for the magic to arrive.



Patty Griffin’s new album Downtown Church is a true blue Americana Gospel album, not folk, but I hardly care; despite my ambivalence about her overproduced sophomore release Flaming Red, which recently caused a minor inter-blogger firestorm over at Star Maker Machine, it’s no secret that Griffin is one of my favorite artists, having first featured in our pages way back in our first few weeks as a blog, and several times since. And Downtown Church’s dustbowl gospel is utterly amazing, in no small part because of Griffin’s achingly, hauntingly, drivingly beautiful approach to a series of gospel classics, not to mention stellar support from Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Jim Lauderdale, and a host of other powerhouse artists.

The result: a true gem of a new album that has the Americana world drooling in anticipation of what may well turn out to be the biggest release of the year. The NPR full-album stream disappeared yesterday upon the album’s release, but there’s a live concert over at No Depression tonight at 8:00 EST, full-length samples at Paste, and of course, you can and should buy the whole thing here. The whole damn thing comes with my strongest recommendation, but I really, really love the sparse piano and voice of final track All Creatures of Our God and King, and the power of the penultimate We Shall All Be Reunited, which, like Heavenly Day before it, has Grammy written all over it, especially now that an appropriate nomination category has been created.



The coverblogger code doesn’t usually consider a remade song a cover if it’s the same artist performing it - else we’d have to count pretty much every demo as an original, and every live performance an incident worthy of note. Wikipedia, however, seems to beg otherwise. And so just this once, I’m going to give honorable mention to the newest from Suzanne Vega, Close Up Vol 1: Love Songs, in which the once-ubiquitous singer-songwriter comes out of the shadows after years of living off residuals to put forth an utterly lovely album of acoustic versions of her own songbook - the first of four rounds of such self-coverage, if Vega’s press release is to be believed.

We featured Suzanne Vega in our first Mother’s Day post way back in ‘08, noting at the time that she had decided to focus on motherhood first and foremost after her daughter was born in 1994; it’s good to see her back in the studio, and though there’s a part of me that aches for a new set of songs, her early work is certainly strong enough to support reframing. So while you head over to her website to preorder, here’s a remade “original” from the newest, a pair of older Grateful Dead covers from Cover Freak’s least favorite album, and a few other takes on a personal favorite from the Suzanne Vega songbook for balance.



Looking past the horizon, I note that Carrie Rodriguez, who we first featured here upon release of her 2008 album She Ain’t Me, will be coming out with her first covers album in April, and on first listen, at least, it’s sounding like a practically perfect fiddle-driven Country-Americana Folkpop collection.

We’ll have more to say about this eventually, and a song to post, for sure, but I’ve been asked to keep the buzz and the songsharing on the down low until the date creeps closer. Still, Carrie’s currently on tour with Ben Sollee and Erin McKeown - a great choice of companions for the achingly sweet-voiced Rodriguez - and she’ll also be doing a few dates with Alejandro Escovedo and Los Lonely Boys in the next few, so if your town is on her touring schedule, make it a point to stop in to preview a track or two from the upcoming disc in a live setting.



Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features and songsets each Sunday and Wednesday. And remember, folks: February 1st marks the kick-off date for New Artists, Old Songs Week here at Cover Lay Down, so don’t forget to head on back with your ears handy for a first-rate set of covers from a solid crop of up-and-comers come Sunday.

5 comments » | (Re)Covered, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Carrie Rodriguez, Patty Griffin, Suzanne Vega

2009, (Re)Covered: A CLD Year in Review
(On local labels, tribute albums, house concerts, and punk and popularity)

December 20th, 2009 — 04:43 pm





As I’ve noted several times before, I’m not big on year-end omnibus posts, and the concept of countdowns, with their hierarchies and exclusionary undertones, challenges my generous sensibilities. There’s so much greatness out there, the perfect song and songsmith for every one of a thousand nuanced moods and whims; to choose one over the other would be as wrong as asking me to rank my students by favorite, thus neglecting the dormant potential, the unique potency, and the epiphanic moments inherent in each.

But it’s been a rich year here at Cover Lay Down, and a rich year in the world of folk music, too. Despite a shifting-sand industry, and a continued fluidity in the relationship between artists and audiences, the low cost of acoustic production, the constant emergence of new artists grounded in the various traditions of “folk”, and the continued search for new lenses with which to frame culture and confession through song has made it easy for us to find wonder and whimsy, comfort and joy each Wednesday and Sunday.

Which is to say: I regret nothing, and recommend every song we’ve posted, every artist we’ve featured, every Covered In Folk songbook we’ve celebrated in this last year of the waning decade. Though I’ve been a bit lax with post tags in the past few months, newcomers are strongly encouraged to browse through the month-by-month archives to the right and below to catch up on a year’s worth of carefully selected coverage.


Still, music and memory collude in oft-unpredictable ways. Some songs linger; others, such as our Single Song Sunday subjects, claim more universality than others. As new songs and new experiences come down the pike, it inevitably sparks the neurons to connect once-was to now-is, causing us to call up the past in ways both surprising and eminently satisfying.

So today, we use the conceit of the (Re)Covered feature - our regularly reoccurring vehicle for sifting backwards through past posts, as new and newly-found songs come to our ears which rightfully belonged in the context of such already-passed premises - to both linkback to a few favorite features and celebrate the constancy of the new release, the uncovered gem, the passed-along bonus track, the demo and the deja vu darling.

So click on every and all mid-paragraph link above and below to join me in the 2009 archives, where greatness lies. And enjoy the newest tracks and discoveries along the way, of course.



It is unsurprising to find so many Signature Sounds artists on our roster for the year; the local label is a favorite, in no small part because of the exquisite taste and production oversight of owner, proprietor, and long-time WRSI DJ Jim Olsen. Nods to the Western Massachusetts-based 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 show, each was a wonderful record, well produced and well-constructed, and if you’re still holiday shopping for audiophilic friends and family, Signature Sounds is a perfect first stop.

The horizon promises good things, too: Boston-based neotrad string band Joy Kills Sorrow, now with CLD fave singer/cellist Emma Beaton on lead vocals, will drop their new album Darkness Sure Becomes This City on the label in February; though there’s not many covers on the album, the previews on Fiddlefreak attest to its greatness. And just because I only picked up Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem’s swingin’ new Kidfolk album Ranky Tanky yesterday as part of the last-minute holiday shopping spree, and because I never made it to posting anything from the raucously fun debut by Brooklyn-based honky-tonk band The Sweetback Sisters, both of which meet Signature Sounds’ high standards for greatness, here’s a pair of tracks from each to finish the year.

Bonus Holiday Coverfolk track, from Signature Sounds holiday compilation Wonderland:



The Howdy HouseThis year was the year we finally took our first tentative steps towards supporting musicians through more than just blog review, folk festival attendance, and ticket purchases. Our little house concert series A Tree Falls Productions brought us into intimate contact with three favorite artists - tender Texas singer-songwriter Danny Schmidt, the now-defunct chamberqrass Folk Arts Quartet, and Greenwich Village-era dulcimerist and hilarious storyteller David Massengill; thanks in no small part to the hard work of my tireless event-planning spouse, each was a success in its own way, and I am proud to consider myself both fan and friend to the artists we have hosted.

As I had been warned, our initial forays into house concert hosting have been highly addictive, and I have high hopes that 2010 will bring even more opportunities to share the best traveling musicians with family and friends both new and old. If you live within driving distance of Springfield, Northampton, or Worcester, MA - our nearest urban hotspots - make sure to sign up for our facebook group to keep abreast of upcoming concerts as the warm weather returns. In the meantime, though the ladies of the FAQ have since moved on to other projects and pastures, here’s a bonus covertrack each from the two incredible solo folk artists who were kind enough to grace our home in 2009.



I’m a habitual statwatcher, but even if I weren’t, it would have been hard to ignore that our November Punk Covers post was our most popular yet, thanks to notice at top-ten “directory of wonderful things” Boing Boing and, subsequently, on a holy host of punk forums from around the world. Our stats for the month show a 300% boost in readership, and though many punkwatchers did not choose to stick around for more folk afterwards, I’d like to thank those open-minded souls who have since decided to become regular visitors.

Popular “all folked up” thematic posts, especially those which cast such a broad and controversial net, inevitably beget also-ran submissions here at Cover Lay Down; in this case, the influx of new readership made for a fine platform for new discovery, as visitors new and old clamored to add their favorite punk cover to the atmosphere. Here’s some of the best previously-unheard or otherwise-forgotten first and second-wave punk covers that came my way in the aftermath of popularity, with a promise that 2010 will bring an equally great post chock full of third-wave and post-punk covers from the folkworld.



Finally, though we never truly got around to compressing our year-long discussion of 2009 tribute albums and cover compilations into a single omnibus, I think our two primary posts on the subject - one from March, the other from November - provide a relatively thorough overview.

But even the best folkwatchers with day jobs cannot catch everything the first time around. Though I continue to maintain that, like Nellie McKay’s recent Doris Day tribute, despite the appearance of multiple folkpop artists (including CLD faves Patty Griffin, Sam Phillips, Sara Watkins, Jill Sobule, and Missy Higgins), this year’s Cy Coleman tribute is not folk, but a true genre-centered pop vocal album through and through, a comprehensive list of the year’s best folk-and-roots tribute albums should, by all rights, include the indiefolk and other subgenre coverfolk gems hidden among larger collections.

As such, we should at least note release of the Wilco-esque folk rock tribute EP Heartaches By the Pound: The Rosewood Thieves Sing Solomon Burke, which Ray over at Cover Me included on his own best-of tribute list for the year. And we should also point out that Holiday Coverfolk albums are still cover albums, and give honorable mention to both Score! 20 Years Of Merge Records: The Covers!, which includes some great indiefolk tracks from the likes of Laura Cantrell, Bill Callahan, St. Vincent, Tracey Thorn and Jens Lenkman, and more, and the Lemonheads‘ all-cover extravaganza Varshons, which - while broad in its genre base - includes plenty of Evan Dando’s sparse grungefolk among the harder stuff.



Cover Lay Down shares new coverfolk sets and features each Wednesday and Sunday throughout the year. Y’all come back now, y’hear?

8 comments » | (Re)Covered

(Re)Covered, XIII:
An interview and exclusive live tracks from Caroline Herring
plus live Chris Smither, and more of the year’s best tribute albums

November 15th, 2009 — 04:26 pm





Regular readers may recall that I first fell in love with the powerful, confessional Americana folk of Signature Sounds artist Caroline Herring after last year’s Lantana, a tour de force concept album of sorts which evoked a broad set 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 report that it’s garnering the attention it deserves, climbing the Folk and Americana charts and finding placement on this year’s upcoming Oxford American Southern Music Sampler.

Last weekend I had a rare opportunity to sit down with Caroline before her opening set to a packed house at local folk-haunt the Iron Horse. Unsurprisingly, the Southern singer-songwriter was charming and articulate, both onstage and off; I appreciated the shout-out to Cover Lay Down during her set, and appreciate, as well, her willingness to share some thoughts on her own history and experience with coverage for the benefit of our readers.

Interestingly, as she noted at the outset of our interview, Caroline stayed away from covers for most of the last decade, having burned out on them early in her career in her work with Thacker Mountain Radio, a Southern music and literature radio show she helped found down in Oxford, Mississippi:

I used to do all covers, when I started playing with the Sincere Ramblers. We were the house band for a live audience radio show for two and a half years, and every week, we put out four new covertunes, and they were all of country blues, gospel, bluegrass, classic country…so we covered the canon. And so by the time I finished that, I was really tired of covers. I had learned a tremendous amount, but I just was so hungry to write my own songs and play my own songs and so I got in that habit.

But of course I know so many. And with this album, I first thought I would do an album of covers. And I was still not ready to do that. I don’t know why…I still have that Sincere Ramblers…that cover-mania was still with me…

The journey which brought her to include five songs originally penned and performed by others on her most recent release is deliberate and deep, as much a result of a pent-up sense of influence as it is a result of trying to craft a comprehensive vision in the studio. As Caroline describes it, under the guidance of producer and sideman David “Goody” Goodrich, she ended up with an album that seamlessly intertwines typically strong, poignant originals like The Dozens and Tales of the Islander with a series of songs reclaimed from her past and her culture.

In conversation, as in the music itself, it is obvious that the process by which Caroline has come to make songs her own, both lyrically and artistically, stems from to the way in which she connects her own artistic center with others - performers, producers, and songwriters alike. And listening to her music shows continued evolution of that process. Though the two covers on Lantana were recognizable from their first measures, here, Caroline doesn’t so much interpret songs as she does find her own voice in them, an approach which very often means a comprehensive reinvention of the familiar. Her LP selections - standards Long Black Veil and See See Rider, a resetting of the sixties folktune granted to Yeats poem Song of the Wandering Aengus, and startlingly transformative covers of both True Colors and Joni Mitchell’s Cactus Tree - are rewritten gems, with new tunes and tunings breathing new life and new intimacy into the texts. Here’s how that happens:

I had always loved the song of Wandering Aengus - Judy Collins’ version. I’ve listened to it for ten years, loved it. And I listened to her growing up. But I would play it, and sing it, and I thought “well, I wonder how other people do this.” And then lo and behold I listened to other people, and everybody has a different tune. And so I thought well, maybe I could do a different tune. And so I did. And then…that just spread.

And I’ve played Long Black Veil 500 times. You know, with a bluegrass band. And as a folk singer, perhaps it’s effective. But I loved playing with it. The song was definitely morose, but I played it very folkily. And in the studio, Goody - who was an integral part in the playing of this record - he played with it, and said “make it more urgent sounding”. And I got mad at him for saying it was urgent. And that was the take we took. And of course, he was right, and it was just wonderful, and I was just being diva-like…

As Caroline goes on to describe the way each covered song came to her, a two-part trend becomes clear: first, Caroline finds a song that she loves, and that speaks to her emotionally, and then, she rejects the melody and delivery of the versions she has heard from others in order to rebuild the songs as her own, whether in response to an inner desire or to the push of the producer and partner. In True Colors, which Goody brings to the table, she finds deep meaning in the sentiment of the song, but transforms the melody to make it a vehicle for her own sense of that sentiment. Similarly, Caroline describes feeling “standoffish from” blues, not feeling like she has a “right” to sing them, so although her version of See See Rider reflects both an appreciation of and a reverence for Ma Rainey and Big Bill Broonzy, she ends up remaking the song “in a way that [she] can sing it,” so that it has meaning for her.

In the end, it’s clear that, as Caroline herself notes, “I don’t seem to make an effective song if I’m not emotionally a part of it”. And this extraordinarily unusual, highly sensitive approach to coverage is consistent with her songwriting and performing process, too. Caroline’s originals show rare empathy, and the combination of intimately reforged familiarity and strong new songcraft is a great part of what makes Golden Apples of the Sun and its companion EP Silver Apples of the Moon - which also includes a few wonderful covers, most notably Kate Wolf’s Here in California, and a duet with Cary Hudson - such powerful works, universal and intimate all at once, worth buying from the source, and worth gifting as the holidays approach.

Here’s more from our evening with Caroline, in her own words and music: the full recorded interview, complete with chat about family and kidsong, and a few live tracks recorded by yours truly at the venue, on my trusty iPod voice recorder.




Bonus: Caroline’s new video for Tales of the Islander is now available at YouTube. Songs:illinois, who doesn’t usually post videos, says it “does justice to Caroline’s beautiful song as well as showing her beautifully serene and peaceful personality.” Having met her in person, I’d have to agree.



Caroline’s too-short set was followed by a rare treat: labelmate Chris Smither performing songs from his new album Time Stands Still with support from The Motivators (drummer Zak Trojano and guitarist David Goodrich, whose subtle strains also can be heard in the latter tracks from Caroline Herring above). Smither, who has recently moved into the area, only gets better with each passing year, his wry, gentle manner mellowing even deeper with age, and the band brought a fullness to his songs which was previously only available in studio recordings.

Unusually, Smither’s Saturday set was comprised of almost all new material, but he did offer this stunning cover of Dave Carter’s Crocodile Man. Though I’m still gathering in a few last tunes for an upcoming feature on Carter’s songbook, this bootleg track is just to good to hold back.



Finally, before you head off to buy your own copies of Golden Apples of the Sun, Silver Apples of the Moon, and Time Stands Still, a quick mention of three new and upcoming albums we missed in last week’s feature on recent Tribute Albums and Cover Compilations:


First, and most relevant to our recent foray into the world of folk tributes: a debt of thanks to delicate folkwatcher Slowcoustic and his own source the Common Folk Meadow blog for raising consciousness this week on The Wanderer, a new all-covers release from Berliner singer-songwriter Laurence Collyer performing as The Diamond Family Archive. The album, which features typically lo-fi bedroom covers of Sam Cooke, Eddie Cochrain, John Lee Hooker, and others, is comprised of quiet, often somber “acoustic landscapes”; in keeping with the organic sound and production value, the CD includes a handdrawn booklet, photographs, and “objects of affection”, and the whole thing comes across like a true collector’s item waiting to happen.

Slowcoustic has rehosted a wonderful free show from TDFA, just one of many available at label Woodland Archives, which includes the following live version of the title track from The Wanderer; the entire show includes some startlingly amazing covers, most notably absolutely mystical banjo-and-voice breakdowns of Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again and Islands in the Stream, and serves as a great introduction to the strong subtleties of Collyer’s work. Also included: two lovely late-night covers of Dire Straits classics, one from the covers album, the other from The Diamond Family Archive webpage. Gorgeous stuff, all ’round.



Second, this Harry Nilsson cover from Dawn Landes has been making the blogrounds, reminding both that a) we did a Nilsson feature way back when, and b) the pop-slash-indie-grown tribute album Songs from the Point!, while not folk, contains some delicate takes on Nilsson’s playful, poignant, well-crafted songs, the best of which come across as strong contenders for permanent earworms.



And finally, looking forward, the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street this week brought exciting news of an upcoming Muppets tribute album featuring the likes of Weezer, my Morning Jacket, and Andrew Bird. Like Songs From the Point, the upcoming tribute features several artists who claim folk music in their blood and musical origins; Andrew Bird, who will appear on each, recently released his torchy, francophilic take on Bein’ Green, and though it’s not clear if Joshua Radin’s version of the Sesame Street theme song, originally recorded for Scrubs, will make it to the 2010 album, it’s certainly in the same vein.



Cover Lay Down posts new features and songsets every Sunday and Wednesday, and the occasional otherday. We’re not known for brevity, but people seem to like what we’ve got to offer; if you do, too, please help support our mission by purchasing albums direct from the artists from the links above, and - if you’re up for it - perhaps consider donating a bit to help keep operating costs low.

7 comments » | (Re)Covered, Caroline Herring, Chris Smither, Dawn Landes

(Re)Covered Singer-Songwriters:
New CDs from Caroline Herring, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka & Catie Curtis

October 3rd, 2009 — 12:57 pm

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.


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.


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.


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.






Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk sets, reviews and themed posts every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

10 comments » | (Re)Covered

(Re)Covered XI: More covers of and from
Beck, The Kinks, Wilco, and a Contest Week wrap-up

July 5th, 2009 — 04:15 pm

Our popular (Re)Covered series, wherein we recover songs that dropped through the cracks too late to make it into the posts where they belonged, generally provides an opportunity to check in on previously featured artists, songs and themes. Today, I’ve also included an omnibus reminder to enter our Contest Week contests before entries close on Monday at midnight.

But first, thanks to other blogs, artists and label notices, fan submissions, and other agents of serendipitous universe, here’s the scoop on some new songs, new takes, and new discoveries.

We made a case for Beck-as-folksinger way back in the early weeks of Cover Lay Down; as I suggested at the time, the stripped-down, almost funereal acoustic side of the popular genre-pushing artist is closer to his heart and history than most popular music fans realize.

Since then, Beck has continued to ride the line between hiccuping electronic pop and the more pensive works which have wormed their way into the heart of grungefolk audiophiles everywhere, though it’s hard to justify his most recent compilation appearance, a beat-heavy, fuzzed out rock cover of Dylan’s Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat which appeared on recent indierock compilation War Child: Heroes, as anything but the radio-oriented track it is intended to be.

But in the last few weeks, news of a new project has hit the blogs, sure to appeal to fans of his weary troubadour sound: Beck has grand plans to record a series of one-shot in-studio sessions covering classics with a host of well-seasoned friends and fellow musicians, releasing them through his website as Beck’s Record Club, and if the three retro-grungy Velvet Underground covers which already grace beck.com are any indication, the project is well worth watching. Here’s the first taste, plus a favorite older cover for continuity’s sake:



We closed out last summer with a feature on The Kinks, and the subject proved popular: In the days that followed, I received plenty of encouragement, and a handful of tracks from readers. Most were on the syrupy side — I’m not sure why Ray Davies’ songwriting lends itself so well to torch songs. But a few were keepers.

Here’s a trio of vastly different but equally summery Kinks covers which have come to my ears since then, and stuck: a delicate solo uke version of Victoria from Ema and the Ghosts, a lighthearted retro-rocker from Holly Golightly, and an older typically british folkrock take on Days from Kirsty MacColl.



We featured Sam Jacobs, who fronts the loose collaboration of friends now performing under the moniker The Flying Change, way back in our very first New Artists, Old Songs post, and a few Wilco covers when ex-Wilco member Jay Bennett passed a few months ago. Now, thanks to Sam himself, we bring this exclusive, endearingly lo-fi take on Wilco’s Pieholden Suite, recorded live with full band, including oboe and sax. It’s not exactly folk, but it starts off that way, and stays pretty mellow throughout. Great stuff from a maturing artist.

I’ve also included Jacobs’ wonderfully Cohen-esque cover of Tom Petty’s Yer So Bad, recorded under the name Lipstik, which we first posted back in April of 2008, and a great ragged Daniel Johnston bonus cover from Bennett’s last album, which is available for free download here.



Finally, our very first annual Cover Lay Down contest week has been quite the adventure. But since geography, availability, and other factors seem to be keeping most folks from entering our two festival-related contests, to make it easier, I’m making each prize for those contests available separately. In other words: EACH contest includes at least one highly-recommended CD, and each CD can be won without stress or commitment.

Here’s the list, with linkbacks good until midnight Monday; click on each for contest entry details. If you’re only in it for the CDs, make sure to include the phrase “CD ONLY” in your entry.


Contest #1: Win 26-song all-covers indiefolk CD sampler Before the Goldrush

Contest #2: Day passes for both 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 Ramblers

Contest #3: Two four day camping passes to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, July 23-26 PLUS Susan Werner’s most recent all-covers chamberfolk CD Classics


Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features each Wednesday, Sunday, and the occasional otherday. Coming up later this week: Cover Lay Down hits the Hype Machine top 100 pop charts, and we use the occasion to ponder the definitive nature of popular folk songs.

4 comments » | (Re)Covered, Beck, CONTESTS, The Kinks

(Re)Covered X: More covers of and from
Arrica Rose, Bee Gees, Newgrass Voices, Sandy Denny and Marissa Nadler

May 10th, 2009 — 12:33 am

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.

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.


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.

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.



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.


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:



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

5 comments » | (Re)Covered

(Re)Covered IX: More covers of and from Mike and Ruthy, Richard Shindell, U2, and YouTube

April 11th, 2009 — 09:33 pm

It’s been a busy week, what with re-election to the local School Board, midterm grading, and Passover coming to a head all-at-once. To compensate, I’ve timeshifted this post a bit, writing ahead in time stolen from sleep and paperwork, so that the family can spend the weekend in Boston while I pass words and coversong along via some template trickery.

Which is to say: as you read this, I’m not here right now. And since we’re drifting in the complex currents of past tense grammar, why not reach back in time a bit more? Here’s yet another installment of our popular (Re)Covered series, wherein we cover new and newly-rediscovered songs that dropped into our laps just a bit too late to make it into earlier features on the same subject.


I’ve made no secret about the fact that American expatriate Richard Shindell is one of my absolute favorite singer-songwriters. In fact, looking back in the archives, I find that we’ve covered the one-time Fast Folkie in depth several times, both as a solo coverartist and as a member of Cry Cry Cry.

I last wrote about Shindell in (Re)Covered V, back when he was soliciting micro-financing for his upcoming album; since then, I’ve received my own copy of Not Far Now and companion alt-takes collection Mariana’s EP, and I’m happy to report that a) it’s a topper, and b) it contains a marvelous cover of Dave Carter’s The Mountain. One day, I aspire to a full set of covers of the late great Dave Carter’s work, both with and without his still-touring partner Tracy Grammer. In the meantime, this one’s just too good to hang on to.

Richard Shindell Bonus: We posted a studio version of modern Celtic folkband Solas covering of Shindell’s On a Sea of Fleur de Lis way back in our very first post; here’s a hopping live version of the same from their 2004 live CD/DVD, which brought together all past and present members for an amazing set of songs.



I’ve written about Ruth Ungar Merenda’s work a few times here, too, most recently in her role as one third of nu-folk trio Sometymes Why. But as I noted in our first full feature on her work as a solo artist and co-founder of now-defunct neo-trad group The Mammals, these days Ruthy spends most of her time with her husband and fellow ex-Mammals member Mike Merenda and their new tiny son.

It’s Mike and Ruthy we’re interested in today. The two just came out with a new album called Waltz of the Chickadee, and in addition to the usual diverse set of intimate, old-timey originals, it includes some wonderful covers of some familiar old tunes. Here’s two vastly different takes on the long-ago past from the new work: a loose acoustic old-time jam take on Guthrie classic Dust Bowl Blues, and a mellower, sweeter, more indie-folk Hang Me.

Ruth Merenda Bonus: Dad Jay and stepmom Molly Mason invited Ruthy in to sing harmony on an old Leadbelly tune given the acoustic swing treatment on the title track to their 2003 album.



I hadn’t planned on returning to our feature on native YouTube covers, but as I mentioned at the time, more and more artists are producing work in front of the cameras, and it just doesn’t seem fair to them or their producing organizations to strip the sound of its innate visual component without acknowledging the work in its original multimedia form.

Here’s a simply stunning eighties cover from new folk-crush William Fitzsimmons, a still-rising star from the same hushfolk school as Sufjan and Iron and Wine, recorded last summer on a Deep Rock Drive session.





William Fitzsimmons Bonus: Fitzsimmons’ modern indiefolk lullaby cover of James Taylor’s You Can Close Your Eyes is but one of many powerful tracks on the previously-featured sixties and seventies tribute Before the Goldrush.



Speaking of video, and as a nod to our recent set of U2 covers, here’s a slightly precious but oh so gorgeous popfolk video cover from a recent TV appearance by a collection of Norwegian pop singers. Seems this cover is the first single from their new tour, or something. Totally guilty pleasure, but I love it all the same. (Less impressive, unless you like American Idol fauxfolk: their 2007 cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.)





U2 Bonus: here’s an old Redbird outtake, ragged but equally gorgeous in its own fragmented way, rediscovered through a reader (thanks, Jeff).



As always, Cover Lay Down is proud to support artists directly, without middlemen or megastores. If you like what you hear here, please consider following links to artist websites and preferred points of purchase.

6 comments » | (Re)Covered, U2, richard shindell

(Re)Covered VII: More covers of and from
Sometymes Why, Eilen Jewell, Emma Beaton, Fleetwood Mac and more!

March 1st, 2009 — 12:48 am

It’s been quite a while since our last installment of our popular (Re)Covered series, in which we revisit previous posts through the new and noteworthy. But a growing collection of stunning apres-post reader submissions and a mailbox full of new upcoming works from previously-featured musicians cry out to be shared, and we’re long overdue. Without further ado, here’s some new covertracks and newly-found folk favorites worthy of your attention.


We’ve celebrated Kristin Andreassen, Ruth Merenda, and Aoife O’Donovan here on Cover Lay Down in the past, both as solo artists and as members of Uncle Earl (Andreassen), The Mammals (Merenda), and Crooked Still (O’Donovan): the three are central players in the new, rising neo-traditional cadre of folk musicians working to redefine the relationship between modern folk and more traditional forms such as bluegrass and appalachian music, and I believe them to be among the cream of the crop. I am a huge fan of these young ladies, and if you told me they were performing at two a.m. tomorrow night, separately or in combination, I’d skip out on my sleep and head over in a heartbeat, school night be damned.

Your Heart is a Glorious Machine, which drops March 10th from Signature Sounds, is the second album from this trio, which performs together as Sometymes Why, and I’ll be honest — it’s not what I expected at all. In fact, at first listen, the album is hardly folk at all. Instead, where their previous projects were grounded in both traditional and singer-songwriter folk, Your Heart comes off as a form of soul-influenced indiepop, heavy in tambourine and organ, targeted towards fans of Jenny Lewis or Feist. Heck, even the cover art speaks to a more indie audience.

Okay, so the album represents a significant departure from both their previous work as separate musicians, and their debut album as Sometymes Why. But once folk fans get past the shift in sensibility, with a few notable exceptions, Your Heart is surprisingly strong and eminently listenable, featuring a diverse collection of great songs and sweet, airy harmony vocals throughout. From the synthesized intro and sultry vocals of opener Aphrodisiaholic to the sweet and delicate acoustic guitar, harmonica and bells of Shine It and Slow Down, to the powerful Diamond, with its indie echo and a light foreground of strings and synth, this is music with a folk twang but plenty of soul, sure to appeal to modern folk audiences and the new indie crowd alike.

Unfortunately, those few notable exceptions come early in the tracklist. Both My Crazy and the single cover — a take on Concrete Blonde’s Joey — suffer from issues of pacing and too-precious overarrangement; as I wrote elsewhere when Joey first hit the blogs, “The song makes a decent light lullaby, but the arrangement here is too back and forth, and ultimately the hard rock organ, fuzz-guitar, and drum beat of the “forth” isn’t the best showcase for the team’s light folk harmonies.” Still, every new band deserves a few missteps, and even mostly-perfect albums are hard to come by; in the end, this is still a solid album, worth owning. Check out Joey below, and then head over to Signature Sounds for a few more (and more representative) samples while you pre-order.



Sea of Tears, the new disc from Eilen Jewell, represents a similar departure from her previous work. Jewell’s second album Letters from Sinners and Strangers was a masterpiece of crisp, light-hearted acoustic countryfolk swing which swept the folk-world upon its 2007 release; her work with the Sacred Shakers, which we wrote about when it emerged last summer, took that gorgeous, girlish voice and acoustic twang and applied it to old-timey gospel tunes, creating something “just a peg looser than a classic country gospel album.”

Now Jewell has moved away from that crisp, Sun Records-gone-organic sound to reimagine the jangly, twangy sounds of the British invasion of the sixties. As with the Sometymes Why album, regular listeners will likely find the result takes a while to get used to, with several songs heavy on the surf guitar coming at you right from the get-go, creating a sonic consistency easily mistaken for sameness. But upon further listen, in both these and a few softer rock ballads later on, the album ultimately attains its goal, rewarding the listener with a return to form and mastery, framed in a new sonic environment which really does pay homage to “the roots of rock and roll”, effectively and enjoyably.

Sea of Tears is due to drop from Signature Sounds in April. Here’s a new cover from the album, plus a more mellow older favorite, to prove it’s worth the wait.



In other news, a continued pursuit of the best new tradfolk heard at two recent festivals — The Boston Celtic Music Festival and The Joe Val Bluegrass Festival — has led to some lovely finds over the past few weeks, including two songs with a coincidence factor which collapses the traditional genre and performer distance between the two musical forms.

First, Scottish-bred and now Boston-based vocalist and fiddler Hannah Read, who sat in with the wonderful young folks of the Berklee Bluegrass Collage at Joe Val and performed as part of the Folk Arts Quartet at BCMFest, turned out to have a lovely cover of A Taste of Honey on her MySpace page. And second, Emma Beaton, who I wrote about here recently in glowing terms, has just unearthed a bluegrassy version of Red Rocking Chair, which she previously performed as a sparse banjo ballad; this second take is performed with some of the Berklee Bluegrass folks as well.

Coincidences abound here, including the fact that Hannah has photos of herself performing with both Aoife O’Donovan and Kristin Andreassen on her MySpace page. It would also seem that Berkley is a source to watch right now. Those living in the Boston area would be well advised to keep an eye on the Notlob concert series, which is featuring many folks from this scene this year: Hannah Read will perform with the Folk Arts Quartet on April 11; both Emma Beaton and the Boston Boys, which feature some of the Berklee Bluegrass crowd, will appear on May 9.

I’ve included a wonderful old-timey bluegrass cover of Rider on an Orphan Train here, too, because I picked it up at the Joe Val Fest after finally figuring out what all the fuss was about Dry Branch Fire Squad. We featured contemporary folk dulcimer-player David Massengil, who wrote the tune, when he appeared this summer at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.



Finally: our recent feature on the songs of Fleetwood Mac led to a few wonderful recommendations from the peanut gallery; I’ve never been so grateful to have readers who consider the blog a true dialogue as I was when I tracked down Anna Ternheim’s sweet, ringing acoustic take on Little Lies, and the gentle countryfolk harmonies and slide guitar of Nora O’Connor’s version of That’s Alright. We’ll make a Fleetwood Mac fan of me yet, I guess. Keep ‘em coming, folks.



Are you an artist, a promoter, or a fan with a cover to share? Send ‘em along via the contact link at the top of the page — all songs considered, just like it says on NPR.

6 comments » | (Re)Covered, Eilen Jewell, Fleetwood Mac, Kristin Andreassen, bluegrass

Christmas, (Re)covered:
Are You Searching for Christmas Covers Past?

November 24th, 2008 — 11:42 pm


To my immense surprise, as of this morning, our statcounter is already showing searches for Christmas tunes, and the trend appears to be accelerating quickly. I’m saving one particularly popular holiday re-post for an upcoming stint as guest-blogger on BreakThru Radio, but far be it from us to hold back on what the people want. To kick of the upcoming holiday season, then, and in honor of the snow that is due to fall any minute now, I’ve re-upped the mp3s on this full set of Folkcovers for a Winter’s Night, a set of wintersongs and nondenominational carols posted last winter. Visit, download, and enjoy.

While we’re in the early holiday spirit, how about a few newer holiday tunes to whet your appetite for a season to come? This sweetly innocent Catie Curtis and Rose Polenzani cover of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear was once available free from Rose’s website; it’s hardly apropos, given the clouds, but it’s hard to resist these gentle voices. And this second helping of wonderful, delicate indiefolk from Rosie Thomas’ brand new Christmas album is a half-cover, an incredible expansion of Christmas Don’t Be Late, turning what was once a 45 rpm Alvin and the Chipmunks earworm into a sweet carol complete with tinkly bells and an elves’ chorus; it may not be as secular as the others linked to above, but it is quite possibly my favorite new carol of the season.

4 comments » | (Re)Covered, Holiday Coverfolk

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