Cover Lay Down

Great covers come from a myriad of sources. But the coverlover’s collection is founded on a finite set, where coverage runs fast and free: deep wells that sustain us, pouring forth the volumes that pepper our mixtapes and shore up our artist-centric features, from “homage houses” like Reimagine Music and American Laundromat Records to ongoing YouTube tour-stops like AV Undercover and the pop-up microstudios of Dutch field recorder Onder Invloed.

Back To The Source, our newest feature concept, dives deep into these wells, seeking to celebrate and reveal just what makes their waters so prolific and life-sustaining. We kick things off today with a look at MOJO, who in just over a decade has produced dozens of tributes to seminal albums and artists, sealed lovingly in plastic alongside their monthly music magazine; read on for beautiful interpretations of seminal songs from Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, and more, plus more Beatles covers than you could ever imagine.

I love used CD stores, where a quick skim of the liner notes can reveal treasures previously unnoticed or unheard, and rarities abound, from live local radio compilations to label tributes long out of print. And so, a few weekends ago, in a last gasp effort to enjoy the waning days of summer, we found ourselves in Brattleboro, VT, where Turn It Up records has recently relocated to new digs. I begged a few minutes from the end of a great meal, and headed for the stacks.

And there, in the three for five bucks tray, was a treasure trove: someone’s entire collection of Mojo Records CDs.

It was an incomplete set, to be sure – about 5 year’s worth, of a total collection that so far spans a dozen. But I walked away with ten separate tribute albums, most otherwise impossible to find. And after steeping in them for two weeks, it was just too good not to share.

A little history here: Mojo Magazine has included a free CD with almost every issue since late 2004; not all tackle covers, but many do. Two-disc set Beatlemania, which emerged in September of that year, and Cash Covered, released that November, were the first covers compilations to appear as part of a series that yaws wide enough to define the broad tastes of Mojo itself, where punk, soul, pop and indie all have their place in the pantheon, and authenticity is the name of the game.

For the first few years, Mojo’s CDs tended to compile previously recorded material, maybe with a brand new track or two; the joy here was in the collection and organization, which generally trended towards a broad genre spectrum held together marvelously, resulting in a growing cache of eminently listenable long-plays. In more recent years, Mojo has included a number of bespoke CDs in their collection, with songs solicited and recorded exclusively for their projects. Either way, their taste is impeccable: it is these collections, in fact, which have introduced me to The Staves, Neville Skelly, Jeb Loy Nichols, and other up-and-comers, while renewing my love for Woodpigeon, Phosphorescent, Yim Yames, Sam Amidon, Emily Barker, Thea Gilmore, Jim White, and many more artists pushing the envelope beyond easy genre categorization.

In the end, as a collection, the Mojo tribute CDs stand almost unparalleled – a fitting beginning for a new feature series, and a great way to celebrate the magazine and its tastemakers as they continue their search for the source in the songscape. Read on for our favorite, folkiest tracks from a close-to-complete chronology of cover albums, from that Beatlemania set to Blonde on Blonde Revisited, last month’s delight of a Dylan tribute.

Mojo Magazine’s Best Covers (2004-2016)
A Cover Lay Down Mix [zip!]

• Charles River Valley Boys: I’ve Just Seen A Face (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Beatlemania: An All-American Tribute To The Fab Four, September, 2004)
• Jeb Loy Nichols: Worried Man (orig. Johnny Cash)
  (from Cash Covered, November 2004)
• Andrew Bird with Nora O’Connor: Oh Sister (orig. Bob Dylan)
  (from Dylan Covered, September 2005)
• Richard Thompson: Legal Matter (orig. The Who)
  (from The Who Covered, February 2006)
• Mark Lanegan: Nothin’ In This World Can Stop Me Worryin’ Bout That Girl (orig. The Kinks)
  (from The Modern Genius of Ray Davies, March 2006)
• Michael Weston King: For No One (orig. The Beatles)
• Thea Gilmore: I Want To Tell You (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Revolver Reloaded, July 2006)
• Chris Whitley: Drifting (orig. Jimi Hendrix)
  (from Experienced, November 2006)
• Steve Almaas and Ali Smith: The Lonely Sea (orig. The Beach Boys)
  (from In My Room, January 2007)
• Fionn Regan: Getting Better (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Sgt. Pepper…With A Little Help From His Friends, March 2007)
• Billy Bragg: She Smiled Sweetly (orig. Rolling Stones)
  (from Stoned, September 2007)
• Lau: Dear Prudence (orig. The Beatles)
  (from The White Album Recovered No. 0000001, September 2008)
• Neville Skelly: Mother Nature’s Son (orig. The Beatles)
  (from The White Album Recovered No. 0000002, October 2008)
• Josh Ritter: Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (orig. Leonard Cohen)
  (from Cohen Covered, December 2008)
• Jeffrey Lewis: Octopus’ Garden (orig. The Beatles)
• Karima Francis: She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Abbey Road Now!, October 2009)
• Woodpigeon: Mother (orig. Pink Floyd)
  (from The Wall Re-Built! Disc One, December 2009)
• North Sea Radio Orchestra: Vera/Bring The Boys Back Home (orig. Pink Floyd)
  (from The Wall Re-Built! Disc Two, January 2010)
• Robyn Hitchcock: Dark Globe (orig. Syd Barrett)
  (from The Madcap Laughs Again!, March 2010)
• John Grant: Two Of Us (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Let It Be Revisited, August 2010)
• Sam Amidon: The Needle And The Damage Done (orig. Neil Young)
  (from Harvest Revisited, February 2011)
• Doug Paisley: Us And Them (orig. Pink Floyd)
  (from Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon, August 2011)
• Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou: Your Love Is Forever (orig. George Harrison)
  (from Harrison Covered, November 2011)
• Ren Harvieu: Sister Morphine (orig. Rolling Stones)
  (from Sticky Soul Fingers, January 2012)
• Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo: Master Song (orig. Leonard Cohen)
  (from The Songs of Leonard Cohen Covered, March 2012)
• Tom McRae & The Standing Band: Sloop John B. (trad./arr. Beach Boys)
  (from Pet Sounds Revisited, June 2012)
• Jim White: All Together Now (orig. The Beatles)
• Thea Gilmore: All You Need Is Love (orig. The Beatles)
  (from Yellow Submarine Resurfaces, July 2012)
• The Staves: Songbird (orig. Fleetwood Mac)
  (from Rumours Revisited, January 2013)
• Chris Difford: All My Loving (orig. The Beatles)
  (from We’re With The Beatles, August 2013)
• Hiss Golden Messenger: Black Country Woman (orig. Led Zeppelin)
  (from Physical Graffiti Redrawn, April 2015)
• Phosphorescent: I Want You
  (from Blonde On Blonde Revisited, July 2016)

Always artist-friendly and ad-free, Cover Lay Down has been covering the changing landscape of music since 2007 thanks to the continued efforts of sources like Mojo…and the kindness of readers like you. Donate today to help us keep the servers spinning, and receive our undying thanks, PLUS a mixtape of otherwise unblogged rarities!

How lovely to return from two weeks in the folkfields soaked in sun and song and find the mailbag bulging with transformative takes on songs we love. We’ve sifted through and found the very best of a set that covers the gamut from tender indiefolk and solo singer-songwriter fare to bluegrass, roots, and Americana; now read on for some very new coverage from a diverse set of international artists working in and around the folkways – all recorded or released in the last few weeks, and all very much worth your time.

• Vini, Lindsay & Isaac: She Said She Said (orig. The Beatles)

Revolver turned 50 last week; in its honor, a set of mostly Brazilian artists have spent the week performing songs from the album for a mostly-live project called BH Beatle Week, and the results are just divine. Our favorite project contribution: this bright, dreamy, gently psychedelic cover from contemporary folk duo Lindsay and Isaac (and friend Vini), perfect for wistful summer’s end. See also Junk, recorded back in January by the same trio of artists – a beautiful, tender rendition of Paul McCartney’s best post-Beatles lullaby.

• Regina Spektor: While My Guitar Gently Weeps (orig. The Beatles)

Indie-slash-antifolk singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, who has been pretty quiet since her last release in 2012, covered the Beatles recently, too, for the soundtrack of new animated feature Kubo and the Two Strings. Fittingly tinged with neotraditional Japanese instrumentation over orchestral strings, the cover, which hit the ether over the weekend, is both stirring and strange, a fitting match for a film that promises much, and seems poised to deliver.

• Anna Elizabeth Laube: XO (orig. Beyonce)

Wisconsin-based, classically trained multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter and CLD frequent flyer Anna Elizabeth Laube sent along this Beyonce cover almost a month ago, but it’s well worth bringing forward: hushed, beautiful, and truly folk, with unexpected horns and a pulsing vibe that soothes and sways. At this point, we’d listen to Laube the sing the phone book; that she’s managed to wring such depth and dynamic tension from such an unusual source is both typical and praiseworthy.

• The Legal Matters: Don’t Look Back (orig. Teenage Fanclub)

New on Noisetrade, this previously unreleased Teenage Fanclub cover serves as 1/4 of a sampler EP re-introducing the world to the throwback California country sounds of Detroit “guitar-pop” band The Legal Matters. And what an introduction it is, too: perfect for those last lazy summer afternoons, and sure to please fans of The Jayhawks, The Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, and other folk-pop radio hitmakers that still populate classic rock radio.

• The High Bar Gang: Silver Dagger (trad.)

Released in June but now rising to the top, Don’t This Road Look Rough And Rocky, the “focus” track of Someday The Heart Will Trouble The Mind, was put up on Youtube at the end of July: like much of this collection of old-timey “cheatin’ and hurtin’ songs” from BC-based septet The High Bar Gang, it’s a slow piece, and gentler than the Flatt and Scruggs original. But it’s the high-driving energy of traditional album opener Silver Dagger, a translation that owes much to Dolly Parton’s 1999 take on the song yet with a bright and busty energy all its own, that grabs us and pulls us in, hard and grinning, to spin and whirl.

• Susan Kane: Brown Eyed Women (orig. Grateful Dead)
• Susan Kane: Comes A Time (orig. Grateful Dead)

It’s been a while since we last featured contemporary Hudson Valley singer-songwriter Susan Kane here on these pages, naming her sly, bluesy take on the Grateful Dead classic Loser as one of our top 20 coversongs of 2012, but we’re thrilled to have her back on the radar with two new Dead covers and a set of potent originals that reveal a rich and eminently human inner world through the superimposition of the mundane and the magic. An acoustic Americana album with guest musicians galore, new album Mostly Fine is enjoying a soft release; snag it now via CD Baby before folk radio beats you to it.

• Joanna Wallfisch: All I Want (orig. Joni Mitchell)

Just three albums into a promising career, London ex-pat vocalist and composer Joanna Wallfisch is hard to categorize, but everything’s good about near-perfect new CD Gardens In My Mind, which yaws wide as it swings from a playful, stuttering barrelhouse pianojazz title track to lush world-and-classical folk a la Jean Rohe (Satin Grey). Though mostly comprised of vibrant, contemporary originals, the album also includes a crooner’s soft pianopop Tim Buckley cover and this completely deconstructed string-quartet take on All I Want that just blows our mind…and then does it again, in a gorgeously layered, looping a capella reprise of the same song that leaves us aching and breathless.

• Ryan Vona: Danny Boy (trad.)

Most folks move from folk to Broadway, if anything. But with debut album Somebody, Ryan Vona – who appeared there in folk musical Once, and currently stars as Joey in the Cirque Du Soleil musical Paramour – isn’t so much moving backwards as he is forging ahead into new territory in pure, potent voice. New single The Letterbox is an earnest, playful newgrass revelation, with an adorable video featuring an animated grasshopper in a paper bag world; add in an arrangement of Danny Boy which dances around the “original” tune composed by his ancestor Rory Dall O’Cahan, and we’re pleased to welcome him to the folkways with open arms and accolades.

• VIDEO: Lucy LaForge, Katie Ferrara, Kaitlin Wolfberg: Dreams (orig. Fleetwood Mac)
• VIDEO: Lucy LaForge & Evan Blum: Just A Friend To You (orig. Meghan Trainor)

Last but certainly not least, we close today with a pair of darling YouTube covers from Lucy LaForge, the whimsical indie frontwoman of Lucy & La Mer who has already brought us such joy this year through covers of Tainted Love and Bad Blood. Dreams, a raw, ragged, sparse and oh so sweet new Fleetwood Mac cover, was mixed on the same board as Rumors, the seminal 1977 album which brought us such well-covered delights as Go Your Own Way, The Chain, Dreams and Gold Dust Woman; as a bonus, it also features fellow LA-based artist Katie Ferrara, whose absolutely delightful cover of Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes featured here just a few weeks ago in our flavor-laden Popsicle Mix. Add in one of the sweetest boy-girl uke covers I’ve heard this year, and it’s easy to see why we’ve fallen in love.