Notes from Isolation: A Soundtrack for Now




A certain melancholy characterizes the songs of the world now. Piano and strings serve the mood as much as the slow guitar. New song lyrics and releases speak of coming to terms with, missing, absence: familiar themes of hope and longing magnified in every fraught moment.

Covers come this way, too. Poignant songs; poignant versions. Melancholy wrung from the masking chords of the synth-pop seventies and yesterday: pop and grunge; rock and roll, all painted with the veneer of unsettledness that characterizes the world. Here to hold us. Here, to bring the familiar into the strange. Softly. Wisely. Wistfully.

They’re mostly acoustic, these covers. Mostly solo, too, or at least done at home – like everything is, and has been, since the world shrunk down to staircases and silences, with nowhere else to tour or play, bandmates quarantined in different cities, and all of us alone, in our own darknesses.

The quiet suits our mood, our modality. The circularity of coverage soothes, quelling the adrenalin with the warm comfort of familiar.

Here, then. Songs, plucked from the viral air. Voices we love and long for, come to us in our affliction. Hope and heartache, to meet us where we are. Silences sounded, to sit inside, and let the mind cease its restless movements. That we may be at rest, if only for an hour.


Notes from Isolation: A Cover Lay Down Mix [zip!]


Always ad-free and artist-centered, Cover Lay Down has been on the web since 2007, thanks to kind support from artists, promoters, and YOU.

So do your part: listen, and then follow links back to the sources we provide, to share your love with those who make this all happen. And though it should go without saying, as always, when you find what you love, please be a patron, too: buy the music, or the t-shirt, from artist-friendly sources like Bandcamp; donate to newly-formed artist support funds, join Patreons and Kickstarters, and follow Venmo and Paypal links to give back if you can, the better to keep the music flowing in these troubling times.

Category: Aoife O'Donovan, Emma Swift, James Taylor, Kate Rusby, Mixtapes, Molly Tuttle, Passenger, Reid Jamieson, Sam Amidon, William Fitzsimmons 7 comments »

7 Responses to “Notes from Isolation: A Soundtrack for Now”

  1. Dan G.

    The zip file is unavailable. (404) Thanks!

    [edit: fixed now! Thanks! – boyhowdy]

  2. Nick Lord

    The last 2 songs aren’t in the zip file. Nevertheless, I’m making a donation.

  3. boyhowdy

    Fixed! Thanks for spotting my two “oops I forgot ’em” additions…and for the ongoing support, Nick!

  4. Walter Haber

    wonderful to see you coming back from time to time – thanks a lot

    your follower from Bavaria, Germany

  5. Daniel Rubin

    This is rib-sticking stuff for these fast-darkening days of autumn.

  6. Mark Sullivan

    Glad to see that you are back again. I know that it has been hellish month for many people wit the pandemic.

    I just want to thank you for all the hard work that you have done over the years, I look forward to your postings, you have turned me on to so many great musicians and artists that I might never have come across, not to mention songs that I could never have imagined in the given format..

    Thanks again, Be well, stay safe.

  7. heartsofstone

    I keep coming back to your site. The Isolation Soundtrack was perfect for the start of a very long 18 months. Thanks so much.


Leave a Reply



Back to top