Cover Lay Down

We’re later that usual this year with our annual singles mix, but it’s not for lack of trying. For several weeks, behind the scenes, we’ve been involved in the process of sifting and surveying, mining bookmarks, tags, and the archives for this year’s best coverfolk.

It’s a joyful process. Heartbreaking, sometimes, but always joyful, too. And if we’ve rediscovered anything, it’s that great music demands listening to.

Through Christmas and the long, slow days afterwards, the conversation among us – future and past – that the resurrected and reformulated song represents served its purpose, leaving us breathless at the scope of it all, and the sheer diversity. And in the end, we emerged refreshed, reinvigorated, and triumphant with yet another 52 track mix – one for every week gone by, and as last year, a whisper in the wings of what wonders are to come.

Now it’s snowing here, and the hiss of the falling snow and the whine of the pellet stove mask the tinnitus perfectly. The children are sleeping, and will be for hours; in the corner, the tree slowly settles as it dries, branch and bauble slowly bending towards the floor. Those of us on the East Coast, at least, hunker down against a growing storm, the first of a new year, taking comfort in the fact that we are here, together, safe and ready, and sure of reinforcements.

So, take a long afternoon and shuffle through the mix with us. Savor the delight and despair, the raucous and the resonant: our subjective best of the realm that is folk, and the vast diversity of sources reinvented for our pleasure; each reinvention a gem, borne up against the world-that-is like a torch; each burning performance exquisite, and beautiful in its own way.

Download it all, that the songs might linger, and bear repeating. And if you like what you hear, follow the links, as always, to purchase and share your own favorites, the better to keep the music and the music-making going for our children, and theirs.

The Year’s Best Coverfolk Singles (2017)
A Cover Lay Down mixtape

• Rayna Gellert: I’m Bound For The Promised Land (trad.) [via]
• Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage: Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (orig. Woody Guthrie) [via]
• Bailey Pelkman: Suddenly I See (orig. KT Tunstall) [via]
• Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards: If You Can Hear Me (orig. Taylor Ashton) [via]
• Paola Bennet: Angela (orig. The Lumineers) [via]
• Courtney Marie Andrews & Bonnie “Prince” Billy: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (orig. Billy Taylor) [via]
• Sarah Clanton and Heather Mae: One Step Closer (orig. Linkin Park) [via]
• Rebecca Loebe: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (orig. Neil Young) [via]
• Avriel & The Sequoias: Hey Ya (orig. Outkast) [via]
• Janet Devlin: I Wanna Be Like You (orig. The Jungle Book) [via]
• Thomas Bryan Eaton: Loretta (orig. Townes Van Zandt) [via]
• Peregrino: O’Death (trad.) [via]
• Driftwood Soldier: Wayfaring Stranger (trad.) [via]
• Man About A Horse: Electioneering (orig. Radiohead) [via]
• Holly Henry: Heart Shaped Box (orig. Nirvana) [via]
• Seth Glier: For What It’s Worth (orig. Buffalo Springfield) [via]
• Shovels & Rope ft. John Moreland: Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain (orig. Roy Acuff) [via]
• William Crighton: After The Goldrush (orig. Neil Young) [via]
• Nataly Dawn: Careless Whisper (orig. George Michael) [via]
• Lauren O’Connell: I Hear Them All (orig. David Rawlings) [via]
• Sally & George: Wicked Game (orig. Chris Isaak) [via]
• Ned Luberecki: Take Five (orig. Dave Brubeck) [via]
• Nichole Wagner: Tougher Than The Rest (orig. Bruce Springsteen) [via]
• Mountain Man: Love Hurts (orig. Everly Brothers) [via]
• Peter Mulvey: Lift Ev’ry Voice (trad.) [via]
• Carrie Elkin: American Tune (orig. Paul Simon) [via]
• Emily Maguire: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (orig. Sandy Denny) [via]
• Matt Minigell and Annabelle Lord Patey: If I Never See You Again (orig. Teenage Fanclub) [via]
• Emily Mure: As The World Falls Down (orig. David Bowie) [via]
• No Line North: Sugar Baby (trad.) [via]
• Dori Freeman: Over There (trad.)[via]
• Birds Of Chicago: Etoile d’Amour (orig. Hoagy Carmichael) [via]
• Lord & Lady: Sweet Creature (orig. Harry Stiles) [via]
• William Fitzsimmons: Learning To Fly (orig. Tom Petty) [via]
• Serge Langlois: Maybe I’m Amazed (orig. Paul McCartney) [via]
• Valerio Lysander: Fake Plastic Trees (orig. Radiohead) [via]
• Hannah Mayree: Scarborough Fair (trad.) [via]
• Middle Kids: All The Small Things (orig. Blink 182) [via]
• Heather Aubrey Lloyd: Hotel California (orig. The Eagles) [via]
• BEAU + LUCI: Deeper Well (orig. David Olney) [via]
• Freedom Fry: Nothing Compares 2 U (orig. Prince) [via]
• Opus Orange: Moon River (orig. Henry Mancini) [via]
• George Powlesland: Let It Go (orig. James Bay) [via]
• The Secret Sisters: Kathy’s Song (orig. Paul Simon) [via]
• Ange Hardy: Waters of Thyme (trad.) [via]
• Harpeth Rising: Prison Trilogy (orig. Joan Baez) [via]
• The Infamous Stringdusters: Just Like Heaven (orig. The Cure) [via]
• Joseph: Everybody Wants To Rule The World (orig. Tears for Fears) [via]
• Selkii: Some Days Are Diamonds (orig. John Denver) [via]
• Dori Freeman: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (orig. Richard Thompson) [via]
• Eilen Jewell: Nothing In Rambling (orig. Memphis Minnie) [via]
• The March Divide: Voices Carry (orig. ‘Til Tuesday) [via]

Always ad-free and artist-centric, Cover Lay Down has been digging deep at the ethnographic intersection of folkways and coversong since 2007 thanks to the support of artists, labels, promoters, and YOU. So do your part: listen, love, like, and above all, purchase the music, the better to keep it alive.

And if, in the end, you’ve got goodwill to spare, and want to help keep the music flowing? Please, consider a year’s end contribution to Cover Lay Down. All gifts go directly to bandwidth and server costs; all donors receive undying praise, and a special blogger-curated gift mixtape of well-loved but otherwise unshared covers from 2016-2017, including exclusive live covers from our very own Unity House Concert series.