We’ve heard plenty of covers by Alejandro Escovedo before. Here’s him covering Peter Case, Mott the Hoople, and Doug Sahm. Here’s him playing Bob Dylan’s “Dark Eyes.” Here’s him performing “Beast of Burden” with Bruce Springsteen. This, though, is the first cover of Alejandro Escovedo we’ve posted. It was worth the wait.
Cover Me favorite John Velghe last appeared one these pages as #10 in our Best Covers of 2010 set performing his brilliant transformation of “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” This one’s a little more informal though. It finds Velghe paying tribute to one of his friends and inspirations with ukulele, mellotron, and shaker.
“I’ve known Alejandro for many years,” Velghe tells us. “About fifteen years ago after he played a show in Kansas City, we found ourselves in a little head shop a couple blocks up from the club. Al and I sat and played Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Rolling Stones songs with these kids until the wee hours of the morning. After we left that head shop we climbed into Al’s van and he looked at me and said ‘Did you see what we did with those kids back there? You have this voice. People love singing and people will fall in love to your voice. Don’t ever stop singing.’ That was one of the most important lessons in my life.”
“Always a Friend” kicks off a series of videos of Velghe performing songs on tiny instruments. It’s less twee than it sounds. Check out the video and download the MP3 below.
John Velghe – Always a Friend (Alejandro Escovedo cover)
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Check out more John Velghe at his website or MySpace.
This is a really awesome cover! I doubt I’d listen to it more than just this once, but it’s a really fun take on an amazing song!