Oct 232017
 
cover me book party

A little over a week ago, Paste Magazine held an amazing release party for my new book Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time. The event featured exclusive covers of songs from the book performed by some of our favorite musicians: Emel Mathlouthi (one of our Northside Fest finds this year), Eli Paperboy Reed, and Anthony D’Amato. Paste live-streamed the full thing from their New York studio, but if you missed it, now you can watch the clips online.

Mathlouthi and D’Amato both chose Bob Dylan songs – appropriately enough, as Dylan is the only songwriter who gets two chapters in my book. Mathlouthi did the rare “All Along the Watchtower” cover that owes little to Hendrix, her gorgeous voice soaring high above a churning guitar rhythm. And D’Amato picked the book’s final chapter, following in the footsteps of Adele, Garth Brooks, and Billy Joel by beautifully covering Bob’s modern-day standard “Make You Feel My Love.”

The evening’s loudest performance came from Eli Paperboy Reed, who absolutely belted a version of “I Will Always Love You” that’s one part Whitney, one part Dolly, and a couple parts all his own. Just wait until he hits that key change…

Needless to say, it was a huge honor to have these amazing musicians join me to celebrate the book’s release. If you want to watch the entire event – including me telling the stories behind the songs in conversation with Paste’s Music Editorial Director Matthew Oshinsky – watch it below. The full video includes one bonus performance too: Walter Martin of The Walkmen covering…well, you’ll just have to watch it and see!

‘Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time’ is in stores now. Learn more about the book here, then buy a copy or five at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, Powell’s, and many other places (including, hopefully, your local independent bookstore!).

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.

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