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Review: Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions by Robert Earl Keen

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Mar 312015
 

I had high hopes for Robert Earl Keen’s new album, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions. My first exposure to REK was 1989’s West Textures, still for me his best work, partly because the acoustic band accompanying him on that is a bluegrass band, even if the songs aren’t. Keen’s style, for me, has never quite suited electricity. Combine this with my love of bluegrass, and surely this would be a no-brainer?

Well, I liked it, but if I’m honest, I only liked it some. Positives first: Keen has the ideal woebegone plaintiveness for this sort of material (think Droopy with a recording contract), as he plumbs death, prison and heartbreak in turn. (Have you ever heard a truly happy bluegrass song?) The band, including Danny Barnes of Bad Livers repute on banjo, underpin his singing with zest and vim, and a plethora of guests add to an agreeable mix. Of these, special mention to erstwhile Dixie Chick Natalie Maines (daughter of Lloyd Maines, the album’s producer), bringing more sprightliness to the oft-covered “Lonesome Stranger” than can be found on some of the album’s other numbers.
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In the Spotlight: Gillian Welch

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Sep 132013
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

Gillian Welch is a yankee. There, it’s said. One would have a hard time discerning it from her mix of folk and bluegrass arrangements, but there’s a Big Apple right there on her birth certificate. So let it be noted that, when compared to some “legitimate” country music popularized and sung by those born and bred in the South, with their auto-tuned cartoonish absence of substance, an overabundance of shiny objects and pyrotechnics, and some ghastly redneck rap thrown in, it’s obvious that birthplace alone has little influence on how traditional or great country music is.
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Live Collection: Ryan Adams

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May 132011
 

Live Collection brings together every live cover we can find from an artist. And we find a lot.

Remarkably prolific by today’s standards,  Ryan Adams has released 12 albums (some solo and some with The Cardinals) since the breakup of his seminal alt-country band Whiskeytown in 2000. Not like your typical modern artist with three or four year gaps between releases. He’s also made friends in high places, including Elton John, Willie Nelson and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. Not just a hard-working studio musician, Adams also tours extensively, with an upcoming European tour marking his return to the stage after his 2009 ‘retirement.’

Never one to hide his influences, Adams regularly includes cover songs as part of his live show. We’ve compiled a selection of his covers for our latest Live Collection. Remember this is no one-album artist. Given his back catalog, Adams chooses covers that, for the most part, really mean something to him. Country and ‘70s rock figure heavily in his choices: five songs associated with Gram Parsons, three classics by The Rolling Stones, and the obligatory Neil Young nod. Continue reading »

Review: Mason Porter, “Story of the Rifle”

 Posted by at 2:00 pm  1 Response »
Dec 162010
 

Being the crossroads between folk, blues and country, the “roots” genre gives artists a wide catalog of tunes to cover. Not only that, but the genre lends itself to surprising cross-genre performances (Lissie provided a good example with her “Bad Romance”). Not surprising, then, that Mason Porter, a West Chester, PA-based roots/Americana quintet, chose to release an album of covers, Story of the Rifle, for their second long-player.

The album begins strongly with a laid-back version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “My Creole Belle.” Their easy, open arrangement recalls sitting outside around a campfire on a hot summer’s night, sounding deliciously impromptu. The frantic shuffle of The White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” shows how the band soars when on cross-genre interpretations. They infuse Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” with a fully realized regret that Dylan only hints at in his original. Continue reading »

Full Albums: The Band’s Music From Big Pink

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Jul 082009
 

I was a Bob Dylan fan long before I got into the Band. I thought they were good with him but kind of lame by themselves. See, I first heard “I Shall Be Released” on Dylan’s 1978 At Budokan live album where it has full horns, gospel chorus, and blasts right out at ya. Compared to that the Band version just sounded flaccid. Thankfully I’ve come around since then. Seeing The Last Waltz will do that to ya.

Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett – Tears of Rage
The first of several Dylan-assisted songs on the album, it’s the one he’s all but forgotten about live. Luckily Barre and Tackett remembered it at an ’03 concert, jamming out with a couple guitars and a winding story. [Buy]

The Beatles – To Kingdom Come
“There’s no way the Beatles recorded a Band song,” I hear you saying. Well it’s true. It’s from the Get Back sessions in London, the sound of them messing around. Unfortunately though the recording of the guitar is crystal clear the vocals are very difficult to hear. Time for a remaster? [Buy]

Karen Dalton – In a Station
With drum rolls like that to open a track, it doesn’t even matter what comes next. Bonus points if the rest is good too. [Buy]

Plastic Penny – Caledonia Mission
Obscure U.K. psychedelic band Plastic Penny only released three albums, all with currency-related titles. Luckily their second from 1969 includes the rare cover of this tune, sounding like the original filtered through Jefferson Airplane. [Buy]

The Gaslight Anthem – The Weight
I saw Mavis Staples perform this live with The Decemberists (read about it) and god I wish there was a recording. The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon is no second-best though, strumming his way through a take so simple it nails the song in the heart. [Buy]

Kiyoshiro – We Can Talk
“Japan’s King of Rock” here, singing a Japanese-language take on one of the Band’s lesser-known tunes. No idea how well the lyric is translated, but the delivery is worthy. [Buy]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Long Black Veil (Dill/Wilkin)
Plenty of people sung it before The Band, but once they released their version no future artist could perform it without having their take in mind. Cave channels Johnny Cash more than The Band though. Well, he channels Cash for nineteen seconds. From then on, what can he do but channel Cave? A dark, stomping version like none you’ve ever heard. [Buy]

Widespread Panic – Chest Fever
The organ intro heard round the world. I saw Band drummer Levon Helm hit this one live last summer and Larry Campbell ripped through an equally epic opening on his guitar. Read about it, then go buy the Endless Highway Band tribute this tune’s off. [Buy]

Blood, Sweat and Tears – Lonesome Suzie
The original was pretty slow, but it’s downright punk speed compared to where BST take it. Until the horns come in. Then all bets are off. [Buy]

Siouxsie and the Banshees – This Wheel’s On Fire
I don’t know how they do it, but with this and “Dear Prudence” Siouxsie and co. have a knack for turning the most unlikely of tunes into phenomenal gothic stomps. One for the all time great Dylan covers list. [Buy]

Wilco and Fleet Foxes – I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan)
Unlike “Tears” and “This Wheel,” “I Shall Be Released” gets no co-writing credit from The Band, though they did play it at Big Pink for the famed “basement tapes.” Wilco busted out the jailbird’s lament at several concerts last fall, backed by Americana crooners Fleet Foxes, and put the mp3 up on their website in exchange for a pledge to vote. [Buy]

The 30 Best Grateful Dead Covers Ever

 Posted by at 1:30 pm  3 Responses »
Jul 142023
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

best grateful dead covers

I’ve heard it said that one of the curses of having a hit song is that the artist is forced to sing it for the rest of their life the same exact way it was recorded. While that may be true for some artists (certainly for the Eagles), it has not been the case for the Grateful Dead.

Since they released their first album in 1967, the band has never viewed their recordings as sacred texts. Instead they treated their songs as blueprints, starting places to begin the next great jam. Every time they perform a track, it’s like they’re covering themselves.

Take a song like “Fire on the Mountain.” It was originally recorded by Dead percussionist Mickey Hart as an instrumental called “Happiness is Drumming” on his 1976 album Diga. Robert Hunter eventually added lyrics, and the band began performing it on their legendary Spring ‘77 tour. They later recorded a condensed studio version for their 1978 album Shakedown Street, sung by Jerry Garcia. Since his passing, it’s been performed by many Dead offshoot bands and sung by the likes of Bob Weir, Bruce Hornsby, Oteil Burbridge, and, even reggae singer Jimmy Cliff. Each version is so different that I couldn’t tell you what counts as the “original.” One can trace a similar pattern with many of the Dead’s songs through the decades — don’t get me started on “Dark Star.”

Artists covering a Dead song have an invitation to reinvent it, as if at the request of the ghost of Jerry Garcia. Given such freedom, it’s only natural that the Dead’s catalog has inspired countless musicians across genres to put their own spin on the songs. This explains why nearly six decades after the band’s formation, and with the latest incarnation Dead & Company wrapping up this weekend, the onslaught of covers shows no signs of ever, ever stopping. These cover songs guarantee the band’s music will live on long after the last remaining members have passed away.

Here is a list of our favorites…

–Curtis Zimmermann

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