Hovig Nassanian Plays “Blackbird” By Way of Bach

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Sep 142026
 
Hovig Nassanian

From humble album filler to borderline standard, Paul McCartney‘s “Blackbird” has certainly had an interesting journey. At barely over two minutes, the original features McCartney without any of his Beatles bandmates, playing acoustic guitars, singing, tapping his foot and providing the bird noises. It’s not quite the full one-man-band mode he adopted for some other White Album tracks, or for his debut solo album, as even with all the different tracks it’s still a pretty little acoustic ballad. Somehow, this ballad buried in the middle of side two of a double-LP set has become The Beatles‘ sixth most-streamed song and fifth most covered. Continue reading »

Orville Peck Will “Always Love” Dolly Parton

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Sep 142026
 
Orville Peck

“I’m a little bit of a mess right now,” said Orville Peck as he took the stage for an in-store performance at Rough Trade East in London on Tuesday, August 25th. After informing the audience of Dolly Parton‘s passing, he began his set with a heartfelt version of Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”

“She really stood for kindness and I think that’s something that is really lacking in the world these days,” he said in an emotional introduction. “I think as a gay man coming into country music and feeling sort of alone, the thing that always felt comforting is, like, just knowing Dolly existed in country… made me feel like maybe I had a friend there.”

The emotion remained in Peck’s voice during his performance of the song, particularly during the third verse. While there have been a lot of tributes to Parton since her passing, there’s something about the sparse arrangement of this version and Peck’s voice that is particularly affecting.

(Almost) Full Albums: The Millennium’s “Begin”

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Sep 112026
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

Millennium

When a Cover Me writer tackles the Full Albums category, he or she is really committing. Not only are they writing about a dozen or more songs (instead of the usual one, three, or five), they have to make sure there are actually covers of all the songs on the album. If you want to write about Prince’s 1999, it’s easy enough to find a cover of “Little Red Corvette,” but you’re going to need to do some digging to find a version of “Lady Cab Driver,” and maybe longer to find a good one.

Sometimes you don’t have enough songs to finish off the album, but you still want to share what you’ve found. For me, this post on the Millennium’s Begin is one of those times. So, even if it was “close, but no cigar” for me, why should that mean you can’t enjoy a couple puffs yourself? Hence this, and (Almost) Full Album look at sunshine pop producer Curt Boettcher’s masterpiece.
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Green Day, Rancid and Blink-182 Members Form Ramones Tribute Band

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Sep 102026
 
Green Day Rancid and Blink-182

A supergroup made up of members of Green Day, Rancid and blink-182 came together to form a Ramones tribute band called “Cretin Family,” and to perform at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles on August 30th.

Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Ramones’ self-titled debut record, the band took the stage with the instrumental “Durango 95,” which was a frequent Ramones set opener. From there, they segued into “Rockaway Beach.” Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day played guitar and sang, while blink-182’s Travis Barker played drums and Rancid’s Tim Armstrong played guitar and sang as well. Rounding out the group was late-era Ramones bassist CJ Ramone. Continue reading »

Bruce Springsteen Joins Bleachers on the Boardwalk to Celebrate “Jersey Girl”s

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Sep 102026
 
bruce springsteen bleachers

Jack Antonoff and his band Bleachers played Asbury Park, NJ’s Stone Pony outdoor stage during the band’s annual “Shadow of the City” event and, what do you know, Jersey legend Bruce Springsteen showed up for a couple of songs. Continue reading »

U2 Covers The Pogues’ “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” for Shane MacGowan Tribute Album

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Sep 082026
 
U2 Covers The Pogues

U2 has released their Shane MacGowan cover in anticipation of the tribute album to the late Pogues singer/songwriter. “Shane MacGowan was full of contradictions — and that’s where the truth of him lived,” said U2 guitarist The Edge in a press release. “He could be precise about what mattered and gloriously careless about everything else. If that sounds like a kind of performance, maybe it was. But as Oscar Wilde put it, ‘a mask tells us more than a face.’” Continue reading »

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