This past Tuesday Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz announced a new project on the band’s Facebook page. For the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, he would cover one love song a day. He’s four days in and we’ve got ‘em for you below. So far he’s tackled, in order, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Tom Waits, and the Cars. Four down, three to go!
Each piano performance comes with an endearingly informal note from Duritz about why he chose the song. On the Cars’ “You Might Think,” he notes that “the only sure road to true love is to find your inner Ric Ocasek.” He throws a little music history in his bitching for “Rainbow Sleeves,” writing “Waits wrote it for Rickie Lee Jones & Bette Midler but HE never recorded it so I had to transpose it, which sucked.” He even preemptively responds to criticism that “Oh My Sweet Carolina” is a pretty depressing song for V-Day, writing “for many, Valentine’s Day can be about riding your life down til all u got’s a handful of nothing.”
Note: we’ll be adding the others songs this weekend. Follow @covermesongs on Twitter to see when new Duritz covers go up.
Note 2/13: Added “The Dark End of the Street”
Note 2/14: Added “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (two takes) and “On the Sunny Side of the Street”
MP3: Adam Duritz – On the Sunny Side of the Street (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields cover)
MP3: Adam Duritz – Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan cover) – Take #1
MP3: Adam Duritz – Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan cover) – Take #2
MP3: Adam Duritz – The Dark End of the Street (James Carr cover)
MP3: Adam Duritz – You Might Think (The Cars cover)
MP3: Adam Duritz – Rainbow Sleeves (Tom Waits cover)
MP3: Adam Duritz – Oh My Sweet Carolina (Ryan Adams cover)
MP3: Adam Duritz – Valentine’s Day (Steve Earle cover)
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thanks…nothing like hearing one person sit down and get it done…sweetly…jp…guess i missed valentines last year