Download: The Low Anthem Cover 20 Folk Songs Live

The Low Anthem first hit the Cover Me radar with their 2008 album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. Alongside 11 haunting folk originals lay a barnyard rave through “Home I’ll Never Be.” A piece by written by Jack Kerouac and given music decades later by Tom Waits, “Home I’ll Never Be” instantly indicated the cover potential of this Rhode Island quartet. The just-released Smart Flesh continues the pattern, opening with a cavernous take on George Carter’s “Ghost Woman Blues.”

With those two on our radar, we figured they’d probably covered other songs in their brief career. We were right. Below we’ve collected 20 cover songs by the Low Anthem. It’s not quite enough for an official Live Collection, but it’s quite a set nevertheless. They dig into folk music in all its forms, from old-timey tunes like “Two Sisters” to modern folk gems like the David Wax Museum’s “Let Me Rest.”

Download the full set below, organized by concert. Each includes a link to hear the full show as well, originals included (which mostly sound like 19th-century mountain ballads anyway). To make it an even twenty, we’ve tacked on their free studio cover of Bob Dylan’s “Dignity,” which they have never performed live.

September 19, 2009 – Cologne, Germany [full show]
True Love Will Find You in the End (Daniel Johnston cover)

September 23, 2009 – Amsterdam, Netherlands [full show]
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Bob Dylan cover) [soundcheck]
Needed Time (Eric Bibb cover)
Cigarettes, Whiskey, and Wild, Wild Women (Sons of the Pioneers cover)
Two Sisters (Traditional cover)

February 7, 2010 – Birmingham, England [full show]
The Moonshiner (Traditional cover)

March 25, 2010 – Los Angeles, CA [full show]
Sally, Where’d You Get Your Liquor From (Reverend Gary Davis cover)

April 22, 2010 – Montpelier, VT [full show]
Ghost Woman Blues (George Carter cover)
Don’t Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round (long version) (Blind Willie McTell cover)
Evangeline (The Band / Emmylou Harris cover)
Home I’ll Never Be (Jack Kerouac / Tom Waits cover)
Jackson (Lucinda Williams cover)

July 31, 2010 – Newport Folk Festival [full show]
Don’t Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round (short version) (Blind Willie McTell cover)

August 13, 2010 – Copenhagen, Denmark [full show]
Let Me Rest (The David Wax Museum cover)
Bird on a Wire (Leonard Cohen cover)
There’s a Hole in My Bucket (Traditional cover)

August 15, 2010 – Leicester, England [full show]
The Auld Triangle (Dominic Behan cover)

February 24, 2011 – Washington D.C. [full show]
Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (Traditional cover)

March 3, 2011 – Montreal, Quebec [full show]
Ain’t No More Cane (Traditional cover)

Bonus Studio Performance
Dignity (Bob Dylan cover)

Check out more Low Anthem at their website or MySpace.

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