Already on the short list of my personal favorite cover songs of 2018, singer Jordan Mackampa’s take on Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” is a nuanced gem. From the acoustic guitar beginning on to the first lines, “Holly came from Miami F.L.A., Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A,” there is a mood-setting moment where you come to completely understand why you love music in general, and cover songs in particular.
The video itself is the first launching from COVERS, a new YouTube video series from the “Mahogany” sessions series. Mackampa starts things out sitting on a sparse office chair, guitar resting on his knee, slightly hunched over with a mood-setting backlight. At about the one minute mark, Georgia Mason and her autoharp make their appearance, and this is where the real magic begins.
As with any good cover version of “Walk on the Wild Side,” this one also firmly sets the storyline in your mind’s eye. Toned down and slowed down from the original, the journey Holly takes still seems to resonate, maybe even more so with the subtle interplay between the acoustic guitar and the autoharp.
Check out more great Lou Reed covers here.
[…] beautifully filmed cover of “Walk on the Wild Side” we posted a few weeks ago? It was the first in a new cover-song series from Mahogany Sessions. And whoa boy, are they off to […]