Farmer’s Wife — Season of the Witch (Donovan cover)
Austin rockers Farmer’s Wife go full shoegaze-psych on this Donovan cover just in time for Halloween. They write: “Our cover of ‘Season of the Witch’ materialized out of a drum beat and pedal feedback two Halloweens ago. This creepy classic opened us to more experimentation and allowed us to dive into an eerier side of our sound.”
Fiona Apple — Lately (Don Heffington cover)
The late Don Heffington was an acclaimed drummer, so, naturally, his new tribute album includes drum greats like Jim Keltner. But he was also a singer-songwriter, so friends and collaborators like Jackson Browne, Victoria Williams, and Fiona Apple cover his songs. Apple selected “Lately,” the closing song on the final solo studio album of his lifetime, 2016’s Contemporary Abstractions in Folk Song and Dance.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings — Brokedown Palace (Grateful Dead cover)
The first of two tributes to Phil Lesh we have in this post. While he didn’t write this song, it serves as a beautiful epitaph. Bob Dylan covered this song a few times last year; perhaps he’ll bust it out again too.
Goose ft. Will Forte — War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
Look, this isn’t going to end up on our Best of the Year list. Will Forte is, as I imagine he would be the first to admit, not really a singer. But that’s beside the point here! This is fun as hell, and clearly no one on stage is taking it that seriously. Though the Goose guys have the chops to nail the music, and play it fairly straight, not jamming it out as is their usual M.O.
Miranda Lambert – Living On The Run (David Allen Coe cover)
Miranda Lambert’s latest album Postcards From Texas concludes with a cover of outlaw country cult hero David Allan Coe’s “Living on the Run” from his 1976 album Longhaired Redneck. It’s a great honky-tonking rendition, featuring a line that could be Coe’s epitaph: “Women love an outlaw, so they say / I’ll be an outlaw ’til my dying day.”
My Morning Jacket – Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones cover)
Frankly, I can’t believe this is My Morning Jacket’s first time covering “Sweet Virginia.” They’ve covered at least a half-dozen Stones songs over the years, and the melody here is a perfect fit for Jim James’ croon. This brief performance served as an intro to their own “I’m Amazed”—in Virginia, of course—but they should record a proper version.
Pearl Jam w/ Harper Vedder — Last Kiss/The Best Day (Wayne Cochran / Taylor Swift cover)
A double cover at Pearl Jam’s recent Ohana Festival out in California. Eddie Vedder brought out his daughter Harper. No, they didn’t sing “Daughter”—they sang Pearl Jam’s hit 1999 cover of the Wayne Cochran song “Last Kiss.” Well, Eddie sang that at least. Harper sang a song Pearl Jam has never played before, Taylor Swift’s Fearless song “The Best Day.” They went back and forth like that, a father-daughter dueling-cover mashup that worked much better than you might expect. Big cheers, naturally, when Harper sings the line about having an excellent father.
Phish — Box of Rain (Grateful Dead cover)
Unlike “Brokedown Palace,” this is a Lesh original—his most famous, opening up American Beauty. Fittingly, the clear inheritors of the Dead tradition, who themselves have played with Lesh plenty of times, Phish opened their first show after Lesh’s passing with it. (After you watch this, check out Lesh joining Phish in their onstage trampoline jumps back in 1999).
The Roots ft. Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Common, Busta Rhymes — A Tribe Called Quest tribute
This year’s Rock Hall induction ceremony (following our big series paying tribute to every artist) included a number of covers of artists who couldn’t perform. Billy Idol, Jelly Roll, and Tool’s Maynard James Keenan covered Ozzy Osbourne. Kenny Chesney and James Taylor covered Jimmy Buffett. But the best for my money was this joyous tribute to A Tribe Called Quest. The Roots backed a host of their peers, all connected to early hip-hop collective Native Tongues, on a run through several of their classic songs. (This video is the entire package; the performance itself starts at the 29:30 mark).
Tony Njoku – Hope There’s Someone (Anohni cover)
“I’ve loved and lived with ‘Hope There’s Someone’ since I was a teen—it was the first song I learned on piano, and its deep emotional resonance has stayed with me ever since,” Njoku says. “Anohni has been a huge source of inspiration for me, both personally and artistically. Her music, and this song in particular, helped shape my understanding of how art can express longing, fear, and hope in such a visceral way. Covering this song felt like returning to a part of myself that’s always been influenced by her artistry.”
Waxahatchee – Wrecking Ball (Gillian Welch cover)
[Note: For some reason I can only embed the album, not the specific song. Skip to track 16]
There are three doses of Gillian Welch on the giant 135-track North Carolina flood benefit comp Cardinals At The Window. There’s Gillian herself, of course, in a new live version of her and Dave Rawlings’ new song “Hashtag.” Then there are two excellent covers. Local NC musician Sluice aka Justin Edward Morris does a beautiful version of Welch’s tragically timely song “Hard Times.” Then, a dozen tracks later, Waxahatchee releases the first studio version of a song they’ve been playing live for a while, Welch’s classic “Wrecking Ball.” Get the full comp to support a great cause (plus $10 for 135 never-heard tracks by R.E.M., The War on Drugs, etc is a hell of a bargain!)
Xiu Xiu — Frosty the Snowman
If you’ve ever heard Xiu Xiu, you know their “Frosty the Snowman” is unlikely to be a kids song. More like David Lynch nightmare fuel. Sure enough, it is dark and ominous industrial-pop. Pretty sure this Frosty’s gonna murder you.
The Best of the Rest
beabadoobee – Taste (Sabrina Carpenter cover)
Blossoms ft. Rick Astley — 360 (Charli XCX cover)
Camila Cabello – Diet P (Addison Rae cover)
Caroline Polachek — True Love Waits (Radiohead cover)
Christian Lee Hutson – Darby’s Castle (Kris Kristofferson cover)
DEHD — Mr. Grieves (Pixies cover)
DIIV — Cream of Gold (Pavement cover)
Duran Duran – Evil Woman (ELO cover)
Fontaines D.C. — Say Yes To Heaven (Lana Del Rey cover)
The HU — The Trooper (Iron Maiden cover)
Kesha — Holiday Road (Lindsey Buckingham cover)
The Last Dinner Party — Ride (Lana Del Rey cover)
Lowswimmer — Head Rolls Off (Frightened Rabbit cover)
Lucinda Williams — While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)
Samory I – You Will Know (Stevie Wonder cover)
The Staves — She’s Leaving Home (The Beatles cover)
The Surfrajettes – Spice Up Your Life (Spice Girls cover)
Sturgill Simpson — Tulsa Time (Don Williams cover)
Willie Nelson — Lost Cause (Beck cover)
Check out previous months’ best covers lists.