In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!
Laura Cantrell is one of the best-known Country Music artists in the United Kingdom. Something about the purity of her voice and the clarity of her vision has a particular appeal to the British. For a quarter of a century, since her debut LP, she has been adopted by the small number of mainstream DJs that cover Country music in the UK, and she has cultivated that opportunity. Any musician who is managing to make a living from their art knows that any audience is something to be appreciated, and Cantrell has reciprocated the love. The crowdfunding for her last recording received disproportionate subscriptions from the UK, and the gratitude when it eventually came out was significant.
Born in Nashville and thus marinaded in America’s art form, Cantrell has spent much of her singing and alternate professional life in another city far from the country mainstream, New York. By choice or circumstance, she has established herself away from musical metropolises of her field, but that does not mean that she does not have a deep knowledge and appreciation of the genre. She also performs and records in Nashville. For many years she hosted a country music show on the radio, and she has a particular knowledge and appreciation of the role of women in country music, the well known pioneers and those whose stories were lost for whatever reason. Her song “Queen of the Coast” is an appreciation of Bonnie Owens, a considerable talent in her own right, but who spent much of her life backup singing and doing domestic duties for her husbands, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.
Throughout her career, she has mixed her own songs with covers, covering similar stories, of universal themes with personal angles, often with the greats of the music accompanying her. The stories are familiar but the delivery is unique to her.
Laura Cantrell — The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter (Amy Allison cover)
Amy Allison is the daughter of Mose and Audrey Allison, and has said she was the only person in Long Island who grew up listening to Country Music. That backstory would be immediately appealing to Cantrell, as she was establishing herself in New York. The original of this song is taken from Allison’s The Maudlin Years, which gives you some idea as to the vocal delivery. Allison’s regret appears to be being expressed at 3am, perhaps soon after the encounter she is regretting, as the whiskey is still coursing through her system. Cantrell’s rendition is far more clear-headed, perhaps delivered the next morning or afternoon, with a mild physical hangover and heavier emotional one. She can’t promise that it won’t happen again, but she knows what she has to do to prevent it, and will take those steps if she can. Allison and Cantrell have sung the song together, but this version is taken from Cantrell’s debut LP.
Laura Cantrell — Two Seconds (The Volebeats cover)
If you love someone, set them free. Robert McCready’s exquisite expression of that old phrase is about caring for those that you have loved, but no longer do. Cantrell offers caring counsel to someone to set a lover free, as their ex needs closure. Perhaps the person she is offering counsel to is herself, she knows it is the right thing to do, but perhaps is reluctant to close off the avenue. Recorded live in the UK on one of Cantrell’s regular outings!
Laura Cantrell — I Gave My Wedding Dress Away (Kitty Wells cover)
Cantrell’s 2011 tribute album to Kitty Wells was a triumph, consisting of one tribute song and ten cover versions. The story of a big sister who gives her little sister everything, including her prospective husband and the dress she was going to marry him in, is a classic Country story. Love and loss, at the same time. It is the spoken voice part of the song that helps distinguish Cantrell’s version. Whatever the sophistication of Wells as an artist, when she speaks she plays the part of someone who has deep love and goodness, but has a homespun personality, she cannot necessarily explain why she is making the sacrifice. Cantrell’s educated tones are somewhat different; she is clear about the choices she is making and what are driving her decisions.
Laura Cantrell — Trains And Boats and Planes (Burt Bacharach/Hal David cover)
In some places, Cantrell is adding a different layer with her Ivy League education and New York sensibility. That will not necessarily sit well on top of a song by Bacharach and David, with an iconic performance by Dionne Warwick. No more sophistication can be added to that. So Cantrell adds something else novel–vulnerability. Her voice breaking, on the edge of tears, she recounts her tale of woe, striking a low blow where she has often gone high, making the gut punch all the more effective.
Laura Cantrell — Love Vigilantes (New Order cover)
There is not much New Wave music from Manchester on this list, or in Cantrell’s oeuvre in general. It is also an unusual song from the originators. It was lyric led (Bernard Sumner came up with the story and lyrics before the music was added), and it must be pointed out that not many Mancunians made their way back from the Vietnam war. However the returning hero is a trope of country music, and we have lauded Cantrell’s re-cover of “When the Roses Bloom Again” with Steve Earle previously. Originally recorded for an EP in 2008, this song has remained part of her set, and this live 2024 version shows that the song can work in an intimate setting, with a sweet mandolin accompaniment.
