I am not sure how much traction (The) Sam Chase elicits in his home state of California, but over here in Blighty, courtesy a magnificent little festival called Maverick, he is always guaranteed a welcome. He, and his band, The Untraditional, cut quite the rug with his hoarse holler, belting out songs of a country hue, a punk attitude and a sometimes chamber-folk setting. This all makes for a beguiling combination, a rich mix of sandpaper and silk. Over the years he has worked solo, as a trio and now with his a 7 piece band behind him. That’s a lot, but, with cello, violin and trumpet, augmenting the more familiar guitar, keys, bass and drums, flickering remembrances of Van Morrison’s Caledonia Soul Orchestra wouldn’t be that far off point. And, yes, all seem present for Covered:, endeavoring to both compete with and comfort his foghorn fusillade.
To be fair, Chase’s voice gets dialed down a tad across most the selections here, culled from a bevy of the usual suspects: a Dylan, a Prine, a couple of Waits, balanced with CCR, Nirvana and one from the pirate cabaret of The Crux. The overall effect is strangely chameleonic, as he affects to occupy the persona of each individual singer, in character if not always sound. The difference comes largely from the arrangements, which tend toward the dusty roadhouse of amplified acoustica with drums. This renders a fluency to the flow of Covered:, a congruency that makes for a set that is all his own, however familiar the songs may or may not be.
Given Guthrie is the lodestone for so many who choose careers defined by an acoustic guitar, it is fitting that it it his “Pastures of Plenty” that appears first. A fairly straightforward version, characterized by guitar and what sounds like autoharp and mandolin, it sets an immediately agreeable tone. A competent rendition, the vocal timbre here is closest to Barry “Eve of Destruction” McGuire. It’s a good start, followed by “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” a slightly lesser known CCR song, played more in the style of Fogerty’s Blue Ridge Rangers than the rockier original. The doo-doo-doos are terrific, as is the fiddle of Chandra Johnson and the bing bang bong bass of Dave Rapa.
A bit of John Prine always hits the spot, his “That’s the Way that the World Goes Round” straying little from the original template. Not so the first Tom Waits song, “Going Out West,” which, if retaining the rock attitude, rolls it out with a slightly gentler vocal than the original, rendering it (slightly) more palatable for the Waits-averse. It’s still Chase’s raggediest vocal here, mind, which may have you skipping to the next track, a wholly bizarre nursery vaudeville version of “Tonight You Belong to Me,” the Steve Martin/Bernadette Peters song from The Jerk, with such dodgy female duet vocals that it fails to make it sound (the possibly intended) ironic. The only feature of credit is the retained trumpet solo, from Zachary Thorne.
Feeling the Grinch in me rumbling, but this dip in quality is short-lived, as “Buckets of Rain” gets a tasteful whirl. It may not evoke the Dylan of Blood On the Tracks, but it is certainly a Dylan, with a tremendous home-porch style delivery, awash with pit-a-pat drums from Ted Desmarais, and a shimmer of keys by Nathan Little. The echo in Nikki Rios’ sparsely amped guitar is perfect. “Sunday Morning Coming Down” similarly occupies the lyric convincingly, putting the album back on track. Johnson’s fiddle and the cello of Devon McClive gift a plangency that both contrasts with and complements the vocal.
I don’t claim to know much about The Crux, self-described as “Doc Watson-by-way-of-Joe-Strummer,” but I like the song here, “All the Flowers in the World.” At first I wrongly assumed it to be the second Waits cover; the vibes are very much of that singer, before he got too weird, muted trumpet and all. (On listening to the clarinet and klezmer stylings of the original, Chase has achieved one of the essentials of a good covers album, in pointing me to the original version and artist involved.)
“Hotel Yorba” is a doozy, performed in the style of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three, if with a Cash that needs a good old slug of Robitussin, thereby topping Jack White’s somewhat fraught vocal of 2001. Then it is that second awaited Waits, “Black Market Baby,” which gets a grand Hollywood Gothic sheen. More kudos for the Thorne, as he channels the full Satchmo. This time, though, despite my acknowledged antipathy to the bard of Pomona, as it doesn’t quite capture the James Whale direction that only Waits can provide.
Has “Wildflowers” become covered too often? On the basis of this arrangement, which teases out a few new nuances, I would say not. As the strings sweep in, over Little’s piano, it is charming. Also coming up shiny is a nicely shaggy version of Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” which sounds as if it is an old ’60s song, down to the freaky backwards guitar.
Remember my comment around the shapeshifting vocal of Chase, always sounding different, whilst remaining much the same, as he impersonates, in turn, the characters who have written these songs? This is capitalized for “Waiting Around to Die,” wherein he method-acts Townes to a T, with the Untraditional pulling out a technicolor soundscape behind him. This leaves the old Union favorite, “Which Side Are You On,” to close out the album. Expecting this to come out in the style of Billy Bragg, I was wrong, as it emerges, much as the album began, as a potent reimagination of a youthful fired up Woody Guthrie, an anthemic chorale to end Covered: on a high.
Although this is a limited release, available only as a download, and only through Bandcamp at that, Covered: is a creditable album and well worthy a listen and/or acquisition. A final question comes, however, around the timing of this release. Given the, ahem, highlight of any covers artist is the coveted Cover Me Cover Songs of the Year awards, this album came after the closing date, negating any ability for any of these songs to stake any claim. Would they have? Well, I’d have probably submitted “Buckets of Rain” and “Wildflowers” for consideration, and might even have flown a kite for the set’s inclusion in the album section. A point to consider, (the) Sam, should there be, yes please, a further set.
Covered: Tracklisting:
- Pastures of Plenty (Woody Guthrie cover)
- Lookin’ out My Back Door (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
- That’s the Way that the World Goes Round (John Price cover)
- Goin’ out West (Tom Waits cover)
- You Belong to Me (Irving Kaufman cover)
- Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan)
- Sunday Morning Coming Down (Kris Kristofferson cover)
- All the Flowers in the World (The Crux cover)
- Hotel Yorba (White Stripes cover)
- Black Market Baby (Tom Waits cover)
- Wildflowers (Tom Petty cover)
- All Apologies (Nirvana cover)
- Waiting Around to Die (Townes Van Zandt cover)
- Which Side Are You On? (Uncle Elk Dunford cover)
