Abigail Covington

Upon graduating from the College of William and Mary, Abigail Covington moved to Austin, Texas where she can be found bothering hipsters and begging her friends to listen to more Prince. A constant proponent of looking back not forward, she spends most of her time writing theory pieces on the priests and priestesses of soul: Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Betty Davis, and the likes. Now with her "I refuse to listen to anything but Prince" phase officially behind her she is ready to indulge in the world of cover songs and bring forth some revamped classics. In addition to writing things that few people read, she interns with the A.V. club in Austin, Texas and writes band bios and one notes for artists and musicians who are struggling like herself. She blogs, albeit sparingly, at http://thehoople.posterous.com.

Review: Mayer Hawthorne, ‘Impressions: The Covers EP’

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  4 Responses »
May 182011
 

Mayer Hawthorne didn’t crash onto the scene the way other soul revivalists did in 2008. Sharon Jones and Raphael Saadiq cast big shadows that year that proved difficult for other soul revivalists to get out from under. Still, Hawthorne managed to get his voice out there and people tuned in to listen found themselves impressed. “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” became a stylish indie hit, shepherding many nerdy white kids into the enticing world of soul music. Hawthorne’s debut album A Strange Arrangement managed to propel him onto the scene, but this new covers EP will give Mayer Hawthorne the sticking power he needs to become an indie powerhouse. If nothing else, it will carry fans over until the long-awaited release of his follow up album How Do You Do this fall. Continue reading »

They Say It’s Your Birthday: Stevie Wonder

 Posted by at 11:00 am  No Responses »
May 132011
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

steviewonder

It’s hard to invent new praise for Stevie Wonder, but because today is his birthday I must rise to the occasion. The high priest of soul turns 61. That means it’s been exactly fifty years since Stevie Wonder first signed with Motown Records at age 11 and began to amass his more than 30 top ten US hits and 22 Grammy awards. As the ultimate luminary of soul music, Wonder’s influence has pervaded nearly every other genre. He is one of those few artists where anyone claiming he’s overrated is only embarrassing himself. This puts him on the same level as Dylan, the Stones, and the Beatles, and above iconic but more disputable artists like Aerosmith, Prince, and Madonna. Continue reading »

Rebuilding the Wall of Sound: The Music of Phil Spector

 Posted by at 5:00 pm  1 Response »
May 052011
 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the Phil Spector collection Back to Mono (1958–1969), the landmark set that compiles all of the early productions by the one-in-a-million wunderkind. Phil Spector’s abhorrent personal life and criminal history notwithstanding, the man’s influence on American music is indisputable.

So much in music circles back to this now-infamous sociopath. Music seems to channel Spector now more than ever: She and Him spearhead a resurgence of doo-wop sounds; Best Coast rebuild the Wall of Sound in fuzzier, shoegaze form; and, while it is no longer 1999, there are still millions of teenage generations to come that will have to see Top Gun and download the song all over again. So let’s celebrate the music that defined a generation and changed the landscape of popular American music forever. Here are five of the most well-known and oft-cited covers of classic Phil Spector productions. Old and new, these tracks have contributed to the ongoing resurrection of the Wall of Sound. Continue reading »

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