Under The Radar: Delbert McClinton

 Posted by at 10:00 am  No Responses »
Feb 252025
 

Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.

Delbert McClinton

Fear not, this is no obituary; Delbert McClinton is still around, a mere stripling of 84. Still, given that it’s been three years since his last album and more since he toured, I’d hate to have him slip away on me before I got the chance to celebrate him here.

Delbert who? That’s the response from most when I laud McClinton, his name having surprisingly little traction despite a career as long as my entire life. To answer the question, he’s a good ol’ boy from Lubbock, Texas, with a laissez-faire attitude to genre type-casting. Many of his records went top 20 positions in the US blues and country charts at the same time. We first heard of him playing his distinctive harmonica riffs on Bruce Channel’s “Hey, Baby.” In 1962! (That year he toured the UK with Channel; the Beatles were their opening act, and John Lennon famously got some playing tips from McClinton that he put to use on “Love Me Do.”)

That wasn’t even where McClinton began. He played Texas bar-bands from his teens, backing some of the blues legends then still on the road — Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins just to name a few. A hit with his own band, the Ron-Dels, “If You Really Want Me To, I’ll Go”, came in 1965, followed by a three-year partnership with Glen Clark, 1972-5, before striking out on his own. He was nominated for eight Grammy awards and won four — not too shabby. And let’s not forget his own songwriting, something he may even arguably be better known for. Emmylou Harris’s “Two More Bottles of Wine” was his, as well as many others that led to his 2011 indictment in the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame.

But it is his gravelly, gritty renditions of the songs of others that we celebrate today, vocals that sound they have spent years in the saddle, ahead being trampled underfoot in a bar brawl, buried and then brined for posterity. Imagine a mix of Johns Fogerty and Hiatt, gargled with a sandpaper side, and you pretty much have it. A laryngologist’s nightmare, and perfect for his tramples over blues, country and rock and roll.
Continue reading »

That’s A Cover?: “Got My Mind Set On You” (George Harrison / James Ray)

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  No Responses »
Feb 212025
 

That’s A Cover? explores cover songs that you may have thought were originals.

George Harrison seemed an artist reborn upon the release of “Got My Mind Set On You” in 1987, in a way that compared with Paul Simon on “You Can Call Me Al” the previous year. No sad relic here of a legendary 1960s act with fading powers, whose days of selling gazillions of records were a long, long, long time past. No whiff of recent flop albums, or flop movies. Instead, a pop star wielding an insanely upbeat and wonderfully infectious pop nugget, reveling in an MTV-conquering video, and quite rightly storming up the singles charts in a style we’d come to associate with Madonna, Whitney Houston, and the Pet Shop Boys.

Caught up in the fun of it all, there was no reason to believe the track was anything other than a Harrison original, either, being exactly the kind of catchy rock ‘n’ roll number someone who’d been in the Beatles would come up with (right?). Only with a big 1980s pop sound: big drums, big horns, and big backing vocals. Besides, no other version of the song ever got played on the radio.

But the truth was this: Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set On You” was a cover. And a cover very much in the vein of early Beatles cuts “Please Mr. Postman,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music,” and more specifically the George-fronted “Devil in Her Heart,” and “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby.” It was a cover that had everything to do with the American soul, R&B, and rock ’n’ roll that first inspired Harrison as the lead guitarist/singer in what would become the toppermost band in the world. It’s just that the original was by an artist a lot more unsung than the Marvelettes, Chuck Berry, the Donays, and Carl Perkins.

Essential to Harrison’s 1980s revitalization, then, on his biggest solo single since “My Sweet Lord” in 1970, was a mighty sayonara! to years of tribute and soundtrack doldrums and a nostalgic reconnection with an obscure and sorrowful 1962 non-hit by an unsuccessful and largely unknown black soul singer by the name of James Ray. Unlikely, we know! So it’s high time we offered more in the way of explanation. Specifically, the illumination of several key moments.
Continue reading »

In The Spotlight: Laura Cantrell

 Posted by at 10:00 am  No Responses »
Feb 142025
 

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

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.
Continue reading »

That’s A Cover?: “Boogie with Stu” (Led Zeppelin / Ritchie Valens)

 Posted by at 11:00 am  No Responses »
Feb 112025
 

That’s A Cover? explores cover songs that you may have thought were originals.

If Led Zeppelin had made Physical Graffiti a single album rather than a double, “Boogie with Stu” would not have made the final cut. “Filler” is a dismissive term, but that’s what it was. (Of course, one band’s filler is another band’s gem.) The song was just a spontaneous jam, really, recorded in 1971 on an out-of-tune piano as they worked on Led Zeppelin IV. But when Zeppelin suddenly had an extra album-side to complete in 1975, they cleaned up the old recording and tossed the result onto side four, practically as an afterthought.

“Boogie with Stu” is treated like an afterthought, too, in those always-interesting and usually contentious discussions about Zeppelin covering and plagiarizing other artists. Sure, let’s talk “Dazed and Confused” and Jake Holmes, “Whole Lotta Love” and Willie Dixon, “The Lemon Song” and Chester Burnett, and all the other cases. But the discussion rarely gets around to the strange case of “Boogie with Stu” and Ritchie Valens. Or if it does, it’s only as an afterthought yet again.
Continue reading »

One Great Cover: Tom Waits “Big Joe and Phantom 309”

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  1 Response »
Feb 072025
 

One Great Cover looks at the greatest cover songs ever, and how they got to be that way.

“Well it’s story time again,” says a young Tom Waits to a live audience in July, 1975. So begins his intro to “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” Red Sovine’s country hit from 1967. But his listeners were already involved in a story that night: they were collectively pretending to be in “Raphael’s Silver Cloud Lounge,” a seedy LA nightclub.

In truth, they were seated in The Record Plant, the illustrious Los Angeles recording studio. Waits had moved studio equipment aside, dragged in a few tables and chairs, set up a makeshift bar, and invited some friends over for a show. The opening act was a strip-tease. With the correct vibe established, Waits recorded his third album that night, Nighthawks at the Diner. And it included his first departure from original material with “Phantom 309.”
Continue reading »

The 25 Best Billie Eilish Covers Ever

 Posted by at 9:00 am  2 Responses »
Jan 312025
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

This year, Billie Eilish is nominated for a bunch of Grammys. Then again, it feels like you could say that every year. (In fact, I just checked, and you could: She’s been nominated for multiple Grammys every year since 2019). The streak began for her very first album, where she became only the second artist ever to sweep every category in the so-called “Big Four” (after Christopher Cross in 1981) and has continued ever since. She is the ultimate Grammys Darling.

But being a Grammys Darling is perhaps a mixed blessing. Grammys voters are not known for their cool, cutting-edge musical taste (see, again, Christopher Cross). What’s remarkable about Billie Eilish is that her music is cool and cutting edge. She’s not just someone out-of-touch Recording Academy elders think of as a pop star; she is an actual, bonafide pop star! Grammy voters love her, and so do their (grand)kids.

So before this weekend’s awards ceremony, we’re celebrating Billie Eilish our own way: By sharing some great covers of her songs. For an artist with only three full-length albums so far, her songs get covered a lot. Not just the big singles either, though there’s no shortage of those. Album cuts, pre-album singles, loosies, and EP tracks – they’re all here.

And the Coverme goes to…

25. Participants — You Should See Me In A Crown


This cover delivers on the ominous tone of the original, with white noise fizzling in the beginning and firm electric guitar strums getting louder and louder as the song begins. Both the drums and guitar then further punctuate the “one by one by one” lines throughout. There are some subtle changes to the tune in the second verse, and singer Brittany Smith is joined by some haunting background vocals. Smith then goes on to take some vocal runs out for a spin in the ending chorus, fitting for the confidence of “you should see me in a crown.” — Sara Stoudt

24. Shamir — Ocean Eyes

Shamir is fully emergent as that most precious of sounds, the R&B-schooled countertenor. No matter whether the arrangement is lush and physical or lush and GarageBand-created, his voice radiates and shines. He may be looking down on the cover art, but he is soaring vocally. For his version of “Ocean Eyes,” he makes his case that he has fully emerged from his chrysalis by having a butterfly in the background. “I am here and I sound beautiful, and I should be heard.” It’s a wonderful show by a remarkable talent. — Mike Tobyn

23. Saoirse Daly — Bitches Broken Hearts


The original song’s heartfelt message is even more poignant in this cover which keeps things simple, removing the many production elements of the original: The noise interference, the R&B-style background murmurs, the syncopated high hat and drum pedal. Then, that all starts to fade away. The original closes with simple piano, and that could serve as a transition to this more sparse cover. Here it is just Daly and an acoustic guitar, with percussion elements rendered by tapping on the guitar itself. — Sara Stoudt

22. Phoebe Bridgers — When The Party’s Over

“When the Party’s Over” is one of 2018’s most iconic pop music videos. So what happens when an indie-folk artist takes it on? In the hands of Phoebe Bridgers, we are treated to a version with unexpected instrumentation and hard panning. The vocals are featured only on the left side of the track, while a piano with audible action gives the cover a quaint and close-up feel. Finally, ethereal and far-off backup vocals make a cameo. — Aleah Fitzwater

21. Lauren Babic — What Was I Made For?

This cover of the Academy Award-winning theme from Barbie “What Was I Made For” is not technically funny. But when it hits the 1:39 mark, it’s hard not to laugh. That’s the moment when Lauren Babic turns from daydreamy sweetheart to metallic freakin’ monster, unleashes her booming typhoon of a voice and proceeds to knock all and sundry on their asses. This is no endearing novelty, as many metal covers of pop songs tend to be; what Babic is doing here is serious business. Get out of the way or be steamrolled to oblivion. — Hope Silverman

NEXT PAGE →

 Older Entries  Newer Entries