Asleep at the Wheel Swerves 180 Degrees with Guy Clark Cover

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Sep 252018
 
asleep at the wheel dublin blues

Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues” is a highly cerebral breakup song. Reworking an old folk tune called “Handsome Molly” as the title track to a 1995 album, the song starts out with the narrator wishing he was at a bar in Austin drinking “Mad Dog margaritas.” The lyrics then depart on a whirlwind trip around the world, passing through Dublin, Fort Worth, Paris, Spain, and ending on the Spanish Steps in Rome. Throughout his career Clark wrote a number of country hits for others including Bobby Bare, Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill, but “Dublin Blues” is his most popular song as an artist on Spotify, having earned nearly three million listens.

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“Seven Nights To Rock” Rolls On With New Asleep at the Wheel Cover

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Aug 242018
 
asleep at the wheel seven nights

In 2056, when they surely celebrate the 100th anniversary of Moon Mullican’s “Seven Nights To Rock,” listeners will probably assume the song was a hit given all the covers it has spawned. But though it is an infectious rocker similar in tone to such classics of the era as “Rock Around the Clock” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” it failed to light up the charts and was remaindered to the dustbin of history. Mullican passed away in 1967, never attaining mainstream stardom.

In the mid-’80s the song began to resurface, first when Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit covered it on 1985 album The Rose of England. In the ensuing years, it has been covered by a numerous artists such as BR5-49, Brian Setzer, Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Continue reading »

Asleep at the Wheel Frontman Ray Benson Goes Solo on Randy Newman Cover [Premiere]

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Jan 162014
 

In the world of alt-country, Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson has more cover song credibility than most. In their four decade career, the nine-time Grammy winners have recorded not one but two Bob Wills tribute albums with guests like Willie Nelson and the Dixie Chicks, which were so successful that they turned into a touring musical (which Ray starred in). He’s covered W.C. Handy with Willie Nelson and Red Foley with Brad Paisley. And on his new solo album A Little Piece, out next week, he takes on Randy Newman‘s “Marie”. Continue reading »

Five Good Covers: I Want a New Drug (Huey Lewis & the News)

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Oct 262012
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Huey Lewis and the News followed the “ka-” of 1982’s Picture This with the “BOOM” of 1983’s Sports. Patrick Bateman was right; it was the album where they really come into their own, commercially and artistically. If any of the album’s nine songs (five of them Top Twenty) were to be its signature song, it would have to be “I Want a New Drug.” Subtitled “(Called Love)” – this was the Just Say No era, after all – this crazy little thing was the band’s best-selling single, inspiring Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” (according to a settled lawsuit) and Weird Al Yankovic’s “I Want a New Duck” (“Not a swan or a goose / Just a drake I can dress real cute / Think I’m gonna name him Bruce”).
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