Molly Gordon and Blake Mills Channel Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers for “Islands in the Stream”

 Posted by at 9:00 am  No Responses »
Aug 212025
 
Molly Gordon and Blake Mills

Molly Gordon, the co-star of the hit TV show The Bear will be seen next in the upcoming film Oh, hi!. Gordon stars, and also co-wrote the screenplay. And she’s also on the soundtrack.

Gordon has teamed up with Blake Mills for a cover of the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers classic, Islands in the Stream. She takes the vocals for the song, and Mills provides back-up, consisting mostly of an acoustic guitar, drawing an immediate difference from the original’s duet between Parton and Rogers. Mills has collaborated with an impressive number of other musicians, including Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes and Bob Dylan. Continue reading »

Review: Paul Weller’s ‘Find El Dorado’

 Posted by at 9:00 am  No Responses »
Jul 252025
 

Find El DoradoPaul Weller is a great songwriter. When you are a songwriter, the writing royalties can be the most lucrative part of the business, so when a talented and successful songwriter such as Weller voluntarily gives up that opportunity for royalties, you know that he really loves the songs.

Weller is 18 albums into his solo career, and he can guarantee a significant number of sales in the UK for all his new work. He shares a distinction in the UK which only Lennon and McCartney can match: a number one album in five consecutive decades. Each one of those albums is someone’s favourite, passionately defended on the message boards, fan sites and podcasts devoted to his works, even when the consensus doesn’t list them at the top. He has also always been savvy about the business side of making music, earning enough money so that he doesn’t need to indulge in activities that he feels are not artistically justified, whilst ensuring he has a comfortable life for him and his family. His choice to make his second covers album is a statement, and the choices and intent are clearly important to him. But that seems to be the mood of Weller now. This year he curated a wonderful selection of his most cherished soul music. He consented, for the first time, to give his side of, and bless others to give theirs, various stories in the form of an authorized oral biography. He has rejoined a record label where he enjoyed some of his greatest creative successes. He may have many years of music ahead of him, but he wants to get some things on the record, just in case.  Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of June 2025

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  No Responses »
Jun 302025
 
The Best Cover Songs of June 2025
Alex Lahey — Rock & Roll Queen (The Subways cover)


Four years ago, Australian singer/songwriter Alex Lahey topped our year-end list with a truly phenomenal cover of Faith Hill’s 1998 hit “This Kiss.” She made the Top 10 again in 2023 singing Mama Cass’s Make Your Own Kind of Music.” At this point, whenever Lahey drops a new cover, we’re immediately interested. Her latest, the b-side to a new single supporting trans rights, tackles indie-rockers The Subways 2005 single “Rock & Roll Queen.” Unlike some of her other covers, Lahey doesn’t change it that much (no need to make the already loud-and-rocking song louder and rockier like “This Kiss”). Still, it rips. Continue reading »

Cover Genres: Box

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  1 Response »
Jun 092023
 

Cover Genres takes a look at cover songs in a very specific musical style.

box

Herewith the last in the unholy triumvirate of banjo, bagpipes, and box. Time now to unwrap the wonders of melodeon, accordion, concertina, bandoneon and all their squeezy family upon your eager ears. Actually (maybe) a primitive  precursor of the synthesizer, the squeezebox family started life as a way of letting one player give a more orchestral sound to proceedings, the rich textures replicating the play of a whole bevy of musicians. Indeed, in the same way as the Musician’s Union decried the synthesizer, so too will the equivalent of its day have decried the box, taking work away from honest pipe’n’taborists.

This family of instruments casts, arguably, far wider a net than the two B’s that have preceded it here, banjo and bagpipes, with a right of place across very many cultures and categories. Broadly occupying a space in ethnic roots traditions, this has never stopped appearances crossing over into territories that might be more squeeze-averse. Which to me is the joy.
Continue reading »

In the Spotlight: Low

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  No Responses »
Mar 172023
 

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!

Low covers

Today we place Low in the spotlight, even if the Duluth-based band has already occupied the spotlight in recent months, and for the worst of reasons: Low’s co-founder Mimi Parker passed away in November 2022, age 55. The tributes and memorials that poured out to Mimi took many beautiful forms, all of them disbelieving and heartbroken. As we sample the amazing music that she and her husband Alan Sparhawk (Low’s other co-founder and the band’s primary songwriter) gave us in their 30-year run as a band, we’ll look at covers by Low and covers of Low, and pay our respects to Mimi along the way.
Continue reading »

 Older Entries