Progressive bluegrass quartet Barbaro takes on a few obvious inspirations on their new EP Under the Covers. Gillian Welch’s “Dark Turn of Mind,” makes sense. Wilco’s “Jesus Etc,” sure. But the other two tunes venture a little further afield. Sheryl Crow’s pop hit “If It Makes You Happy” makes for a jaunty fiddle and banjo number, as does, surprisingly, Cher’s “Believe.” Continue reading »
We just posted the 45 best Radiohead covers ever, but there’s already a 46th. Unsurprising, really, considering how much this band gets covered. The musical project of actor Kaelen Amara Ohm, Amaara took on the In Rainbows gem “House of Cards.” Her cover carries echoes of the haunting original, but with a smoother electro-ambient sheen.
Composer Chris Anderson draws from some pretty deep wells of music knowledge on his new Song Cycle. He covers Laurie Anderson and John Cage and Tom Waits – twice. He covers Peter Gabriel twice too, on a beautiful “Mercy Street” and more subtly here, working bits of “Digging in the Dirt” into – of all things – a gospel Dave Matthews cover. “The addition of a choir was important to me to create the feeling of a ground-swell of support,” he writes in an email. “The fact that the song is about ‘knocking the devil to his knees’ made the gospel choir a natural choice.” Continue reading »
Some songs are synonymous with a particular season. Don Henley‘s “The Boys of Summer” was a Top Ten when it was released in 1984, and when it was re-released in 1998 it still hit #12. That’s a song with some longevity. Unlike so many summer songs, Henley’s ode to summer is a real downer, a remembrance of summers past rather than a celebration. Many covers of the song maintain that sense of melancholy, including a version by the Ataris that became a hit in its own right. Earlier this summer, Au Revoir Simone bucked the trend with their dream-pop version, but ultimately it fell a bit short. Papercuts, another band that can be lumped into the dream-pop genre, recently tried their hand at the summer classic. Continue reading »