Steve Winwood Archives

Five Good Covers: “Keep On Running” (Spencer Davis Group/Jackie Edwards)

Posted by Seuras Og at 2:00 pm 1 Response »

Oct 232020

In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.

Before this past Monday, we could have categorized this as a Five Good Covers post, or a That’s a Cover post. Alas, circumstances beyond our control have seen to it that it could only be an In Memoriam.

Spencer Davis, of the eponymous band, has died.

To commemorate this most shadowy of front men, whose band is now famous more for who else was in it besides him, let’s revisit Davis’s life and see why he is worthy of recognition in his own right. We’ll also be drilling down into “Keep on Running,” the first Spencer Davis Group number one.
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They Say It’s Your Birthday: Steve Winwood

Posted by Tom McDonald at 6:30 pm 1 Response »

May 122020

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s big day with cover tributes to his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

Steve Winwood turns 72 today, so we have quite a few candles to light. The multi-instrumentalist singer and songwriter has had so many different incarnations that surveying his career makes you dizzy. It’s not just that Winwood tried his hand at different genres, it’s that he helped define those genres. These things can happen when a gifted artist jumps in on the action early —Winwood was famous for his music by the age of 16—and then keeps evolving in ways that matter. Add to that some serious staying power, and you have an impressive career–one that is still going strong six decades in.

In fact, last year may have been Winwood’s best ever, in a funny way. DJ-producer Kygo remixed Whitney Houston’s cover of Winwood’s “Higher Love,” and released it digitally; the song now has about 350,000,000 hits on Spotify alone. More about that song later, but for now just imagine that a small number of Kygo’s followers are asking themselves, “Who wrote this?” What will they find, and like, once they go down the Winwood rabbit hole?
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Quarantine Covers 5: Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Jimmy Eat World, Lizzo, Bruce Springsteen, and More

Posted by Ray Padgett at 2:00 pm 1 Response »

Apr 232020

Every week the names doing these covers from home just get bigger. This past week got a boost from Global Citizen’s all-star charity event, from which several of today’s set come, as well as one major appearance in last night’s Jersey for Jersey fundraiser (Fountains of Wayne’s heartbreaking “Hackensack” from that is worth watching too, though, except for guest bassist Sharon Van Etten, it’s not a cover).

But, amidst the all-stars, musicians at every level continue to take to the internet to perform covers. We’ve got some of the best we’ve seen below. As always, we make no claims to being comprehensive, so share any other favorites in the comments. Continue reading »

Bass Takes Center Stage on Chuck Deardorf’s Jazzy Blind Faith Cover

Posted by Curtis Zimmermann at 3:00 pm No Responses »

Feb 052019

When jazz bassist and educator Chuck Deardorf was a young trombonist, he often found himself listening to the bass. “They get to play the whole time, and I thought, ‘wow they sound like they’re having a lot more fun than I am’,” he said explaining his instrument of choice in an interview on the arts website Centrum. “The bass just shapes the music so much. You have a lot of responsibility and freedom to really determine where the music goes.” Deardorf made this childhood vision a reality on his new cover of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” where he uses his bass to reinterpret the song’s vocal melody.

Cover Me Q&A: What’s a song you hated until you heard it covered?

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm 11 Responses »

Jul 312013

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question: What’s a song you hated until you heard it covered?

James Vincent McMorrow Makes Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” a Heartbreaking Lament

Posted by Ray Padgett at 3:30 pm 1 Response »

Sep 022011

This past June, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. turned Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” into a big rock-and-roll party. Now James Vincent McMorrow takes the tune in the opposite direction, turning it into a yearning piano lament. Where Jr. Jr.’s made you want to dance, McMorrow’s makes you want to cry. Continue reading »