The Dropkick Murphys have released their cover of The Pogues‘ “The Body of an American,” for the the upcoming tribute album released in lead singer/songwriter Shane MacGowan‘s memory. We’ve previously covered the release of the Bruce Springsteen song that will be on the record, and the Murphys have released a lyric video to mark this release. Continue reading »
Dervish have form, having delivered 37 years as one of the premier traditional folk baton holders from the Emerald Isle. Back in 2019, they released “The Great Irish Songbook, Volume I,” culling a bevy of faithful standards from the vaults of the tradition, songs predominantly by trad.arr. This time around they celebrate the current crop, this century and last, of Irish troubadours and songbirds, enlisting, once more, an all-star cast of compadres to expand and embellish the legacy. Last time it was the likes of Steve Earle, David Gray and Rhiannon Giddens. For “The Great Irish Songbook, Volume II” it is the Indigo Girls, Del McCoury, Sarah Jarosz, the recently deceased Moya Brennan and a whole lot more. Songwriters chosen include Van Morrison, Shane MacGowan and Sinèad O’Connor.
But don’t let these guests steal the limelight from the actual band. For, in Cathy Jordan, they have one of the purest, sweetest voices of the Irish. Add in the vivacious talents of Brian McDonagh, Tom Morrow, Shane Mitchell and Liam Kelly, who, between them, ply all manner of fiddles, boxes, flutes, whistles, guitars, bouzouki and mandala. Jordan also thumps a good old bodhran and can rattle the bones as well as anyone.
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Metronomy drummer Anna Prior is back with a new EP, Firefly. The first single is a cover of the Mary J Blige classic. “I’ve wanted to do a cover song for a long time and I just never found the right one that fit with my sound,” Prior wrote. “The overall tone and feeling of the original fit so well with the ‘A minor’ theme of the EP that I just couldn’t resist. It’s a song that shaped my late teenage years and I really hope I’ve done it justice and I don’t get sued.” [Editor’s note: You won’t. That’s not how covers work…]
Last December, the prolific Bonnie “Prince” Billy hopped onstage with Yo La Tengo to cover—of all people—current Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee Pink. The song was a pretty deep cut too, a single from 2023. Will Oldham must really like that song, because he’s returned to it again in a solo incarnation. As if that combo wasn’t wild enough, add this one: This video was recorded at the early 18th-century pub The Lamb in Bloomsbury London, regular haunt of Charles Dickens. Continue reading »
This coming November, a new tribute album to Pogues‘ lead singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan will be released. And to announce the album, a new recording featuring Bruce Springsteen‘s take on The Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in Soho” has been released. Springsteen’s version is a little slower than the original, and opens quieter, with just a piano, but a full band comes in, adding a lilting sound to the song, which sees it through the end. No matter the rearranged instrumentation, the melancholy, which makes the original so memorable, remains. Continue reading »
The Pogues‘ “Fairytale of New York” is now a Christmas classic. It has gone platinum many times in the UK, has featured in the UK Top 20 something like 20 times, presumably at Christmas, and it has won some polls as the UK’s favourite Christmas song. Though less commercially successful in the US, the song has still permeated enough that it has become a perennial favorite without charting.
En Attendant Ana (“Waiting for Ana” in English) are a French indie pop band who have put out three albums since 2018. They have a new Christmas single where they cover “Fairytale” and a medley of obscure Christmas songs by ’60s sunshine pop group The Free Design. Despite their twee pop-ish sound, their take on “Fairytale of New York” is pretty controversial. Continue reading »
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 comes from staff member Tom McDonald:
What’s your favorite cover of a traditional song?