Sep 032014
 

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, courtesy of staffer Stephen Gwilliams: What’s your favorite cover of a song from a musical?
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Mar 202014
 

An expanded version of this article appears in my new book ‘Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time’. Buy it at Amazon.

Brian Jones was in bad shape.

The Rolling Stone had staggered into London’s Olympic Studios, where Jimi Hendrix was trying to record a new Bob Dylan song, “All Along the Watchtower.” Though Jones could barely stand upright, he demanded to play on the track. There had already been many takes and the arrangement was just starting to come together, but Hendrix, ever accommodating to his friends, sat Jones down at a piano. Jones jumped right in, not letting inebriation limit his enthusiasm, and began producing off-beat clunks and clangs that caused Hendrix to stop the take in frustration after only 23 seconds.

What would become known as the greatest cover song ever recorded was quickly falling apart.
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Mar 082012
 

Founding member of the Grateful Dead and local resident Bob Weir recently re-opened the landmark roots venue the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA. As part of the opening month’s line-up Greensky Bluegrass stopped through on the West Coast leg of their tour for a sold-out show. Hailing from Kalamazoo, MI the newgrass rockers seem to be on a non-stop tour in support of their recent release, Handguns.  With shining vocal harmonies and incredible picking skills the band has the ability to play a familiar track and take it outside the musical boundaries you thought possible and then bring it right back. Continue reading »