Artist:Jeffery Straker Hometown: Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada Song: “Ready to Be Brave” Album:Just Before Sunrise Release Date: May 7, 2021
In Their Words: “At its core ‘Ready to be Brave’ is about reconciling; about mustering up the bravery to have a difficult conversation. In working with director Dylan Hryciuk we came up with this story together and I felt that telling it through a cast that didn’t include me would be an interesting approach. I love the way he brought the song to life visually — there’s so much love in it. And what better way to share such a beautiful story than during Pride month.” — Jeffery Straker
“As a director, there’s nothing more exciting to me than working on a project that you know will matter. It was an amazing experience creating this film with our cast and crew for Jeffery’s deeply personal song “Ready to be Brave.” I really think it’s one of the most important stories I’ve had the privilege of telling and I hope it resonates with people and maybe even sparks positive conversation.” — Dylan Hryciuk
Artist:Leon Creek Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: “Call It A Day” Album:Far From Broken Release Date: September 21, 2021
In Their Words: “An element of grain is a part of the Leon Creek records, so working with the photographer and videographer Chase Hart, who only shoots on film and Super 8, has been a great fit for us. We were excited by the Super 8 footage Chase got during our first shoot in Santa Barbara, so we wanted to round out the video with some clips from L.A., where we met and started making music together. Bobby Womack’s BW Goes C&W was an inspiration in making our record, so we aspired to have an element of ’70s country western sprinkled throughout the video. Enter Chicago-based editor and animator Jordan Rundle. Jordan added animation and moving graphics, along with some analog visual effects to his final cut of ‘Call It a Day.'” — Leon Creek (Chris Pierce, Matthew Stevens, and Erik Janson)
Artist:Lake and Lyndale Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Crooked Path” Album:In the Nude Vol. 1 Release Date: June 25, 2021
In Their Words: “‘Crooked Path’ came to me during a period where I was holding onto a lot of guilt and self-doubt. While I don’t think that your past is something to run from, I also know it’s not healthy to live there. We had just moved to Nashville and this new chapter of life beginning made me realize how important it was to let go of the missteps from the last chapter — so I put them into a song. ‘I took a crooked path to get to the sun / it’s my crooked path that straightened me up.’ This song is for anyone who may need a reminder to embrace every part of the journey.” — Channing Marie, Lake and Lyndale
Artist:Jon Byrd (Feat. Paul Niehaus) Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “I’ll Be Her Only One” Album:Me and Paul Release Date: July 16, 2021
In Their Words: “Me and Paul is dedicated to and a reflection of the people that came to see me and Paul over the years in little watering holes and honky-tonks here in Music City. They are small but mighty, as Billy Block used to say. It’s also dedicated to venues that let us take over their ‘happy hour’ to play the saddest, darkest, most pitiful and tragic songs ever penned. This co-write with Kevin Gordon put me in mind of his longtime music collaborator Joe McMahan. While known mostly as a guitarist/sideman, he’s had a studio for years and produced great work with Kevin and many others. He and Kevin are more on the rockin’ side of things but I was very keen to know what he’d bring to a project like this, so stripped down. And so country. But the Kevin connection is what sent me down this road.” — Jon Byrd
Artist:Phil Leadbetter Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee Song: “I Will Always Love You” Album:Masters of Slide: Spider Sessions (Various Artists) Release Date: June 25, 2021 Label: Mountain Home Music Company
In Their Words: “I always loved this tune. I remember the first time I heard Dolly sing this live, it just killed me! Not only her voice, but the lyrics to the song were so heart-wrenching. I saw her many times telling the story about how the song came about. The story is a very sad one. I used to drive around and listen to that song from several of Dolly’s compilation albums, and it always had such a great melody that I kept hearing in my head over and over. I started messing with it, and liked the direction it was going. In 2010, I got a brand new Scheerhorn guitar. I was at a friend of mine’s home, and I was curious to see how the guitar sounded. I started noodling around and playing different songs to see how the new guitar sounded. My friend told me that I should seriously think about keeping the track. The track got lost over the years, but one day while looking through a bunch of files, I found it!! Me and my engineer worked on it, and I had thought about using it a few years back. So happy I saved it so it could be part of the Masters of Slide album.” — Phil Leadbetter
Artist:K.C. Jones Hometown: Lafayette, Louisiana Song: “Heat Rises” Album:Queen of the In Between Release Date: June 18, 2021
In Their Words: “‘Heat Rises’ was my songwriting attempt at making the ending of a relationship, any relationship really, relatable through the imagery of one night around a dying campfire. Musically, I wanted the ‘campfire song’ sing-along elements to meet the cosmic psychedelia of the strangeness of the universe somewhere in beautiful harmony. I think it’s definitely one of the ‘twangier’ cuts on the album but it’s kind of thematically the one that brings my love of classic country and singing with friends around a campfire together with the dreamier and more outlandish aspects of the way I write songs and the other genres of music that inspire me.” — K.C Jones
Artist:Rory Feek Hometown: Columbia, Tennessee Song: “Time Won’t Tell” (written by Harlan Howard and Beth Nielsen Chapman) Album:Gentle Man Release Date: June 18, 2021 Label: Gaither Music Group
In Their Words: “I first heard this song in the mid-’90s when I was writing for Harlan Howard, and he and Beth wrote it. I’ve always loved it and my wife Joey and I even had it on a shortlist to record for her to sing one day. All these years later, the lyric is even more special to me. It’s been five years since Joey passed, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wonder what life might be like if she was still here. If it was her tucking our little girl Indiana in bed at night and not just me. What the song says is so true… sometimes, ‘time won’t tell.'” — Rory Feek
Artists:Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Song: “Hello Stranger” (The Carter Family cover) Album:blue blue blue Release Date: May 21, 2021 Label: Cinematic Music Group, Majesticsilk (CAN)
In Their Words: “It’s amazing to think the first recording of this old folk song was done about 80 years ago. It feels sad, but also beautiful. Playing with the perspectives brings out the vulnerability in the song. We’re all strangers really — but great connection can come from this knowing and an openness can unfurl that may not be there with someone you are already close to.” — Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino
2020 was a year of many things – COVID-19, existential elections, the shuttering of the music industry, and on and on – but one common, non-catastrophic throughline of the musical variety was cover songs. Many musicians and artists, finding themselves with more free time than usual and more standard-fare albums and cross-continental tours back-burnered, took the opportunity to explore live records, collaborations, and yes, covers. From Molly Tuttle to Wynonna, livestreams to socially-distanced shows, covers became an unofficial pandemic pastime.
Now, in 2021, many of these cover projects conceived and created in 2020 have made it to store shelves – digital and otherwise – and we’ve collected ten tributes worth a listen:
Shannon McNally covers Waylon Jennings
It’s fitting that Shannon McNally released The Waylon Sessions on Compass Records, whose headquarters now occupies “Hillbilly Central.” As Tompall Glaser’s former studio, the building helped give rise to country’s outlaw movement and it’s where Waylon himself recorded. With guests like Jessi Colter, Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, and Lukas Nelson, the project recontextualizes Waylon Jennings’ material, which is usually associated with hyper-masculine wings of the country scene. As McNally puts it in a press release, “What Waylon Jennings brought to country music is what country music needs right now, and that unapologetic and vulnerable sense of self are what women are tapping into artistically right now as the industry evolves.”
Steve Earle covers Justin Townes Earle
Many a musical child has covered their parents’ catalogs in retrospect, but it’s rare that we see the reverse. A gorgeous, gutting, and laid-bare album, Steve Earle’s J.T. is a ten-song tribute to his son, Justin Townes Earle, who passed away suddenly in August 2020, shocking the Americana and folk communities. Earle’s signature emotion bristles and crackles throughout the project, giving Justin Townes’ songs an even stronger quality of visceral electricity. Proceeds from the album will go to a trust for Etta St. James Earle, Justin Townes’ daughter and Steve’s granddaughter.
The Infamous Stringdusters cover Bill Monroe
Spread out from North Carolina to Colorado and beyond, the Infamous Stringdusters utilized home recording from their respective studios during the pandemic to accomplish musical creativity their jam-packed schedule hadn’t really allowed in the “before times.” Their brand new EP, A Tribute to Bill Monroe, returns the virtuosic jamgrass outfit to territory familiar to those who first found the group when they were cutting their teeth, striding out from traditional bluegrass into the vast, expansive newgrass-and-jamgrass unknown. The project illustrates that the true strength of this ensemble is found in utilizing traditional bluegrass aesthetics for their own creative purposes. For example, you might listen through the entire record without realizing the Stringdusters made a Bill Monroe tribute album without mandolin!
Mandy Barnett covers Billie Holiday
Mandy Barnett is a cross-genre chameleon; between her talent, her voice’s timeless Americana tinge, and her appetite for classics — from Nashville staples to the American songbook — she often finds herself reaching far beyond Music Row and classic country to R&B, standards, and in her most recent release, Billie Holiday covers. Every Star Above was recorded in 2019, pre-pandemic, and includes ten songs from Holiday’s 1958 Lady in Satin album – songs previously also covered by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, and many, many others. The project feels akin to Linda Ronstadt’s pop and big band forays, never fully detached from Barnett’s country roots, but built atop their solid foundation. In another Ronstadt-esque move, Barnett partnered with recently departed jazz arranger Sammy Nestico; Every Star Above was the award-winning composer’s final project.
Charley Crockett covers James Hand
Country-western crooner Charley Crockett is truly prolific, having released nine full-length albums in the past six years. As the story goes, before his friend, acclaimed Texan singer-songwriter James “Slim” Hand passed away unexpectedly about a year ago, Crockett promised he would record his songs. “Lesson in Depression” captures the sly, winking quality of the best sort of sad-ass country, which isn’t burdened by its own melodrama. While it’s certain Crockett (as Tanya Tucker would put it) would have rather brought Slim his flowers while he was living, there’s a poignancy in how 10 For Slim – Charley Crockett Sings James Hand, like Earle’s J.T., immediately demonstrates how these impactful musical legacies will live on.
Lowland Hum cover Peter Gabriel
Lowland Hum’s album covering Peter Gabriel’s So — which they’ve cutely and aptly entitled So Low — began as a passing joke, but the folk duo of husband-and-wife Daniel and Lauren Goans followed the passion and fun that led them to Gabriel’s hit 1986 release, quickly unspooling the passing whim into inspiration for a full-blown project. “We already loved the iconic record, but in translating Gabriel’s melodies and otherworldly arrangements,” they explain on their website, “we fell even deeper in love with the songs, Gabriel’s voice, and his uncanny ability to fully inhabit both vulnerability and playfulness…” Their “quiet music,” minimalist approach is well suited to the material and the entire project is incredibly listenable, comforting, and subtly envelope-pushing.
Chrissie Hynde covers Bob Dylan
After The Bard released “Murder Most Foul” and “I Contain Multitudes” early in 2020 (and in the pandemic) founder, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde was inspired to once again revisit Dylan’s catalog – a limitless fount of material with which she was already intimately familiar. Her new album, Standing in the Doorway, features nine Dylan tracks recorded with fellow Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne – almost exclusively via text message – and for their coronavirus YouTube video series. Hynde opts for deeper cuts, showcasing her affinity for swaths of Dylan’s career often overlooked by other would-be cover-ers. This classic, “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” feels appropriately sentimental and longing, a perfect encapsulation of the day-to-day of the realities of the pandemic, filtered through a Bob Dylan lens and Hynde’s distinctive voice.
Various Artists cover John Lilly
John Lilly is a songwriter’s songwriter. Based in West Virginia, his original music has been covered by modern legends like Tim O’Brien, Kathy Mattea, and Tom Paxton. April In Your Eyes: A Tribute to the Songs of John Lilly gathers various artists from the folk, old-time, and bluegrass communities – in West Virginia and otherwise – spotlighting the incredible depth and breadth of Lilly’s catalog. The title track is stunningly rendered by Maya de Vitry and Ethan Jodziewicz, who were connected with Lilly originally through West Virginia’s iconic old-time pickers’ gathering affectionately referred to as “Clifftop.” Paxton, O’Brien, and Mattea all make appearances on the project, as do Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay, Bill Kirchen, and many other members of Lilly’s musical family and inner circle, giving the project an intentional and intimate resonance.
American Aquarium cover ’90s Country Hits
BJ Barham’s American Aquarium dropped a surprise album, Slappers, Bangers, & Certified Twangers: Volume One in May. Featuring ten covers of some of the band’s favorite ‘90s country hits, it’s a dose of all-star-tribute-concert packaged in a pandemic-friendly stay-at-home-form – and available on John Deere Green vinyl, of course. One particularly sad casualty of the coronavirus pandemic has been these sorts of musical nostalgia bombs – when was the last time any of us attended a theme night or tribute show at say, the Basement East in Nashville or Raleigh, NC’s The Brewery? – and Slappers, Bangers, & Certified Twangers has us in the mood to attend the first ‘90s country covers live show possible now that things are finally reopening.
Various Artists cover John Prine
A year without Prine seems far, far too long to travel with such a Prine-shaped hole in our musical hearts. But his presence and legacy certainly still loom large; the Prine family has announced “You Got Gold: Celebrating the Life & Songs of John Prine,” a series of special concerts and events held across various venues in Nashville in October. Oh Boy Records is also planning to release a new tribute record, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2, to coincide with You Got Gold. The first two tracks from the project that have already been unveiled feature Sturgill Simpson performing “Paradise” and Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “I Remember Everything,” which you can hear above. Each month until October, the Prine family and Oh Boy will release another song from the project, unveiling special guests who each pay tribute to Prine, his songs, and the enormous vacuum his loss has left in the roots music industry.
Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, this weekly radio show and podcast has been a recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on the digital pages of BGS. This week, we bring you new music from our June Artist of the Month, Chris Thile, as well as Robert Finley, Oliver Wood, and much more! Remember to check back every week for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.
Singer-songwriter Robert Finley first picked up a guitar at age 11. He was raised in Jim Crow-era Louisiana amongst a family of sharecroppers and knew from a young age that his dream was to sing. Now, at sixty-seven-years-old, that dream is alive and well with his newly-released, third solo album, Sharecropper’s Son, made in collaboration with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. BGS recently caught up with Finley to talk about the new album, and how his upbringing and vast life experiences have shaped his music.
For David Swick of DoomFolk StarterKit, recording any of Gillian Welch’s work is an honor. His cover of “Look at Miss Ohio” has a balance of lightness and melancholy in its’ arrangement, which Swick says represents the song’s theme of “making peace with uncertainty.”
Zach Person was inspired to write “Wanna Fly” after reflecting upon the social and political intensity of 2020. He cites “Dylan-esque” protest songs and the openness of the western plains as the two main influences of this powerful track.
“Call Me Up,” from Lula Wiles’ new album, Shame and Sedition, is a lighter track amongst an album that aims to transform listeners and enact change. Between tender harmonies and mellow piano chords, the trio describes meeting with an old acquaintance, singing, “I know you’ve been taking it rough / You gotta just call me up.”
BGS spoke with Oliver Wood of The Wood Brothers for a 5+5 in support of his new solo record, Always Smilin’. He told us about his biggest influences — from Ray Charles to Levon Helm — as well as how hard times can be processed through songwriting. When asked to write a mission statement for his career, he stated: “Just be completely yourself, because that’s all you have, and that’s enough.”
Dana Sipos’ “Breathing Barrel” is a meditation of being at peace with the present moment. Written immediately upon returning home to the city from a music residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, deep in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, this song is an attempt to integrate a very powerful experience into the more mundane, everyday life.
Shannon McNally reimagines Waylon Jennings’ “This Time” by giving the lyrics a personal spin — singing not about a lover, but instead about her relationship with the music business as an artist and as a woman. For McNally, the song’s directness is a breath of fresh air, and it helped her get into the headspace that permitted her to sing the rest of the album.
The name Chris Thile is likely familiar to fans in any corner of roots music. Growing up in southern California, Thile rose to popularity with his childhood (and sometimes still adult) band Nickel Creek, and has since helped form the Punch Brothers, the Goat Rodeo Sessions, and other noteworthy collaborations. However, this summer Thile brings something special — a completely solo album entitled Laysongs. In celebration, he is our Artist of the Month, so be sure to stick around all month long for exclusive content from Chris Thile.
Mara Connor recorded “Old Man” at the same age Neil Young was when he wrote it about a caretaker who lived on his ranch. When she first heard the track, she was struck by the amount of empathy the songwriter exhibited at such a young age. Connor states that the song is an affirmation of how the world would be a better place if we took the time to see the humanity in each other’s eyes.
2020 was a difficult year for us all, and it seems that we need uplifting music more now than ever before. “Thankful” is just that. The lyrics are a powerful reminder of the things we have to be grateful for and of the important things in life.
Inspired by their recent release and the blooming of spring, Rising Appalachia’s Leah Song created a Mixtape for BGS, entitled Rising Appalachia’s Love Songs for Blooming Spring. The playlist features heartbreakers and heart-menders from John Prine to Hozier that are sure to make your heart bloom.
Eli Lev’s “As It Is” began to develop halfway through a 10-day meditation retreat he went on near the Florida coast at the beginning of the year. He states, “I experienced silent sunrises over the ocean and brilliant sunsets over the bay that brought on infinite color variations and led me to a unique insight that everything is changing while staying exactly ‘as it is’ in every moment.”
Featuring the sweet sounds of classic country twang and harmonies by singer-songwriter Michaela Anne, Kyle Lalone’s “Learning How to Love” is a song that details the process of understanding how to be a good partner and showing up for someone in a relationship.
Photos: (L to R) Robert Finley by Alysse Gafjken; Shannon McNally by Alysse Gafjken; Chris Thile by Josh Goleman
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