Of all the things we’ve felt in the last year, anger isn’t an emotion that gets recognized as often as others. “Bullocks,” says British singer-songwriter Frank Turner. In his new single “The Gathering,” Turner lets the rage out while singing an upbeat rock number all about the optimism of coming together again. The song is energetic, exciting the audience with a glimmer of how “sensational” and “biblical” it will be when we are finally able to gather again. The stomping rhythm of the riffs in the verses is broken up by his roaring voice, rallying the troops around a strong sense of optimism about the return to “normal life.” His call was heard by heavy-hitting drummer Dom Howard (Muse) and electrifying guitarist Jason Isbell, who contributed the strong backbeat and a monstrous guitar solo, respectively.
The new single also comes attached to the announcement of a string of outdoor live shows aptly called The Gathering that will help kickstart the return of live performance for artists in the UK. The shows, imagined and designed by Turner and record label Xtra Mile, will be fitted with all measurements necessary to be flexible; socially distanced if required by mandate or filled to capacity if allowed. As Turner says, “At a time when the pandemic has wreaked havoc all across the live music industry, I feel like it’s important to get back to the basics — playing live music to entertain a crowd. This summer, with Xtra Mile and friends, I’m taking the punk approach — do it yourself, find a way. I can’t wait.”
Watch the official lyric video for Frank Turner’s “The Gathering” below.
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.
We’ve put together a group of songs that feel related to dusk: the transition moments between day and night. Included in our thinking about dusk are the days in between each season.. winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall and fall to winter days. We all need help in our times of transition, as we are being stretched, strained, or pressed between what was and what is to come. The songs that assist us in these travels seem to have an unplaceable quality, both disorienting and comforting like a sweet, warm drink with salt scattered on its surface.
The unique combination of anticipation and farewell allows these songs to occupy paradoxical thematic and sonic space. We need songs like these so we can bring more of ourselves into the present. So, we humbly offer this grouping of songs to accompany you in transitions of all kinds, whether they be literal dusks, the days between seasons, or simply moments where this particular tone may be soothing, cathartic, comforting or augmenting. To paraphrase something we read on The Milk Carton Kids’ Mixtape… “we include our songs aspirationally and for self-promotion here.” — Lowland Hum
Aldous Harding – “Zoo Eyes”
We love Aldous Harding’s ability to shapeshift, morph, and play in her music while remaining vulnerable and human. It reminds us that those are all options we can choose as well when creating. Her most recent album, Designer, is delicious.
Bob Dylan – “He Was a Friend of Mine”
This song has always stood out to us as a deeply compassionate and humanizing song that packs so much into its few and deceptively simple words. It reminds me of the wordlessness that comes with deep grief. At the anniversary of George Floyd’s death I think of the great losses our nation has experienced this year and the way all words felt clumsy and insufficiently small in the face of such dumbfounding, dark and evil things.
Big Thief – “Open Desert”
We’re having a hard time finding what’s not to like about anything and everything coming from Adrianne Lenker (and her band) these days.
The Beatles – “Julia”
This melody is so wistful, dreamlike, sad, and lovely. “When I cannot sing my heart I can only speak my mind, Julia, sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me so I sing a song of love, Julia.”
Radiohead – “You and Whose Army?”
The beginning of this song makes us feel like we are suspended in shimmering stardust thick enough to hold a person’s weight. The arrangement blooms so patiently until you suddenly tumble down a flight of stairs. That a recording can do that is one of the main reasons we organize our life around music.
Antonio Carlos Jobim – “Look to the Sky”
I mean, are you not slow dancing by yourself on a terra cotta tile patio, barefoot, with a cocktail in hand when you hear this?
Labi Siffre – “Cannock Chase”
The combination of this picked guitar and gently shuffling percussion sounds like being in the car at dusk with the windows down, scenery flying by.
The Zombies – “Beechwood Park”
We’ve listened to this album so much in the past few years, but somehow only really noticed this song and its magnificence in the past week. Now we are obsessed.
Nick Drake – “Free Ride”
To us Nick Drake always sounds like sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees. Although this one carries a bit more urgency and pep than some of his other songs, this one is no exception.
Myriam Gendron – “Solace”
This song comes from an album of Dorothy Parker poems put to music by Myriam Gendron. The whole album is like a friend sitting silently beside you when you’re feeling a lot. You probably need it in your life.
Keur Mossa – “Quand le fils de l’homme viendra”
This song comes from an album that has been an immense comfort to us in times of transition. When far from home, while working on building our studio in early morning light, while in labor with our first child… It’s a beautiful treasure of humanity reaching toward divinity.
Tiny Ruins – “One Million Flowers (solo)”
This album is all solo guitar and voice versions of Tiny Ruins’ full-band album Olympic Girls. Hearing these songs stripped to their skeletons showcases how strong her songwriting and voice are. Though we were fans of the full-band album first, we prefer these versions hands down. We aspire to make songs that can stand on their own naked or dressed up.
Lowland Hum –”We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)”
This is our cover of Peter Gabriel’s “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)” from his album, So. We covered that album in its entirety, calling our version So Low. Our version came out on the 35th anniversary of the original’s release.
Lou Reed – “Perfect Day”
This song is a cocktail of equal parts bummed-out and triumphant. How he does it we don’t know, but we love it.
Frank Sinatra – “Mood Indigo”
The strings and reeds in this song are like sitting on a fire escape in the warm balmy breeze of a summer evening. Sinatra’s delivery is so subtle and masterful. You can’t go wrong with any song on In the Wee Small Hours.
The Weather Station – “Trust”
We have long been fans of Tamara Lindeman. Her songwriting is like a window into the unspoken dialogue of real relationships.
Arthur Russell – “Close My Eyes”
This song is so visual to me (Lauren). It reads in the mind like a bedtime story complete with dark oil pastel illustrations. I dare you to close your eyes and not see it all.
Gold Connections –”Confession”
Will Marsh of Gold Connections is a dear friend of ours but we promise we aren’t biased. They just released this single and we can’t get enough of it. This song has it all: city and desert; neon signage and the kind of starry sky that can only be seen when you are far from civilization.
Bruce Springsteen – “Nebraska”
Tragic, startling, beautiful. Daniel always says he believes in this album because it gave him compassion for a mass murderer. That’s some power right there.
Paul Simon – “Night Game”
What a stunning and mournful number. Who knew a song about baseball could feel so mystical? Hold out for the otherworldly harmonica solo by Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor. This one has comforted us on many a late-night drive.
Adrianne Lenker – “forwards beckon rebound”
This whole album is a treasure. This song has such a great momentum while remaining quiet.
Martin Denny – “Trade Winds”
This exotica album is a staple in our household during our newborn son’s bathtimes. But we find it perfectly appropriate for listeners of all ages and stages. It is perfectly campy and yet transportive.
Lowland Hum – “Waite”
We felt that we needed to include at least one original Lowland Hum song, so here’s our duskiest. This song was written while on tour in Europe in 2017. We were playing a house concert in a landscape painter’s home studio and gallery (Andy Waite is the name of the painter and now friend) and the guitar part mysteriously came to Daniel while we were setting up in the space. Something about being in a home so steeped in one person’s creative life and flow was magical. There was a very real substance in the air that mysteriously found its way into Daniel’s fingertips as he was messing around on guitar.
This week on The Show On The Road, a rare career-spanning interview with the ever-curious frontman, activist, and rock hitmaker John McCrea, who founded Cake, one of the most beloved and yet misunderstood bands of our time in Sacramento in 1992.
Despite putting out unlikely ubiquitous radio hits like “The Distance,” “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” and “Never There” featuring the signature combo of dry speak-singing, spaghetti western brass, muscular guitars, and spacey synths, and becoming one of the best selling groups of the 1990s and early 2000s, McCrea and an ever-changing group of collaborators have always operated more like a DIY garage band. They produce and record everything themselves and exist outside the music industry spotlight — only putting out their oddball, genre-defying work when it’s ready.
While you may have forgotten some of their danceable favorites that burned through college and indie-rock radio — with further study, songs like “No Phone,” which tackled our toxic relationship to technology (even before smartphones came out), now seem both deeply of (and way ahead of) their time.
Critics were often confused by Cake’s lyrically dense, subversively political records like Motorcade Of Generosity, Prolonging The Magic, and Comfort Eagle. And with their obtuse album art, strange homemade videos, McCrea’s conspiratorial slam-poet frontman delivery, and his shaggy Sacramento-based bandmates, it was all quite atypical in the era of shiny studio-created MTV and radio-ready rock. And yet their legions of fans, including our host Z. Lupetin, ate it up and continue to anxiously wait for what’s coming next from the group. After a decade of home recording and environmental activism (with a recent emphasis on combating deforestation) McCrea hints that a new album and a return to playing may finally be in the works.
Artist:The Steel Woods Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Baby Slow Down” Album:All of Your Stones Release Date: May 14, 2021 Label: Woods Music/Thirty Tigers
In Their Words: “‘Baby Slow Down’ is a song written from the perspective of a mother whose child has lost his or her way. She can see the path of the thing she loves most is getting rocky, so to speak, and knows she must intervene. Rowdy would tell the story of the car wreck he had one night headed home from a show the two of us had played about an hour outside of Nashville. It had been snowing and the roads were slick so when his mom told him, ‘baby, slow down’ the following day, he said, ‘I wasn’t even speeding,’ to which she replied, ‘No, in life, in everything, just slow down.’ I think too many times parents can see their kids heading down a path of destruction and never say anything in fear of rejection and resentment. I, for one, am glad that’s not the kind of parents I had, and I know Rowdy would say the same for his.” — Wes Bayliss, The Steel Woods
Artist:Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Hometown: Clarksdale, Mississippi Song: “662” Release Date: May 11, 2021 Label: Alligator Records
In Their Words: “‘662’ is an ode to my roots, a nod to the area where I was born and raised. This is a track that encompasses how a small corner of the Earth influenced my view of life and music. This song also points to the growth I have had since my debut album. As much as I have been fortunate to get ‘Outside of This Town’ [his breakout single], I do want people to know that the ‘662’ will always be a major part of who I am.” — Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
You may have heard The Band’s third full-length album, Stage Fright, but you’ve never heard it like this.
Released in August 1970, Stage Fright features two of the group’s biggest hits, its title track and “The Shape I’m In.” A year later, The Band embarked on their first European tour in five years after a regrettable outing backing Bob Dylan, during which folk fans booed the singer’s electric aspirations. Not sure what to expect, their 1971 European tour proved to be one of The Band’s most successful, as crowds all over the continent displayed frenzied adoration at their shows.
So to celebrate not only a classic album, but also the memory of a landmark tour, The Band has unveiled a 50th anniversary edition of Stage Fright. Its original multi-track masters are presented by Bob Clearmountain in a new stereo mix; guided by The Band’s Robbie Robertson, it’s also reissued in the originally planned song order. The set includes alternate versions of “Strawberry Wine” and “Sleeping,” plus seven unearthed cuts, compiled as Calgary Hotel Recordings, 1970, which capture a late night hotel jam session between Robertson, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel.
The expanded album also offers a wealth of previously unheard recordings from that tour. Presented on a second disc (a simple continuation on the digital release), Live at the Royal Albert Hall, June 1971, bears witness to what was truly a peak performance for a group loved and revered by so many. The 20-song set, originally recorded to a four-track tape machine, has been remixed and remastered for a clearer experience of the electrifying performance, providing fans an opportunity to be transported right back to London, 1971. Hear The Band perform classics from their first three records as well as covers of Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder with the deluxe 50th anniversary edition of Stage Fright.
Artist:Amy Helm Hometown: Woodstock, New York Song: “Sweet Mama” Album:What the Flood Leaves Behind Release Date: June 18, 2021 Label: Renew Records/BMG
In Their Words: “‘Sweet Mama’ was written by the wonderful Steve Salett and features killer harp by the one and only Phil Cook. This track is a rock and roll cut made for you, with love, in Woodstock, New York!” — Amy Helm
Artist:Bhi Bhiman Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri Song: “Magic Carpet Ride” Album:Substitute Preacher II Release Date: April 30, 2021 Label: BooCoo Music
In Their Words: “‘Magic Carpet Ride’ is such an instantly recognizable, iconic rock song, but I never realized the lyrics were actually about Aladdin and his magic lamp. The lyrics are super playful and I began playing it for my daughter, who I’ve been homeschooling during the pandemic. Country blues artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Blind Blake have played a big part in my evolution as a guitarist. And it’s still one of my favorite styles to play because it just feels so good. So I took a song basically everybody knew and made it feel like an old country blues song that Steppenwolf merely covered. And I think this version is so soothing to hear, especially as a parent in these times, when everything is uncertain, and we wish we could just float above it all.” — Bhi Bhiman
Artist:The Rose Petals Hometown: Nashville / Seattle Song: “They Say You Loved a Good Man” Album:American Grenadine Release Date: April 23, 2021 Label: Envoy Records
In Their Words: “This song is about Calvin Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 to 1929, apologizing to his wife, Grace, for his shortcomings as a husband. Grace and Cal were an unlikely pair, and her friends found the match quite unbelievable. She was warm, friendly, outgoing, gregarious, and cheerful. He was quiet, austere, deliberate, uncommunicative, and sometimes glum. The Coolidges lived happily together for twenty-eight years, but when Grace was asked, toward the end of her life, how she had come to marry her husband, she said, ‘Well, I thought I would get him to enjoy life and have fun, but he was not very easy to instruct in that way.’
“So, really this song is about regret. It’s about living your life with the best intentions yet still falling short of expectations. Musically we wanted to tap into that wistful vibe, so we borrowed a bunch of tricks from some of our older influences – acoustic 12-string from The Byrds, synthesizer from the ’80s records of Bruce Springsteen, and some Beach Boys harmonies to top it off at the end.” — Peter Donovan, The Rose Petals
Photo credit: Dan Destiny
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