Write on Music's Dozen Covers to Love 2015

The best of people playing other people’s songs... These are Write on Music’s dozen covers to love from 2015:

“Come and Get It” – The Hollywood Vampires
Album: Hollywood Vampires (UMe)

To merit its inclusion here, this selection needs an alibi of sorts — this cover needs a “cover,” if you will: Originally a #1 US (#4 UK) hit by Badfinger as the theme to the 1969 Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr film The Magic Christian, the song was written by Paul McCartney when The Beatles were convening to record Abbey Road. While McCartney recorded a one-man-band demo at the time (which was ultimately released in 1996 on The Beatles Anthology 3), neither he nor the Fab Four ever released a proper studio version of this song.

And so that’s what qualifies this version of “Come and Get It” as a cover. But the synergy between McCartney and the Hollywood Vampires — the band includes Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp, with Macca’s drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. holding down the fort on this particular session — is what makes it magic. 



“(I'm A) Roadrunner” – Paul Weller
Album: Saturns Pattern (Warner Brothers Records/Parlophone)

The Modfather’s love of Motown is a fundamental one, infusing everything from The Jam’s “Town Called Malice” to solo cuts like “Above the Clouds” and “No Tears to Cry.” On this 1965 Jr. Walker & The All Stars rave-up, Weller brings a piano to the forefront (as opposed to the Funk Brothers’ primary guitar-and-saxophone combo on the original) which gives the song a bit slower but steadier pace — holding down the groove like the vintage chassis of a Detroit muscle car hugging the open road.



“Harper Valley PTA” – Squeeze
Album: Cradle to the Grave [Deluxe Version] (Caroline Records)

Life is simply all the more enjoyable when there is new music from Squeeze in the world. And the beloved British band certainly doesn’t disappoint with Cradle to Grave, which often recalls Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook’s quintessential chemistry as masterful pop songwriters even as it strives for fresh exuberance. The 16-song deluxe version of the album is the one to get, not least for its inclusion of a Difford-led acoustic cover of Tom Waits’ “I Don’t Want to Grow Up” and a full-band romp through this Jeannie C. Riley classic (written by Tom T. Hall), which with its storytelling lyricism and unbridled quirkiness sounds like it could’ve been yet another Squeeze classic in an alternate universe.



“A Spoonful of Sugar” – Kacey Musgraves
Album: We Love Disney (Verve Music Group)

Since hitting the big time with her 2013 LP Same Trailer Different Park (and its lead single “Merry Go ‘Round”), Musgraves has lit a spark (and a couple of joints, at least in her songs) under the male-dominated Nashville establishment, demonstrating the sort of serious craft and colorful kitsch that feels reminiscent of classic Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn records. Her talent and ties to such a fabled tradition continue to flourish on her latest album Pageant Material while, on this most-adorable rendition of the Mary Poppins gem, Musgraves is downright supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.



“Don't Think Twice, It's Alright” – Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard
Album: Django and Jimmie (Legacy Recordings)

Including a Bob Dylan song on a “best covers” list almost seems compulsory by now, but this rendition is more than a little special, and not least because of who’s doing the rendering. It was always a kiss-off song anyway, but here Nelson and Haggard evoke a shared wistfulness that could only come from each man having lived his own life on his own terms, tempting and sidestepping perilous, sacrificial fates with not always equal success. Call it reasoned contempt or maybe just chock it up to a certain kind of wisdom, but Dylan could not have foreseen such impressions emerging from this song back when he was writing it as a much younger man — at least not like this.  



“Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” – Allison Moorer
Album: Down to Believing (Entertainment One Music)

Whether she’s written a particular song or not, Moorer is better than most at getting to the essence of whatever emotion or experience she’s singing about. Maybe that comes from having a low tolerance for bullshit, or maybe it just comes from knowing what needs to be said and how to best get that across. Chances are she’s blessed with both attributes, and on this Creedence Clearwater Revival classic (written by John Fogerty), Moorer invests all of her soulful Southern heart and leaves you feeling like you appreciate the song, and maybe even yourself, a little better.  



“Up Above My Head” – Rhiannon Giddens
Album: Tomorrow is My Turn (Nonesuch Records)

“This is a pillar of American music,” Rhiannon Giddens told Write on Music last year in reference to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the too-often-unsung yet seminal vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist behind this and so many other groundbreaking songs. “It’s like, you cannot deny her influence and yet people don’t know who she is. That’s a problem for me because it continues to reflect the narrative of American music where the black artist is the innovator and then gets forgotten about.” Consider the inclusion and praise here of Giddens interpreting Tharpe with such sanctified jubilance — the performance is but one highlight of an album teeming with them — as a nudge in the right direction. 



“Peace Like a River” – Jerry Lawson
Album: Just a Mortal Man (Red Beet Records)

Pure and simple, 2015’s finest debut album was a half century in the making. As the lead vocalist of the legendary a cappella group The Persuasions for more than 40 years, Jerry Lawson has sung the works of, well, everyone — from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to Curtis Mayfield and Solomon Burke. Indeed the group, which got its big break courtesy of Frank Zappa in the late ‘60s, has also sung on albums by the likes of Joni Mitchell (Shadows and Light) and Stevie Wonder (Fulfillingness’ First Finale), among many, many others. 

Just A Mortal Man, released last April, is Lawson’s first as a solo artist, and it’s nothing short of brilliant. The man lives and breathes in these songs with consummate authenticity and soul, giving moments like “Time and Water” and the aching ballad “Loving Arms” a shiver of sheer vulnerability. To open the album and in some ways to set the tone for it throughout, Lawson gives Paul Simon’s “Peace Like a River” a renewed sense of gravitas and grace, instilling it with the resilience of one who has withstood time’s adversities to now stand triumphant.



“Love is the Answer” – Rumer
Album: Love is the Answer [EP] (Nightowl Records)

Over the past half-decade since her debut LP Seasons of My Soul (and its immaculate breakout single “Aretha”), Rumer’s gorgeous talent has entranced an ever-growing amount of listeners the world over, including some of the very artists that first inspired her own musical pursuits and passions. Both as a songwriter and an interpreter, Rumer (born Sarah Joyce) has often reflected a retro elegance in her music, whether inspirited by the works of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Jimmy Webb, or the ‘70s singer/songwriter scene in California’s Laurel Canyon. 

In fact, her sophomore LP Boys Don’t Cry found Rumer interpreting songs originally written by such fabled ‘70s singer/songwriters as Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, and Todd Rundgren, whose “Be Nice to Me” was among the album’s highlights. With the title track to her recently released EP Love is the Answer, Rumer revisits Rundgren with similarly breathtaking results. 



“Love Don’t Love Nobody” – Boz Scaggs
Album: A Fool to Care (429 Records)

“I can’t think of any genre of music that doesn’t fascinate me in terms of a vocalist and a melody,” Boz Scaggs told Write on Music in reference to the vintage R&B and the urbanized rock ‘n’ roll he performed on his 2013 LP Memphis. “A singer and a song is just a fascinating study for me.” A similar (and similarly rewarding) experiment continued with last year’s follow-up, A Fool to Care, which includes such standout interpretive moments as the Impressions’ “I’m So Proud,” Al Green’s “Full of Fire,” and, especially, this soul-coated masterclass of the Spinners’ “Love Don’t Love Nobody.” 



“Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word” – Diana Krall
Album: Wallflower (Verve Music Group)

As some moments chronicled the dissolution of lyricist Bernie Taupin’s first marriage, Elton John’s 1976 double LP Blue Moves was often somber to behold. Yet with her melancholic vocal tone and rich phrasing, Diana Krall takes that album’s most recognized track to new emotional depths. Where Elton sounds damn near desperate to hold onto what he’s got – “What do I do to make you want me?” – Krall sounds like the end is already a done deal. 



“Why Try to Change Me Now?” – Bob Dylan
Album: Shadows in the Night (Columbia Records)

Maybe there’s a connection between being able to write great songs and being able to recognize greatness in the songs of others. If so, Bob Dylan could safely be said to have singular insight on the matter, and with Shadows in the Night he not only underscores the craft of Sinatra’s repertoire but so too the emotional architecture he inhabited within it. At the same time, particularly in moments like this, Dylan brings his own baggage and, in ways not unlike those of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, summons a moment of utter transcendence.

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An Interview with Allison Moorer

Allison Moorer isn’t big on artifice, particularly when it comes to songwriting. “Certainly Top 40 radio isn’t exploring deep, dark emotions,” Moorer says of today's musical landscape. “And if they are—sometimes the rare thing breaks through and they do explore something like that—it’s so shrouded that who would know?”

It’s been twelve years since the release of her debut album, Alabama Song, which included the Oscar® nominated track, “A Soft Place To Fall,” from the Robert Redford film, The Horse Whisperer. Yet while her songwriting craftsmanship, unaffected lyricism and classic-country integrity garnered no shortage of critical praise, at a time when country music was most equated with the crossover, polished hits of Shania Twain, Moorer sounded about as modern (and, arguably, relevant) as an Alan Lomax field recording.

Despite the prevailing values of a record business that too often prizes fleeting style over enduring substance, however, Moorer has produced a superlative body of work. “I spent quite a bit of time writing these,” she says of the songs on her most recent LP, Crows, issued in February. A companion EP, Crows Acoustic, was released digitally last month, featuring six solo Crows performances (most of them played on piano), the consideration and craft with which they were composed evident throughout.

Also apparent throughout are moments of nostalgic reflection and, sadly, profound loss—when she was 14, Moorer (as well as older sister, Shelby Lynne) lost both parents when her father shot and killed her mother before turning the gun on himself—that resonate with unflinching honesty and grace.

You mentioned that you spent a while working on the songs for Crows. Does it usually take you long to write?

I just took my time. When I started writing the songs for this record I didn’t even have a label. So I was just writing because that’s what I do. I knew that I would make a record at some point or another. I probably wrote it over a year, year and a half, something like that. It’s easier for me than it used to be. I used to have to hammer at it more. I think as you grow as an artist, you learn your craft and you get better. At least that’s what I hope to do.

Do you ever surprise yourself with what you write?

Yeah, I surprised myself on this record. I had never written this much on piano before and I was really happy to get back to it. It’s my first instrument. I took a lot of years of lessons when I was little, but I always played by music. I never really played by ear. [Then] I didn’t play for a long time. And when I had access to a piano again, I started playing by ear. It opened a whole new world for me and it really, really opened up my songwriting. There are just things you can do on piano that you can’t do on guitar. Sometimes your hand won’t make a funny enough shape to get the chord that you want, but on piano you’ve got every note within an octave. So you don’t have to torture yourself.

It also creates a whole new sensibility for the listener.

A song like “Easy In The Summertime” would sound totally different on guitar. So I was really happy to explore that more than I ever have. I surprised myself a few times, for instance, on “Crows,” because it’s so weird and sort of wacky. It reminds of songs I used to make up as a kid, which I find absolutely joyous and I’m so glad I can still tap into that.

The EP version of “Should I Be Concerned," in particular, hits hard. It feels like a case study of depression.

It’s also got its tongue planted firmly in its cheek and I’m not sure if anyone gets that. It comes from a very real place, but it comes from that place where you just get so exhausted with yourself for wallowing in your own self-congratulatory depression that you sometimes just have to laugh and go, “God, could you please get over yourself?”

But that’s the kind of perspective you have when you’re in that state.

It’s that feeling you have when you wake up one morning, you’re having whatever thoughts you’re having and you go, “God, that’s not okay that I’m thinking that. Maybe I ought to talk to somebody.” A lot of people have been there. I certainly have. Plus, musically that’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written.

These songs are so visceral and lyrically powerful. Is it daunting to be that honest as a songwriter?

Sometimes it feels like getting naked in front of people you don’t know, but you have to have a bit of an exhibitionist in you to do this for a living, or to do it at all. There has to be some joy that comes from the thrill or rush of being that exposed in front of people. I am quite private so I guess it’s where I get my stuff out. It’s a strange relationship you have with yourself. I certainly don’t want to write songs that don’t have anything to do with who I am. So what are you going to do? If you’re going to write, you've got to write something. And if you want to be honest, you’ve got to be honest. I don’t want to write things that aren’t true to who I am. I may not actually enjoy doing it, but I do it. Sometimes it’s a bloodletting.

Is there a payoff for you, though, at some point?

Oh sure. If it’s a good song, who cares?

So even if it was a harrowing experience to have written, if a good song comes from it—

It’s worth it. Absolutely. “Goodbye to the Ground” was one that I remember specifically writing the second verse and, not to be a wuss or anything, but bursting into tears because I had a realization about my own shortcomings. It shook me. You’ve got to examine yourself to make art. You have to. It’s sometimes not pretty. And the art that I like isn’t always pretty.

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