Song of the Week: Haley Reinhart - 'Better'

As American Idol veterans go, Season 10 finalist Haley Reinhart has proven among the most compelling. First, she established a retro-pop groove with her stellar 2012 debut LP, Listen Up!, as standout single “Free” demonstrated mightily. Next, Reinhart collaborated with Postmodern Jukebox for a string of sultry, jazzed-up covers (like the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and Radiohead’s “Creep”), her performances oozing old-school charisma and vivacious sass.

Now she’s got her sophomore album, Better, with its exuberant title track picking up where her debut left off while infusing select influences (from R&B to torch-song bravado) she’s embraced since then. Reinhart deserves bona fide accolades at this point, not just for delivering on the promise she displayed on Idol but for challenging herself with decidedly wild-card projects along the way. Put simply, she was good to begin with, and now she’s—yep—better.

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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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Boz Scaggs: The Instinct of a Musical Survivor (Interview/Profile)

Call it intuition or a sixth sense or just faith in his own perception: Boz Scaggs knows when he’s onto something good. In a career spanning more than forty years he has explored virtually every genre of American popular song, producing a string of eclectic, innately soulful classics along the way.

“It’s not something that perhaps I knew when I started out doing this,” says Scaggs, “but having done it as long as I have I know when I connect my voice and the emotion of a song.” 

Such empathy imbues his most recent studio LP, Memphis (429/Savoy Records), which features a fiery mix of rhythm and blues, rockabilly, and soul—bread and butter not only for Scaggs but for the seasoned stable of musicians with whom he recorded it as well, including bassist Willie Weeks, guitarist Ray Parker, Jr., keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and drummer Steve Jordan, who also served as the album’s producer.

“The focus was definitely on the R&B side of things, but we were able to stretch it out,” says Scaggs, calling attention to a diverse set highlighted by relative obscurities (the Moments’ “Love On a Two-Way Street,” Tyrone Davis’ “Can I Change My Mind”) and outright curveballs (Willy DeVille’s “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” Steely Dan’s “Pearl of the Quarter”) amidst more familiar or otherwise traditional selections.

“Once we got our footing,” says Scaggs, “we felt like we could’ve done anything—any number could win, in a way—because the band sounded so great. We loved being in that room.”

The sessions commenced over three days at Royal Studios in the heart of Tennessee’s capital, where late producer and Hi Records founder Willie Mitchell, along with such soul singers as Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson, and Al Green, once churned out some of the most salubrious sides ever put to wax. In fact, Scaggs and company knocked out a stirringly faithful rendition of Green’s classic “So Good to Be Here” to yield one of the album’s immediate standouts, replete with the Memphis Horns punctuating its rhythm-thick arrangement. 

Perhaps because of the unassailable quality of some of these songs Scaggs is modest about his merits in rendering his own versions of them. “I’m not a real natural singer or musician,” he says. “There are a lot of other people who have a better musical instrument than I have. There certainly are a lot of other guitar players that have more facility—I just know that about myself. But what I do have is a lot of love. I really love this music.

“As an interpreter, as an artist, I really give a lot,” he adds. “I really work hard to find my place in this material.”

Arguably the album’s most resonant moment—where Scaggs’ talent best complements the character of a particular song—is on Tony Joe White’s masterpiece, “Rainy Night in Georgia,” which Brooke Benton most notably turned into a Southern standard in 1970.

“It’s really one of the finest-crafted songs I’ve ever done,” says Scaggs. “The chords are so beautifully constructed, and the song speaks so much to the emotion of those lyrics.”

Scaggs owns it from the very first words—“Hovering by my suitcase, trying to find a warm place to spend the night...”—his voice descending low to add a certain solemnity to one of popular music’s all-time-great opening couplets.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Scaggs marvels. “Like the first line of a great novel.” 

He betrays a sense of fulfillment in recalling the Memphis sessions, as if every bum note he’d ever hit in his life, every tedious moment he’d ever been hung up on phrasing or intonation, prepared him for the experience. 

“I have taken apart, endlessly, all these songs of these singers,” he says. “I know these styles. It’s because I’m really interested in this and fascinated by it, first of all at the vocalists, singers, and stylists themselves; then comes the music. I can’t think of any genre of music that doesn’t fascinate me in terms of a vocalist and a melody. A singer and a song is just a fascinating study for me.”

In familiarizing himself with the material and where it came from, Scaggs not only gained a richer appreciation for the craft of songwriting in general but, it seems, for his own such skills as well. 

He contributed two original songs, “Gone Baby Gone” and “Sunny Gone,” the latter of which actually dates back to his 1976 breakthrough album, Silk Degrees, and in its wistfulness is reminiscent of moments like “Sierra” and “Lost It” on his 1994 LP, Some Change. “I’ve been carrying that song around with me for quite a few years and just never really felt it had a place,” says Scaggs, who in recalling the stream of false starts and misconceptions that plagued its composition underscores the frustration he must’ve felt along the way. 

“I changed the melody in a part of the song, the bridge, because I just didn’t know what the song was about. I was singing one thing, like, in my head—this melody and it had a certain emotion—but I couldn’t find the words to fit. Then I wrote it and it didn’t make sense to me. So then I started rewriting it, and once I got into a rewrite it just went on and on and I’d think, ‘Oh, I’ve got it. I’ve figured out what this song’s about,’ then listen to it the next day and it had vaporized. It was gone.” 

It was Steve Jordan, in fact, who persuaded Scaggs to see it through, and the end result not only stands among his finest compositions to date but also serves to illustrate that the reward was worth the effort. 

The same could be said for Memphis as a whole.

“You get an instinct about what you’re doing,” says Scaggs, “and at some point you have insecurities about it, but you just keep working on it. Then you begin to have a little confidence and your instincts start paying off. Then you start getting in a groove.”

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An Interview with Suzy Bogguss

Suzy Bogguss knows a great song when she hears one, and in a career spanning three decades she’s recorded more than a few. As both a performer of her own compositions and an interpreter of works by such esteemed artists as Nanci Griffith (“Outbound Plane”), John Hiatt (“Drive South”), and Guy Clark (“Instant Coffee Blues”), she’s distinguished herself as one of country music’s most eclectic and versatile talents. 

All the while Bogguss gained invaluable insight to matters of craft and storytelling, knowledge which no doubt served her well in making her latest album, Lucky, on which she covers a dozen absolute classics written by the legendary Merle Haggard.

Suzy, did you learn anything about Haggard’s songcraft in making this album?

I think I learned a ton. I always thought that he was this really gifted, stream-of-conscious [songwriter who] sits down and [the songs] just all pour out, because they sound so simple..…  Once you get in there you find all the internal rhymes, the way that he turns it so that it sounds like an aw-shucks person saying it, but it’s absolutely sophisticated. 

It often takes a lot of work to make something seem simple.

Exactly. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been to school. Just as a singer, he really hits me as far as the melodies he writes. I love singing these melodies and some of them were challenging for me, being that he’s a dude. Guys have a different kind of range than females do as far as in the sweet spot of our voices before they thin out. So I had to dig down into some low notes that I hadn’t sung in a long time just trying to make sure that I kept it sounding like it was super-easy to sing. Because that’s the other thing that he does: He makes the melody so it’s very sing-a-long-able but when you actually sing the whole thing you’re trying yourself as a singer as well. 

Haggard often comes across as such a rugged guy, but his honesty and willingness to be vulnerable is a big part of his songwriting.

I think so, too. That actually presented a tiny challenge for me as well. For instance, in “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go” I really risked sounding like a whiny, feeling-sorry-for-myself broad, and I did not want to do that. I had sort of a little mini-movie playing in my head of a woman who was confronting this feeling that she was having and actually expressing it and saying, “Let’s talk about this, because it’s important that you know that I’m feeling this.” It’s not just about me taking it and whining about it. It’s me explaining it to you so that we can get this out in the open. That’s what I was trying to do with that song because it was really tempting to just play it sad because the melody’s so sad. Merle’s version is very sad, but for me I was like, “If I do that I’m going to sound too wimpy.”

Your version of “Someday When Things are Good,” coming from a woman, conjures up an entirely different perspective than Merle’s version.

It’s like I told my husband, “There’s some truth in a lot of these songs.” We’ve been married 27 years, which in the music business is a hundred. There are times when you’re just not in-sync with each other. There are times when you think, “Man, the only way that I can get out of this mood is to remember that I don’t have to stay here. There’s no way I have to stay here. I’m choosing to stay here.” When I was singing that song I was conjuring up those feelings of when you’re just contrary to each other. For some reason for a couple of days you’re just like, “I can hardly look at you.”

The variety of music you’ve made throughout your career—from recording country to jazz, from covering the work of other artists to writing your own songs—had to have provided a good foundation for interpreting these songs.

It did. I travel with a lot of these players that are on the record. We’re very in-sync with each other when we get in the studio, and they knew that I was wanting to give this the sort of flavor we have when we’re playing on the road. We tried to get a little bit of some of that flavor in there. I think you probably caught a little jazz in “I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink.” I always felt like there was some of that in Merle’s music as well. He had evolved and decided to incorporate some of that into his production through the years, especially in the ‘80s when he was using saxophone a lot. I tried to keep the real organic sounds on the guitar and the steel and everything, not using hardly any effects. 

Being that you’ve interpreted songs by the likes of Nanci Griffith, John Hiatt, Guy Clark, and now Merle Haggard, as a vocalist do you engage songs by other songwriters any different than ones you’ve written yourself?

I think I’ve gotten a little better at making them my own now. I listen to my version of “Outbound Plane” now and I think, “Oh my God, I totally ripped Nanci off.” I don’t like that feeling.… Even with John [Hiatt’s] version of “Drive South,” I had to sing that thing a million times to come up with a melody line for some of the high parts because he’s completely fearless. He’ll just screech out whatever he wants to, but I don’t sing like that. So I had to just sort of make stuff up to take it where I needed to take it. 

Overall, what was your biggest challenge in singing Haggard’s songs on Lucky?

I wanted them to feel as authentic as when he sings them. 

For more information on Suzy Bogguss, please visit her official website.

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Download Singer/Songwriter Anna Rose's Cover of Iggy & The Stooges Classic 'Gimme Danger'

Artists who are primarily songwriters in their own right are often uniquely qualified to cover the music of other songwriters, as if their compositional knowledge in turn is manifested as interpretive insight. 

Such is what singer/songwriter Anna Rose achieved first a few years back with Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” concentrating its latent, hectic energy down to an intense, primordial urge.

Now she conjures an aching, feral heat on a cover of the Iggy & the Stooges classic, “Gimme Danger,” drawing out the sense of foreboding underscored on the Raw Power original with piercing flashes of almost abstract, searing electric guitar.

With her latest album, Behold a Pale Horse, Anna Rose demonstrates a remarkable capacity to craft substantive, soulful songs which complement her resourcefulness as a vocalist. With “Gimme Danger,” she assimilates her voice to the song—and the result is just as stunning.

Download “Gimme Danger”:

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EP Review: Haroula Rose - 'So Easy'

Singer/songwriter Haroula Rose delivered one of 2011’s most charming debuts, These Open Roads, her reflective, mostly acoustic-folk songcraft coupled with an unaffected empathy in her singing endearing her as an artist of depth and considerable promise.

The five songs that comprise So Easy (released earlier this year) convey much the same charm while in some moments illustrating a bit more eclecticism, including broader sonic textures and some fuller-band arrangements. The title track, in particular, is an immediate standout with an irresistibly poppy, Beatlesque vibe, while “Only Friends” evokes the sort of wistfulness expressed in scenes of unrequited movie love.

With scarcely more than a piano accompanying her voice, Haroula Rose delivers a hauntingly beautiful, soul-clutching rendition of “Wichita Lineman,” distilling its underlying sense of lonesome desolation to its barest essence. Not only should this performance make the song’s composer Jimmy Webb proud, but it also deserves to be considered among its most definitive versions.

Altogether this modest set is reflective of an artist who is making good on the potential she displayed on her debut while growing more imaginative and confident with her talent.

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Album Review: Vonda Shepard - Solo

Fans of television’s Ally McBeal will remember Vonda Shepard as the vivacious blonde songstress in the piano bar, usually playing some timeless tearjerker (“I Only Want to Be With You,” “Vincent”) or a suitably poignant original (“Maryland,” “Baby, Don’t You Break My Heart Slow”) on occasion. Her smoky, soulful voice instilled in the hit show’s often-quirky storylines an empathetic perspective while essentially functioning as the musical conscience of Calista Flockhart’s romantically hopeful yet impressionable title character.

Shepard had achieved some prior success—in 1987 she reached the Top 10 with “Can’t We Try,” a duet with Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Hill—but the visibility afforded her week after week thanks to Ally was incalculable. And, in return, she flat-out made a great show even better.

Shepard likewise shines on Solo, which finds her (and her alone, hence the title) reprising some of her most familiar and compelling performances. A sprawling rendition of the Duprees classic, “You Belong to Me,” is an instant highlight. However, it’s on her own material—particularly “I Know Better” and “Soothe Me,” both achingly sensuous and intoxicating moments—where Shepard’s vocal depth and range are best revealed and ultimately most affecting.

Altogether, Solo is superb.

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Album Review: Various Artists - This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark

People who appreciate Guy Clark often point to the craftsmanship of his songwriting; his homespun, easygoing guitar playing; his stark, cut-to-the-chase lyricism. And that’s understandable. But if you want to comprehend the full depth of his artistry go ahead and let some of his songs begin to mean something to you. Let them get under your skin. Let them prey on your mind a while until you recognize some fundamental part of yourself in between their lines. Because a good song transcends the means and mechanics of its construction to speak to some sort of universal truth—and Guy Clark knows how to write a damn good song.

This is what has made him an influence on mentors and protégés alike for the past four decades, a distinction illustrated by a new compilation, This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark (Icehouse Music). Released on the occasion of his recent 70th birthday, the double-disc set features inspired renditions of some of the troubadour’s finest works by the likes of Willie Nelson (“Desperadoes Waiting For A Train”), Patty Griffin (“The Cape”), and Jack Ingram (“Stuff That Works”), to name just a few. Some moments are more compelling than others, like Vince Gill's poignant reading of “The Randall Knife,” and an achingly tender version of “Magnolia Wind” from Emmylou Harris and John Prine, but all of them are consistently heartfelt and make for a wonderful tribute to one of music’s most singular songwriters and storytellers.

 

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Album Review: Bog Seger - Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets

For casual fans who don’t already own both volumes of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Greatest Hits, this week sees the release of a worthwhile alternative in the two-disc retrospective, Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets (Capitol Records).

All the mainstays are present—“Night Moves,” “Still the Same,” “Against The Wind,” “Old Time Rock and Roll,” etc.—as well as two previously unreleased covers: a middle-of-the-road ride on Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” and a far more fun romp through the Little Richard classic “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Going Back to Birmingham).”

Unlike the Greatest Hits sets, this one includes classics like the original mono version of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” by the Bob Seger System and the Live Bullet double shot of “Traveling Man” and “Beautiful Loser,” which once and for all should've been mixed into one track as God and rock radio always intended.

What is perhaps most striking about this set, though—and this speaks more to Seger’s indelible impact on American music than it does anything else—is that at 26 tracks it still doesn’t cover all the hits. Though while a case could be made against one or two dubious inclusions—How did his rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” make the cut here, for instance, but not “Sunspot Baby?”—overall this retrospective is solid, like a rock.

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Album Review: Various Artists - ZZ Top: A Tribute From Friends

If a band’s influence is measured by the diversity of artists who sing its praise, ZZ Top must hold some serious sway. Because with rare exception, the ones who appear on ZZ Top – A Tribute From Friends are just about the least conceivable musicians one could imagine covering the Tres Hombres from Texas.

And yet most of these performances are not only worth mentioning but worth blasting at loud volume. Based on his eight-minute, whiskey-strong shot of “La Grange,” country maverick Jamey Johnson probably should just thank ZZ Top for the song and claim it as his own from here on out. He sounds like he's been singing it for years anyway.

Other moments that are perhaps less potent but nevertheless compelling come courtesy of Wolfmother and Nickelback (no joke), who clearly enjoy cranking out the grooves on “Cheap Sunglasses” and “Legs,” respectively. And as the only woman on hand, Grace Potter (with her band, the Nocturnals) turns the table on “Tush,” putting her own feisty spin on rock 'n' roll's ultimate plea for a piece of ass.

The obvious duds in this bunch come from the likes of Coheed & Cambria (“Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers”) and Filter (“Gimme All Your Lovin’”), whose performances are overshadowed by bloated and bombastic histrionics (or what they seem to consider “singing”). Thankfully such missteps are rare, because by and large this tribute rocks.

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Download Anna Rose's Cover of Arcade Fire's 'My Body is a Cage'

As she works on the follow-up to her debut album, last year’s Nomad, singer/songwriter Anna Rose has recorded a striking, sensuous cover of Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” which is currently available as a free MP3 download.

The way Arcade Fire plays it on Neon Bible, the song is fraught with manic, unnerving anguish; a nagging, clangorous thud incessantly ratcheting up the unease until an orchestral crescendo snuffs it out altogether.

Deconstructing it down to its rhythmic core, Anna Rose turns "My Body is a Cage" into something more carnal in comparison. The sonic chaos of the original is muted, yet its tension—like pent-up, erogenous longing—persists like a steady, pulsing ache for which there is no reprieve, much less a resolution.

In her live performances Anna Rose has covered tracks like “Jolene” (Dolly Parton) and “Manic Depression” (Jimi Hendrix), but “My Body is a Cage” is the first one of which she’s released a proper studio recording. It takes guts for an emerging artist to interpret a work by one of the most critically-acclaimed bands on the planet. And as with any cover, the minimum objective is to at least do it justice; this artist has not only succeeded in that but has put her own inspired stamp on the song as well.

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Pat Metheny Scales it Down On Acoustic LP

If all you knew about Pat Metheny’s music hinged on the perfunctory details of its genre (jazz, for the most part) and the artist’s instrument of choice (guitar, for the most part), listening to his latest offering, What’s It All About (Nonesuch Records), provides fundamental context to his craftsmanship if not a sweeping representation of his craft.

Known primarily for his proficiency and experiments on the electric guitar, Metheny scales down to an acoustic, solo setting on this album, its title coming from the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic, “Alfie,” just one of ten pop standards he interprets on this all-covers project.

The music in general assumes a rather somber, evocative dimension, which Metheny complements with intricate, often Flamenco-styled picking. Such subtlety allows him to take generous liberties along the way, magnifying familiar moments of songs (the opening notes of The Stylistics’ “Betcha by Golly, Wow,” the vocal progression in Carly Simon’s “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”) rather than indulging more-literal translations.

Other standouts include a lovely rendering of The Beatles’ “And I Love Her” and The Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays,” which Metheny draws out into a melancholy, near-desolate meditation.

And so if all you knew about Pat Metheny was just the basics, listening to him play on What’s It All About affords more than enough incentive to explore his catalog further. For those already familiar with his work, though, this should come as no surprise.

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Album Review: Artists Return to Fox Hollow to Honor Tom T. Hall

Wholesome songs about simple things can transcend generations to appeal to just about anyone; which is as good a reason as any why Tom T. Hall’s 1974 children’s album, Songs of Fox Hollow, has resonated with listeners of all ages for almost four decades.

The country music legend, known for such hits as “Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine,” “The Year Clayton Delaney Died” and “I Like Beer” was inspired by two of his young nephews who had visited his rural farm and home, Fox Hollow. Taken by the children's wide-eyed curiosities, Hall chronicled their adventures and perceptions as they explored the pastoral landscape and, in so doing, penned perhaps the most beloved work of his career.

In honor of this landmark album comes the just-released collection, I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow (Red Beet Records), featuring interpretations by a venerable host of folk and country artists.

The standout performance comes from Patty Griffin, whose expressive gifts as a songwriter herself no doubt influence the way she renders “I Love,” instilling it with near tear-inducing compassion. Other highlights include Tommy Cash’s rockabilly narration of “Ole Lonesome George The Basset” (in which he name checks his late brother, Johnny, just as Hall did on the original); Buddy Miller’s Southern-funky take on “Sneaky Snake,” with guitarist Duane Eddy revving the rhythm; and Bobby Bare’s poignant cover of “I Care,” which he imparts with just the right amount of empathy and encouragement.

Tom T. Hall even joins in on the fun, singing a bit with folk artist Fayssoux McLean on “I Made a Friend of a Flower Today,” a heartwarming gesture to end the album, which is no doubt a labor of love for everyone who contributed. Above all, I Love is a delightful tribute to some timeless songs and one masterful storyteller.

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Album Review: Cowboy Junkies - Demons

The original plan was for the Cowboy Junkies to make a record with their longtime friend, folk artist Vic Chesnutt. Tragedy intervened, however, when Chesnutt, 45, died by his own hand on Christmas Day 2009. And so what had been conceived as a collaboration ultimately took shape as a tribute, with the Junkies covering an album’s worth of Chesnutt’s songs for their latest LP, Demons.

The second installment of the band's four-part “Nomad Series,” following last year’s ambitious Renmin Park, Demons is both a masterful exposition of a gifted storyteller and, at its essence, a riveting Cowboy Junkies album.

While no strangers to taking considerable liberties with the works of others—think “Dead Flowers” (Rolling Stones) or “Sweet Jane” (Velvet Underground)—here the Junkies resist straying too far from Chesnutt’s original arrangements. 

Instead, they embellish upon their sound, adding a surge of guitar or an organ refrain as texture to their often-acoustic foundation like stuccoing the brick walls of a house. As such, moments of rustic, folk-influenced rock (“Strange Language,” “Wrong Piano”) complement ones touched by more of a somber, gospel grace (“We Hovered With Short Wings,” “See You Around”), eliciting altogether unique contexts and emotional dimensions. Lead singer Margo Timmins is intoxicating, her vocals on noirish, sweeping ballads like “Betty Lonely” and “Square Room,” in particular, assuming a dark and otherworldly allure. The final cut begins with a live excerpt of Chesnutt himself, the artist engaging his audience with a bit of off-the-cuff humor before the track segues into the Junkies playing “When The Bottom Fell Out” like a requiem. The juxtaposition is jolting, at turns recalling the source but also the poignancy behind these collected works.

“We felt that we owed him something,” Junkies bassist Alan Anton said last year of Chesnutt and the band’s wish to make a record of his songs. With Demons, they’ve done their old friend proud.

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Album Review: Derek Trucks Band - Roadsongs

Inspiration is an aphrodisiac in live music. It’s what makes the difference between a rote, paint-by-numbers performance and one that thrives in the moment; in which the musicians on stage feed off the visceral energy from the audience and, in turn, each other. That kind of inspiration runs all through Roadsongs, the new live double album by the Derek Trucks Band.

Brewing up a gumbo of electric blues, funk, and soul, the DTB dig into grooves within grooves to summon new layers of substance and many a potent moment. A wickedly churlish cover of “Down In The Flood”  is an immediate standout, with 31-year-old Derek Trucks maintaining a feral presence on the slide guitar. His abilities on the ax are breathtaking and here he consistently shines, but just as commendable is how he doesn't overshadow the other individuals on stage. Indeed, the DTB comes across like a band in the most authentic, one-for-all sense, with everyone playing for the benefit of the music rather than for that of any one musician.

Almost half of the setlist is culled from the band’s 2009 studio LP Already Free and the selections from it here (including “Down In The Flood") receive such stirring treatments that they arguably surpass their album versions. Vocalist Mike Pattison engages “Days Is Almost Done”  and “Don't Bother Me,”  in particular, with purpose and impassioned command.

“Key to the Highway”  and “Anyday”  find Trucks recalling his stint a few years back in Eric Clapton’s touring band, wherein Slowhand revisited his Derek & The Dominos days in depth for the first time in ages. At the time he was seen by many as the torch bearer for the late Duane Allman—who'd played an indispensable role on the Dominos’ shining moment, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs—but Trucks didn't seem to pay much mind. Instead, he walked on stage each night as one in a band of several, bearing an allegiance to the music at hand above all else.

On Roadsongs, it’s much the same story. 

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Album Review: Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood - Live From Madison Square Garden

It was deemed historic before it even happened. An evening with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood – both men legends in their own right, each man a veritable encyclopedia of rock history and influence – marked their first full-length concerts together in nearly forty years, harkening back to their fleeting brush of Blind Faith.

Chronicling their three-night stand in February 2008, Live at Madison Square Garden recalls Clapton and Winwood consummately rising to the occasion, delivering a heavy, blues-powered set of unqualified classics. From expected performances (“Can’t Find My Way Home,” “Presence of the Lord,” “Had To Cry Today”) to those less expected (Clapton with “Forever Man,” Winwood with Traffic’s “No Face, No Name, No Number”) to the ones that make your jaw drop (“Voodoo Chile,” “Them Changes,” “Little Wing”), it’s a revelatory live document. 

Consider it essential from one who was there.

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Album Review: Various Artists - In The Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2

2008 is serving as an optimum time for reassessing the music of U2. With the theatrical concert presentation of U23D, reissues of its first three studio LPs (Boy, October, and War) as well as the upcoming re-releases of that era’s companion live album and film (Under A Blood Red Sky and Live At Red Rocks, respectively), the Irish rock band has reintroduced (and remastered) its roots.

One of the most intriguing assessments of U2’s music this year hasn’t even come from the band itself, but rather from In The Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2, a covers album featuring some of the continent’s most preeminent talents.

Infused with indigenous rhythms and native dialects, the performances at times depart so boldly from the original versions that they merit intrinsic appreciation as opposed to comparative scrutiny. As such, the artists herein don’t deliver mere facsimiles of familiar songs; they render familiar songs into singularly inspired interpretations.

Of particular note, Angelique Kidjo injects “Mysterious Ways” with wise blood as her tenacious vocal runs against a joyous choir. On “Bullet the Blue Sky,” Vieux Farka Touré overlays stark percussion atop coarse harmonica riffs and a low lyrical cadence. And on the album’s most literal musical translation, Vusi Mahlasela turns “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” into something far greater than the sum of its parts, elevating the refrain, “you don’t have to go it alone,” into a mantra for his homeland’s extensive plight.

In fact, the facility of these artists to affect innovative and eclectic perceptions of well-known material is much of what makes this collection such a unique delight. The Soweto Gospel Choir perhaps best accentuates this on “Pride (In the Name of Love),” as they endow a song ostensibly about tragedy with transcendent energy and affirmation. In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 not only salutes U2’s music, but it symbolizes the resilience of a ravaged continent as well.

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Scarlett Johansson Covers Tom Waits, Gets Lost In Translation

A certain irony exists in criticizing the quality of someone’s voice when that person is singing songs of Tom Waits, whose gruff howls make one imagine Cookie Monster suffering from chronic emphysema. Nevertheless, Scarlett Johansson sounds downright abysmal on her debut album – a set of ten Waits compositions and one original – entitled, Anywhere I Lay My Head.

Whirring in a low, invariable drone, Johansson conveys a detachment that renders her timid at best and, at worst, lifeless. As well, her voice is processed with so much reverb that, instead of seeming exotic or ethereal, it just sounds awkwardly robotic. Even on her own creation, “Song For Jo,” she resonates to such an unremarkable extent that the track wafts into obscurity.

Not to heap criticism solely on Johansson’s vocals, the music warrants its own derision as well. Swathed in synthesizers and drum machines, each song sounds like the indulgent consequence of a shopping spree at Radio Shack. “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” comes off like a Depeche Mode outtake, its techno-throb diminishing this rambunctious rant to a disposable remix. The title track is underscored by what sounds like a toy keyboard running on a loop while a faux music box muddles a rudimentary version of “I Wish I Was In New Orleans” as if submerged in an echo chamber. “Falling Down” as well as “Fannin’ Street” both feature David Bowie on background vocals, but even he can’t save them from their soulless doom.

However, this album could have taken a different, ultimately more rewarding course. In 2006, Johansson contributed a coquettishly sultry performance of “Summertime” to a benefit album, Unexpected Dreams: Songs From the Stars. The production – voice and music – was unaffected, unpretentious, and uncomplicated or, in short, beautiful.

Had Scarlett Johansson approached Anywhere I Lay My Head in a similar way – perhaps by interpreting material with more naturalness and subtlety – she likely would have fared far better than she does. Also, in considering the songs she covers here, which favor more obscurities than classics, Johansson clearly admires the breadth of Tom Waits’ music. Unfortunately, her appreciation doesn’t translate to her yielding a satisfying album.

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EP Review: Anna Nalick - Shine

When Anna Nalick debuted in 2005 with Wreck of the Day, she exhibited distinctive talent as a singer/songwriter and maturity beyond her years. On intuitive and penetrating songs like “Breathe (2 A.M.)” and “Catalyst,” she conveyed in her voice a certain sway — a low, sultry tremble — that revealed as much vulnerability as it did emotional insight.

Now in the process of completing her forthcoming full-length album, Nalick meanwhile offers up a respectable, albeit concise, five-song EP entitled Shine.

The title track, which comes in both full-band and acoustic versions, is the obvious standout and clearly the primary reason behind this release. In a manner both direct and empathetic, the song encourages and comforts those who may have lost sight — amidst a world with more negative than positive influences — of who they are at heart. Nalick gets her point across with incisive lines like, “There are times when the poets and pornstars align and/You won’t know who to believe in.” The acoustic take on “Shine,” in particular, strips away all luster to focus even more on the words and their overall message.

Also included is a sparse and piercing cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ track, “Breaking the Girl,” which Nalick strikingly turns on its head. She sticks to Anthony Kiedis’ lyrical point of view, thus enriching the already-beguiling sense of this song.

Acoustic renditions of “Wreck of the Day” and “Breathe (2 A.M.),” both derived from their original forms on her debut, round out the set as valid and expressive performances rather than dispensable filler. All together, Shine further illustrates Anna Nalick’s emergent skill and sophistication as an artist, if only to a relatively brief extent.

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Album Review: Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever

Willie Nelson doesn’t mince words to make a point.

So when he sings “Louisiana,” the Randy Newman classic inspired by a 1927 flood that struck an eerily evocative chord in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Nelson modifies Newman’s sardonic lyrics to underscore the federal government’s incompetence in addressing this modern-day catastrophe. His voice warbling and weathered but unsparing in tone, he delivers an unembellished version of events:

President came down in his big airplane
With his little fat man with a notepad in his hand
President say, “Little fat man, oh, isn’t it a shame
What the river has done to this poor farmer’s land.”

In much the same way, whether on behalf of his country or his heart, Willie Nelson cuts to the bone, sounding authentic as ever on his latest album, Moment Of Forever.

The American music legend, who turns 75 this year, sounds like he still has something to prove and, with this effort, he succeeds. While interpreting ten tracks written by others, Nelson also contributes three original songs. Produced by Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon, the album works so well because the music accommodates Nelson’s vocal rather than distracting from it.

For instance, the title track and “Keep Me From Blowing Away,” both complemented by gentle acoustic guitars and piano, are among the most touching songs Nelson has offered in recent memory. Likewise, his performances on “Over You Again” and “Always Now” embrace a certain emotional vulnerability that makes him seem ironically resilient.

In addition to the aforementioned rendition of “Louisiana,” two other conspicuous covers stand out: Dave Matthews’ “Gravedigger” and Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody.” On the former, Nelson sounds as ominous as the shadowy music seething and swirling around him. On the latter, which runs nearly ten minutes long, he commands the pointed lyrics with such authority that this may indeed be the song’s definitive version.

Not to be eclipsed by darkness and dogma, Nelson displays his ubiquitous sense of humor on “You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore,” a self-penned tune on which he asks, “Did you hear the one about the dirty whore?” Of course, you probably won’t hear this one on your local country radio station.

All kidding aside, Moment Of Forever finds Willie Nelson in his element, singing quality material with absolute conviction. His distinctive ability to interpret a song that, in turn, gives voice to others, remains his greatest contribution to music.

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