Cover Wars: A Decade Of Hits (1969 – 1979)

Owners of A Decade Of Hits may notice that I have taken the liberty of rearranging the track listing to reflect a chronological order throughout the albums. Here we go:

The Allman Brothers Band – 1969

The Allman Brothers Band

Dreams (Gov’t Mule w/Jimmy Herring & Chris Robinson): The angry words of Mule fans around the country when I left their favorite band off of the Houses of The Holy CW still haunt me in my sleep, so I am very happy to lead off this edition with a track from The Mule. All of Mule’s recent versions of Dreams have included a guest appearances of some sort, whether it was Robinson & Herring, Trey at the Higher Ground in April of 2005, and a few others guests too. This version comes off a 2003 show from Boulder, CO that is available on bt.eree.org

Whipping Post (Phish): To get the full effect of this you should listen to the preceding track My Left Toe and hear the segue into Whipping Post creep in. On many of the 36 versions prior Jon Fishman sang lead, but at Deer Creek ’99 Trey stepped up to the mic for a more traditional take on this classic. Whipping Post has not been played since (in the last 157 shows). I grabbed this show off of the Phish spreadsheet, it is a lower quality than the rest of the tracks this week (which I pull off of the LMA or bt.etree.org and convert to 320kbps MP3). If anyone has an upgrade over the 160kbps version of this show that is circulating, we here at HT would appreciate it…the entire show is amazing and nobody can find their old copies of it.

Idlewild South – 1970

Idlewild South

Revival (Ekoostik Hookah) Hookahville 2008 took place this weekend. This cover comes from the Hookahville 4 years ago that is available for purchase on DVD. The free route: You can also check out the whole show on The Archive

Midnight Rider (Jesse Money)
[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=kIGxQkk8A00[/youtube]

I go searching on YouTube for covers if I can’t find audio sources in the usual locations. I found plenty of versions of Midnight Rider, but none of them really stood out from the rest. Then I found this clip of Eddie Money’s daughter Jesse belting it out with her dad when she is (judging by the timestamp) either 17 or 18. You may also remember Jesse from the MTV Reality Show Rock The Cradle which featured the children of famous rockers. She was the first one voted off.

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Steve Kimock Band w/Pete Sears & Martin Fierro): On the description of this recording this show is billed as an “All Request Show”. I tried to research this but the News Archives on kimock.com appear to be broken, so I can’t find the exact info on how this went down. I can say that it appears to be the only recording of SKB playing this tune on the LMA (aside from being played in a soundcheck in another show). Check out this whole show on The Archive to hear what else was played by request.

At Fillmore East – 1971

At Fillmore East

Statesboro Blues (G. Love): The first of two songs on the compilation that are not ABB originals. Statesboro Blues is originally credited to Blind Willie McTell. I have included a solo rendition here by G. Love which doesn’t quite resemble the version played by the Allman’s, but whatever…Check out the whole SBD on The Archive

Eat A Peach – 1972

Eat A Peach

Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (Assembly of Dust): Reid Genauer lends his vocal stylings on this one. The band starts out a little hesitant, but gets it together quickly. I faded out what would have been an abrupt ending, as the encore segues directly into the Strangefolk tune Sometimes. You can of course hear that sequence in it’s entirety on The Archive.

Melissa (Of A Revolution): Well, this selection may anger a few of our readers…but I don’t care because these guys do a great job with it. You can hear the SBD of rest of the acoustic set (as well as the electric portion) on The Archive

One Way Out (The Bridge): This is the other track that is not an ABB original and the history of it, like a lot of blues songs, is a little jumbled. Best guess has the song being credited in part to Elmore James. The Bridge do a good job with the tune and you can check out the whole show on The Archive

Blue Sky (Phil Lesh & Friends): Warren Haynes is making two appearances this week. Seems fitting, as he was a member of the ABB from 1989 to 1997 and rejoined the touring lineup in 2001. This is my personal favorite lineup of Phil & Friends consisting of: Phil Lesh, John Molo, Rob Barraco, Jimmy Herring and Warren aka The Quintet. As The Quintet did with a number of songs, they split lead vocal duties with Warren taking V1, Rob taking V2 and Phil closing it out with V3. They also sneak in solos from both guitarists and the keyboardist. It’s worth nothing that Jimmy Herring, who plays on this track and Dreams with Mule, was also a touring member of the ABB in the year 2000 sharing lead guitar duties with Derek Trucks. There was nobody to help Gregg sing that year, but that duo of guitarists was fierce. This free SBD released by Phil is one of my favorites, and can be found on The Archive.

Little Martha (Leo Kottke): Beautiful.

[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=iQNCTJ6cUmI[/youtube]

Brothers and Sisters – 1973

Brothers and Sisters

Ramblin’ Man (Brock Butler of Perpetual Groove): I was a little confused upon first listen to this one, but then I remembered that Brock is one of those guys that will add depth to his solo performances by way of some sort of looping mechanism. This cover is certainly multi-layered and lengthy. This performance was a pre-party for Just Cruisin’ 2 and you can hear the rest of it on The Archive.

Southbound (moe.): Though dubbed as the Vinnie Amico experience at the intimate Revolution Hall in Troy New York, it was actually a full moe. show. Vinnie takes lead vox duties (it being his old stomping grounds). moe. has ripped through this tune a few other times including once with former (before he was fired via fax) Allman Brother Dickie Betts. Betts sat-in at a post-Phish show in Las Vegas that also featured Mike Gordon. Check out the whole show from the Rev Hall on The Archive

Jessica (Umphrey’s McGee): Closing out this week’s edition will be that entry that you can’t vote for. Why? Because UM was the winner of last week’s Every Breath You Take: The Police feature. UM also won the very first Cover Wars (Abbey Road B-Side) and the Making Flippy Floppy edition. As Mr. Blotto has already learned…you win three times and we remove your name from the voting…errr…for a little while.

Though you cannot vote for it, it’s a well-performed and mostly true to the original cover here from UM. This is one of the tunes in the repertoire where Jake Cinninger yields the shredding solo over to stage-left and gives Brendan Bayliss the honor of lighting up the guitar improv. This is coming off a run of two shows at the Fox Theater in Boulder which quickly became fan favorites. This one’s from night two of the run, and afree Matrix is available on The Archive. Why not, here’s night 1 too

That’s all we got. If you’ve made it this far, be sure to place your vote at the top of the blog if you haven’t already.

I’ll leave you with a few covers that did not make the list:

Frank Zappa does Whipping Post:

[youtube]-TItmXT8DkM[/youtube]

Bo Bice doing Midnight Rider:

[youtube]mxocMtJ3x2M[/youtube]

Gregg plays Melissa with the Dave Matthews Band

[youtube]kV18QRFfxiM[/youtube]

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9 Responses

  1. “One Way Out” was written by blues great Sonny Boy Williamson. Therefore, by definition, that is not an “Allmans cover.”

  2. even tho Gregg didn’t write One Way Out, if you compare the original lyrics and music you will see a vast difference. Gregg has a habit of rewrting these old blues songs.

    by the way, much thanks for the great music!

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