Out of all the songs that Laura Marling could have covered from Bruce Springsteen’s vast catalog, we would have likely figured it would have been something from either of his stark acoustic records – the brilliant Nebraska
The track, which appears on The Boss’s mega-selling 1984 record Born in the U.S.A.
We’re just about to post my review of last night’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performance at the Beacon, but I couldn’t resist posting this incredible video of the group’s cover debut from Monday night’s Beacon Residency Opener. Watch as Petty and his band cover Willin’ by Little Feat…
Yesterday was Daft Punk Day on the internet as Random Access Memories finally hit the world wide web. It seemed as if everyone needed to make sure to get their two cents in whether they liked the album or just wanted to get it out there that they felt the album was all hype and no substance.
Connecticut’s the Stepkids got in on Daft Punk Day by releasing a jazzy cover of Random Access Memories’ first single – Get Lucky. The trio’s interpretation is incredibly smooth, but not in a cheesy Kenny G. type of way. We especially like the harmonies. Check it out…
[via @MKDevo]
Our buddy Sunil was down at Jazz Fest and has shared a couple of videos we think you’ll dig.
Supergroup Dragon Smoke was one of many incredible bands to play last week’s Fiya Fest. This group consists of Eric Lindell, Ivan Neville, Stanton Moore and Rob Mercurio. At their Fiya Fest set, Dragon Smoke was joined by a horn section that included Skerik. One of the songs the group performed at Fiya Fest was a cover of Landslide from Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous 1975 album.
Neville has sung the tune before during his solo piano set aboard Jam Cruise 11, but we like this reggae-tinged version of the Fleetwood Mac classic even better. Check it out…
On May 4 New Orleans’ Bonerama played a gig at Feret Street Publiq House in The Crescent City. During Bonerama’s set, the band performed a horn-driven cover of the Grateful Dead’s West L.A. Fadeaway that’s unlike any version of the song we’ve ever heard.
For the past two weekends the Crescent City has played host to the annual New Orlean’s Jazz & Heritage Festival. During their first-weekend set, Calexico paid tribute to one of New Orleans’ native sons – the severely under-appreciated Bobby Charles. The late singer-songwriter, who likely best known to HT readers for his appearance on The Last Waltz
Charles, who drifted in and out of music, released his highly recommended self-titled album
HT faves The Ryan Montbleau Band and ALO’s co-headlining tour came to a close in Boston on Sunday and as with all shows on the run, there was collaboration between the two acts involved. Last week we told you about the bands cover of Graceland and today we’ll hip you to ALO and Montbleau’s cover of one of the best songs ever written.
[Photo by Andrew Blackstein]
Starting last week ALO and Montbleau started collaborating on a cover of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads. The California-bred act and the Boston-bred singer continued to tackle the tune at each of their last gigs together including the Sunday night finale in Boston. Montbleau and ALO’s Zach Gill share lead vocals and their cover ends in a pretty cool doo-wop breakdown.
We couldn’t find a complete version on YouTube, but if you pair the two clips that follow together, you’ll get the idea. Plus, we’ve got audio of the whole tune. Check it out…
The annual MerleFest bluegrass-heavy music festival took place this past weekend in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. This was the first installment of the prestigious event since the passing of founder Doc Watson last May. The Avett Brothers, Gov’t Mule and Steep Canyon Rangers were just a few of the HT faves to play MerleFest this year.
We want to share a clip uploaded by YouTuber Josh Daniel of an incredible bluegrass arrangement of The Who’s Baba O’Riley from MerleFest’s Super Jam. The performance features The New Familiars and festival favorites Scythian, Donna The Buffalo’s Dave McCracken and the amazing John Cowan.
HT faves the Ryan Montbleau Band and ALO are currently on the road together for an eight-show tour that visited the Highline Ballroom in New York City last night. We had a feeling these groups would collaborate on stage and we haven’t been disappointed. At the first few shows the entire Ryan Montbleau Band has guested with ALO to cover Paul Simon’s Graceland.
On this version from last Friday night in Minneapolis, taped by Cliff Morse, Montbleau and ALO’s Zach Gill duet on the vocals, while Lebo adds tasteful pedal steel flourishes. Both bands aren’t afraid of improvisation, so a call-and-response segment turns into a furious jam. Take a listen…
Ever since The Four Tops released their hit single Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever in 1966, the Stevie Wonder / Ivy Jo Hunter penned tune has been covered by a wide range of artists that includes The Band, Phil Collins, Marvin Gaye and Eric Clapton. The latest act to throw their proverbial hat into the Loving You ring are HT faves Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers.
Bluhm and her band recorded a cover of the song, which is part of their live repertoire and a version of which was filmed for their Van Sessions series, for our friends at MoBoogie. Check it…
Earlier this month we shared the news that Mavis Staples will be releasing a new album called One True Vine, produced by Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy, that’s due on June 25. When the track list was revealed, we were excited to see a cover of Funkadelic’s Can You Get To That on there.
Can You Get To That is the second track on Funkadelic’s landmark 1971 album Maggot Brain. This wasn’t your typical Funkadelic joint as it was acoustic-based has a gospel feel. Staples’s iconic voice is almost hidden in her version of the tune, but comes out at the most opportune times. Check it out…
East L.A.-bred rockers Los Lobos released When The Circus Comes on their Kiko LP in 1992 and the tale of a longtime friendship gone bad still sounds as urgent and thrilling to our ears as it did 21 years ago. Recently Amy Helm and her band have taken to covering the gorgeous tune in concert.
This past Sunday Helm and band mates Byron Isaacs, Justin Guip and Dan Littleton played a special acoustic set at the Ringwood Library in New Jersey. Videographer Scott Gibson caught the Amy Helm Band’s beautiful version of When The Circus Comes that they laid down that afternoon…
Last night The Black Crowes’ Lay Down With Number 13 tour rolled into The Windy City for the first of two shows at The Vic. The band continues to slowly expand their repertoire for the tour and last night offered a surprise cover debut of a Rolling Stones classic.
The Crowes lit into their first-ever version of Jumpin’ Jack Flash out of Descending last night and video of the cover debut has already surfaced. Watch Jackie Greene rip it up as his mates “woo hoo”…
HT faves Widespread Panic concluded a two-night stand at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago last night, where they used part of their encore to pay tribute to Levon Helm and The Band. Panic has been covering Ophelia and The Shape I’m In since 1987 and 1995 respectively. JB and Co. paired the tunes up at an October 30th, 2009 performance in Austin, Texas along with another The Band cover they do – Chest Fever. Since 2011, with the exception of one show, Panic continues to link Ophelia and The Shape I’m In when they play the songs as they did last night in The Windy City.
Thanks to YouTuber faketaper we can watch exceptional video of last night’s Band covers…
Here’s the setlist from the Widespread Panic in Chicago finale…
[Photo by Kristin Murray, Image via PanicStream.com's Facebook Page]
Tonight, Widespread Panic celebrates John Bell’s birthday with a show in Minneapolis.
Last night was the first night of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival which was held at Madison Square Garden in NYC. The evening started with an acoustic set from EC and continued through the Allman Brothers Band’s six-song closing set. We’ll have more on Friday’s festivities soon, but we wanted to share an impressive covered delivered by John Mayer and Keith Urban of Don’t Let Me Down.
Urban and Mayer are mainstream stars who can still shred melodically and energetically on guitar. This version of Don’t Let Me Down, a song The Beatles recorded during the Let It Be sessions that wound up as the b-side on the Get Back single, offered plenty of opportunity for Keith and John to show off their skills. Thanks to LazyLightning55, we can watch it mere hours after the killer cover happened…
We love when young bands cover other young bands, so we were excited to see a tweet from SiriusXM’s JamON directing followers towards The Revivalists’ version of Madison Square by Lettuce. Madison Square is a bombastic tune that The Revivalists do justice. Pedal steel isn’t exactly an instrument you’d expect to hear on a Lettuce song, but it fits oh so perfectly. Sadly, Lettuce (or at least the person running Lettuce’s Twitter account) wasn’t as impressed by The Revivalists’ cover.
The Revivalists covered Madison Square on Lettuce’s home turf during a recent gig at Brooklyn Bowl. Here’s what Lettuce tweeted about the song choice…
We couldn’t disagree more. The Revivalists were paying tribute to Lettuce in their hometown and it’s a shame they don’t see it that way. You can’t match the power of Lettuce’s original version, so that band shouldn’t worry that The Revivalists will somehow steal their thunder.
UPDATE: Lettuce now thinks it’s an honor that anyone would cover them:
Lettuce drummer Adam Deitch reached out to us with a clarification, “I had been hearing from a lot of people that they (The Revivalists) have been playing our song at their shows. Their version is good and we are honored that they chose to cover it. I just thought it was more appropriate if you’re a funk band, to cover bands that are NOT still touring and playing the same version of the song. I went too far to call it stupid and I blame that on me just being pre tour stressed. More power to The Revivalists. I take it all back. Now my whole band is pissed at me.”
And just to show all’s good in the hood, The Revivalists’ front man David Shaw and four members of Lettuce sent over this shot from Pittsburgh, where Shaw and the Nigel Hall Band are performing tonight in support of Galactic…
Thanks to Sue Guthrie Harmon we can watch The Revivalists tackle a tune that ironically they introduce as being by “some friends of ours”…
