With 92% of the precincts reporting, Hidden Track can now project that Umphrey’s McGee will carry the first volume of Cover Wars with 64% of the vote. String Cheese Incident and Trey Anastasio finished officially tied each with 18% of the vote. Now let’s move on to the next battle.

This week features six artists competing for the best cover of Stevie Wonder’s Boogie On Reggae Woman. This song comes to us off the 1974 record Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Here’s a look at the contenders:

Addison Groove Project: As you may recall, this now retired (but is any band ever really retired?) funk-fusion outfit from Boston has previously been mentioned on Hidden Track, by me, and about this song. AGP got a mention in my Top Ten Big Red sit-ins.

Legion Of Mary: LoM was Jerry Garcia’s side-band from 1974 to 1975 and featured Garcia, Merl Saunders (Keyboards, Vocals), John Kahn (bass), Martin Fierro (Saxophone, Flute) and Ron Tutt (Drums). This track comes to you from a ’74 show in Berkeley, Merl takes vocal duties, but Garcia’s guitar work starting around the 6 minute mark is definitely worth hearing. Read on for more Boogie On…

Marcus Miller: Bass player Marcus Miller has an impressive resume having recorded and worked with the likes of Miles Davis, Eric Clapton and Luther Vandross. Miller’s 2005 release Silver Rain features this Stevie classic, as well as covers of Edgar Winter Group’s Frankenstein and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Lady.

Pat Rhoden: This track is from the Trojan Soulful Reggae Box Set. It is a logical step to drop a reggae cover of a song with reggae in the title. I do not have a lot of background information on Pat Rhoden, I’ve got nothing actually, but you should really check out the compilation this track comes off of, a fun record.

Phish: Normally it was an up-tempo party cover in the cover repertoire where Mike Gordon could flaunt some funk bass skills mixed with some fun over-the-top effects. On a few occasions, the boys used the tune as a launching board for some musical exploration, see Chula Vista ‘99 [embedded above] and also check out the Alpine ‘04 version.

There’s no shortage of YouTube footage including full-length versions of Boogie On. Embedded is Roseland ‘00, also check out Hampton ‘03.

Ryan Montbleau Band:

This touring juggernaut quintet (they average over 200 shows per year) is no stranger to the good-time cover. The RMB also regularly trots out covers of: Led Zeppelin, The Talking Heads and John Lennon amongst others. Ryan’s talented soulful vocal abilities fit this tune especially well.