Last week’s Radiohead Cover Wars was one of the most popular to date. Eleven of the 16 artists received votes, but Gov’t Mule by a large margin received the most for their renditions of Lucky and Creep. In 2nd place was the Benevento Russo Duo and their four contributions. It was a fun one to put together.

This week, I take a look at another Jimi Hendrix classic that has been performed by an interesting collection of artists. I believe this edition features more pop artists than any of my prior pieces. A few solo performances and a couple of very original arrangements of this 1967 single from Jimi are below.

As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length clips and not 30-second snippets.

READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…

Gov’t Mule: According to MuleBase, this was played only once by Mule, and it was on 12-31-2002. Audley Freed on additional guitar and Greg Rzab on Bass. Source: Mula Rara – A compilation of rarities

Jamie Cullum: Cullum is the first of many pop artists this week. He’s the only piano player though, and though I’m pretty unfamiliar with his career…I was watching a few YouTube’s this week and I think he’s a really talented musician. Nice horn lines in this cover too. Source: Twentysomething

High-energy live footage of Cullum:

Also, the music video of the studio version included in the playist:

John Mayer: We all know that John Mayer and Dave Chapelle taught us that white people like electric guitar. Mayer throws a bunch of covers into his live sets, including a couple of Jimi Hendrix tunes. Source: 7-10-2008

Video footage of Mayer doing Bold As Love and Wind Cries Mary:

Keller Williams: Sometimes it’s hard to tell when you just have audio, but this sounds like Keller is playing one of those Charlie Hunter 8-string guitar gadgets that have both bass strings and an electric guitar portion. Source: 5-6-2005

A brief clip of Keller at Langerado performing the tune:

Marc Ribot: Sure, there’s not a whole lot of variation in the renditions this week. No six-minute guitar solos, no techno jams thrown in the middle but we do have Marc Ribot’s cover which shares very little with the original. I’d say the only part of the Hendrix tune represented here…is the lyrics. Source: Rootless Cosmopolitans

Martin Sexton: The pride of Syracuse delivers another solo performance to the collection this week. Jamie Cullum…John Mayer…Martin Sexton – what is it about this tune that drew all of these artists to cover it? Source: 8-18-2006

Video footage of Sexton:

Scarecrow Collection: What’s interesting here is that this seems like what I call a cover-of-a-cover. Listen to the drum intro and the interlude: It’s the Jamie Cullum arrangement. Source: 9-16-2006

Trey Anastasio: Rumors circulated this past week that Trey will be hitting the road with Classic TAB this October. I hope this is true and I hope we see the reappearance of some of the covers that haven’t been played by Trey in 9+ years, like Bell Bottom Blues. The version included here is the first performance of Wind Cries Mary by Trey and the crowd reaction is great. Source: 5-10-1999

Xavier Rudd: Closing out our collection this week is the Australian multi-instrumentalist Xavier Rudd. Sounds like a lap-steel but I’m not 100% on that. Source: 7-26-2005

And to top it all off, here’s a couple live videos from Jimi Hendrix:

Stockholm 1967:

Monterey 1967: