Sunday, October 24, 2010

Covered in Indiefolk: Subterranean Homesick Blues
…with an EXCLUSIVE track from the newest Dylan tribute!





You may not recognize the name Jim Sampas, but true-blue coverfans know his work: as the guiding light behind two of the decade’s strongest album-centered tribute albums - turn-of-the-century alt-country-to-popfolk Springsteen tribute Badlands and 2005 indie Beatles tribute This Bird Has Flown - the producer has made an unparalleled mark on the evolving world of coverage. Recently, Sampas started new label ReImagine Music as a vehicle for his ongoing pursuit of all things coverage, and his first solo project, Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’, hit the ground running a few weeks ago with a bang, netting well-deserved, highly positive coverage in major print and web outlets from Rolling Stone and Paste to The Boston Globe and NPR.

Thanks to Jim, I managed to get my paws on the album a few weeks before its release, and though I’ve noted it in passing here, I haven’t really given it its due. Instead, I’ve been biding my time, working with Jim behind the scenes to net permission to post an exclusive track for our readership, and - not incidentally - forging a mutual appreciation society along the way, built on our common tastes, a shared love of coverage, and our strong support for indiefolk and alt-country artists.

Today, we present the fruits of that effort, and I think you’ll find that it’s been worth the wait. Because now, with both Jim and the Dylan folks fully on board, Cover Lay Down is proud as punch to present a close look at this stunning tribute and the artists it features, along with a track you’ll find nowhere else on the web.



Covering Dylan well enough to spark a coverlover’s interest is tougher than it looks. Truly, I have more Dylan covers than any other; to stand out in the crowd, any album which attempts to take on the works of this generation’s most defining musical poet is going to have to hit hard, and stay long.

Where the I’m Not There soundtrack - the second-most recent Dylan tribute on the market - aims for melodic success, the artists chosen for this October’s Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” take risks, pushing the original tunes farther, exploring their potential in new and nuanced ways, and the strategy pays off handsomely. The resulting collection yaws wider than most tributes, but it also delves deeper, making for an exceptional album worthy of every name involved.

The collection starts dark, with Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn and John taking on the tribute’s title track as a creaky, almost terrifying jaunt through dark Halloween streets. From there, it trends fluidly from technodreamy (The Castanets’ Maggie’s Farm; Asobi Sesku’s Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream) to majestic stripped-down singer-songwriter alt-country and indiefolk (Helio Sequence’s Mr. Tambourine Man, Sholi’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue), covering a full range of sunny-but-ragged retropop (Julie Doiron’s On The Road Again, DM Stith’s mariachi-tinged Gates of Eden), frantic alt-countrypunk (Franz Nicholay’s busy banjo-driven It’s Alright Ma), and more haunting, atmospheric songcraft (Mirah’s Love Minus Zero, Ane Brun’s slow, oddly synthesized She Belongs To Me, the etherial harmonies of The Morning Benders’ Outlaw Blues) along the way.

But although the 11 songs which Dylan originally selected for his seminal album make for a fine ride, as others have noted, it’s the bonus tracks here which will most effectively tempt the average folkfan. Five songs, from J. Tillman’s heartbreakingly slow alt-country ballad If You Gotta Go, Go Now to stunning treatments from Laura Viers and William Fitzsimmons, cap off the sequence; taken as an EP extra, the short set is quite possibly the best tribute album to come down the pike all year. And if you purchase from iTunes, you’ll find it followed by another trio of tunes, an iTunes exclusive set featuring tracks from Matthew Ryan, Graham Parker, and Bill Janovitz, which bring gravitas and grace to Forever Young, License To Kill, and Boots of Spanish Leather - making nineteen in all, and nary a dud among them.

The winding path makes for an exquisite journey, chock full of potent musicianship and transformative revisioning. These are artists I love, many of them at the top of their form as both interpreters and performers. And though I recognize the strong temptation to pick and choose from digital albums, the ebb and flow sequence is strong enough to recommend picking up the whole set.

And the track order is inspired, though it’s less important in a digital release; being a folkfan, I especially like the run in the middle of the album from Mirah to Doiron, and then at the end from Witmer to Fitzsimmons. But notably - and exceptionally rare, for a tribute album of this scope - even the songs I like least are worth listening to more than once. There’s an interesting urgency in Mr. Tamborine Man that I’ve never heard tried before - it’s quite evocative. And the way the Ane Brun cover slowly coalesces out of the disparate organ and tape hiss beat atmosphere is beautiful, though it’s not her best work by a long shot.



Sampas let me pick from the lot to feature here, and it speaks to the overall success of the set that selecting just one was an agonizing choice. The Morning Benders leaked Outlaw Blues early in October, free to download in return for the usual email address; I had high hopes to share the Fitzsimmons hushed version of Farewell Angelina, but it’s selling well, as it should, and I have no desire to undermine sales for this album. I almost went for the Viers at the last minute, too, and highly recommend the Mirah and J. Tillman tracks, especially, for those whose tastes trend towards the acoustic.

But truly, though there’s so many sensational tracks on this tribute, I’m thrilled to be given the choice to present the album’s sweet take on I’ll Keep It With Mine, one of my favorite Dylan compositions. Denison Witmer’s ringing, maudlin tones are transformative - perhaps in a more subtle manner than some others on the album, but subtle is an easily overlooked virtue in the world of coverage. And Cover Lay Down shares a special bond with Witmer, continuing to serve as the only artist-authorized place on the web where you can find his five-song set of lo-fi folk covers produced to help promote 2008 release Carry The Weight.

So here’s our exclusive teaser, plus that free download of Outlaw Blues, in hopes that you, too, will follow its path to both album and artists. Enjoy, and remember: you heard it here first.




Looking for more? I was tempted to follow this week’s exclusive track with a set of more Dylan coverage, but truly, this album is as much about the artists, and the producer and label-owner, who have come to the table with vision as it is about the songs themselves. So here’s a split list: some earlier covers from more artists featured on Subterranean Homesick Blues, followed by a bonus triplet of tasteful and tasty favorites from Sampas’ previous projects.



Bonus Jim Sampas-produced tracks:



Cover Lay Down presents new coverfolk features and songsets twice weekly. So bookmark us, or add us to your feedreader, to keep tabs on the world of coverfolk - what’s new, what’s worth revisiting, and what’s coming down the pike - including future notice of ReImagine Music’s next project, an alt-country tribute to the Rolling Stones starring Great Lake Swimmers, Cowboy Junkies, Handsome Family and more!

Posted by boyhowdy at 9:54 am | 0 comments
Labels: Compilations & Tribute Albums, Denison Witmer, Tribute Albums

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Covered in Folk: Stevie Wonder
(Livingston Taylor, Matt Ryd, Madeleine Peyroux, Petra Haden & more!)



After 25 Grammy Awards and just about as many albums, Stevie Wonder needs little introduction. Signed to Motown Records at the tender age of 11 after being discovered by Ronnie White of the Miracles, the blind-from-infancy multi-instrumentalist’s first two albums didn’t make much of a splash - his sophomore outing, a tribute to the songs of Ray Charles, is notorious for the poor match it makes between “Uncle Ray’s” world-weary lyricism and “Little” Stevie Wonder’s sunny, high-pitched innocence - but his subsequent work as a composer, singer-songwriter, and arranger is legendary.

Fifty years later, his sweet soulful voice permeates our musical map like only a rarified few. And though most of us can’t sing ‘em too well, I suspect you’d be hard pressed to find even the most amateur audiophile who could not identify at least a half-dozen of his numerous greatest hits from the first few funky notes or sweet synthesizer strains.

Somewhat surprisingly, however, collecting Wonder’s works through coverage is another matter altogether. I’ve been trying to put together this post for a few months now, but despite the fact that the Stevie Wonder songbook is thick in the cultural consciousness, his songs seem to be sorely undercovered, especially in the folkworld. Much of this may be related to the notorious difficulty others have found in interpreting his vocals - as his Wikipedia entry rightfully notes, Wonder’s highly developed sense of harmony, his tendency towards complex chord extensions, the unpredictable changes in many of his melodies, and his unusual preference for sustaining syllables over several notes, make his songs a challenge to own, and even more of a challenge to cover effectively without sounding like a poor imitation of the real thing.

Still, love songs are ever-attractive to the acoustic interpreter, and Wonder’s got more than a few direct, plaintive gems in his catalog. And certainly, an artist of Wonder’s stature and output provides no small temptation to those hoping to make their mark through reclamation of those familiar tunes.

Which is to say: though the man’s presence and prowess make him long overdue for a strong, well-crafted acoustic tribute album, it is ever our position at Cover Lay Down that no song is uncoverable, and - as if to prove it - in the past fifteen years, a few brave and hardy souls have not only chosen to try, but have managed to recraft the Stevie Wonder songbook successfully. Here’s a few folk and/or folkified favorites I’ve found along the way that make me smile.



Cover Lay Down posts your favorite new and newly-rediscovered coversong collections twice weekly, sometimes more.

Posted by boyhowdy at 11:01 pm | 5 comments
Labels: Covered in Folk, Stevie Wonder

Monday, October 18, 2010

An Intimate Evening with We’re About 9
(Saturday, October 23 @ Monson, MA)





If we ever had doubts about the potential success of running a house concert series in a town of 8,000 people, this season’s offerings have put them firmly to rest. After two years, A Tree Falls Productions has moved on to bigger pastures, thanks to the nice guys who run the B&B at the top of our local food chain, and the cascade effect has been miraculous: our guest list has grown larger, our draw is bigger, and the local building inspector has started sniffing around, trying to decide if our little private occasionals are worth his while.

It doesn’t hurt that we’ve been blessed with not one, but two strong performers in the past few weeks alone. I never truly pushed our late September Chuck E Costa show here on the blog, mostly because his utterly gorgeous performance of Chris Smithers’ No Love Today that evening was the first cover he had performed in a long, long while, and we’d already posted his single studio cover - a take on Mark Erelli’s political folksong Hollow Man - way back when we first discovered him last Spring. But this coming Saturday’s visitors have recorded several covers, and I’ve got a bootleg of another from last year’s Falcon Ridge Folk Fest which the band probably doesn’t know exists. Without any further ado, then: here’s a total teaser, with hopes that, once you hear ‘em, a few of you out there might be willing to join us for an intimate evening with We’re About 9.

Formed in a Maryland parking lot at the turn of the 21st century, contemporary folk trio We’re About 9 have built a vast and dedicated fan base through down-to-earth charm, an engaging stage presence, and an approach to music that the band describes as “short format fiction, large format harmony”. Their quirky, literate writing, catchy, hook-laden songcraft and robust harmonies have brought them strong critical recognition from the most trusted voices in folk radio, and acclaim in mainstage sets at Clearwater’s Hudson River Fest, Philadelphia Folk Fest, Mountain Stage, and countless clubs and coffeehouses nationwide.

Their newest album, a collection of 14 previously released fan favorites aptly titled Amalgam, was released this summer at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, where they were voted “Most Wanted” in 2002, and where I’ve seen them numerous times: on the mainstage, at the workshop stage, wandering the vendor tents like minstrels. But my favorite sets have been the latenight ones, up on the hill in the wee hours. Brian, Katie, and Pat are truly at their best in an intimate setting, up close and personal, where their voices reach out to you and you alone in the dark, and the stories they craft start to crackle like the diary entries of an inner child, scared and joyful and wide-eyed with wonder at the world in all its raw detail.

Which it makes me that much more excited to be presenting them in our friends’ carriage house this coming Saturday. And yes, you’re invited, too, if you can make it.

Most folks in-state have never heard of our tiny town, but Monson is less than an hour from Hartford, Worcester, and Northampton; we’re just minutes from Springfield, and right off I 84. 40 seats are already spoken for, but we’ve got room for a few more, with or without a hot dish for the pre-show potluck, which will once again feature gourmet appetizers, seasonal salads, savory crockpot delights, and the best pies in Monson. And Brian’s even promised a whole mess of new and revived coverage just for us.

So if you’re within driving distance, and free the night of October 23rd, let me know ASAP via email, won’t you? Here’s a taste of what’s to come:




We’re About 9: Northern Cross (orig. Leslie Smith; pop. Cry Cry Cry)

Posted by boyhowdy at 5:24 am | 0 comments
Labels: House Concerts, We're About 9

Saturday, October 16, 2010

New Artists, (Re)Covered: Still-Rising Stars
Ruth Notman, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Fort DeClare & more!

The mailbox is stuffed to the gills with sweet sounds from artists we first noted as new and rising stars - a validating turn of events, proving that the young songwriters we feature in our New Artists, Old Songs series and elsewhere really are the next generation of folk music. Today, we celebrate our prescience with a look at the newest output from some increasingly familiar under-thirty voices, each well worth keeping on the radar screen.



Though we featured her famous families early in our incarnation as a folk coverblog, we first noted the emergence of Lucy Wainwright Roche when she appeared at Falcon Ridge Folk Fest in the summer of 2009. Back then, Lucy was newly committed to the music world, having hit the road in ‘07 as a backup singer for brother Rufus after finishing a Masters in Ed., then going on to record a sweet pair of 8 song EPs; since then, she’s cropped up at least once more, thanks to an etherial duet with her father on his double-disc tribute to Charlie Poole. And now, with the release of her debut album Lucy, the youngest member of the Roche/Wainwright clan comes fully into her own.

But those who love her work with father Loudon, half-sibling Rufus, mother Suzzy of The Roches and others need not be dismayed: all appear on the aptly-titled album, along with the Indigo Girls and fellow Falcon Ridge Most Wanted showcase alums Girlyman. Lucy, which also includes a surprising hidden-track cover of Elliot Smith’s Say Yes recorded with nasal NPR stalwart Ira Glass, is a tour de force of wry, concrete songwriting, mixing her parent’s observational prowess with her own innocent voice and youthful optimism. See if you can identify the harmonies in this gorgeous new album-closing cover, then head over to Signature Sounds to sample and purchase Lucy for yourself.

Bonus tracks:

Previously on Cover Lay Down:
Lucy Wainwright Roche duets with her father on classic tune Beautiful



Like fellow new britfolk sensation Kate Rusby, Ruth Notman came to me through my own blog, via a Brit Femfolk guest post three summers ago while I was away at my annual folk festival journey; though our guest poster Divinyl, once a stalwart of collaborative music blog Star Maker Machine, has long gone absent from the web, Notman herself remains a voice to listen for, cranking out more and more sweet and tender music as she approaches her early twenties.

In the past year, in fact, Notman has recorded not one but two wonderful coversongs: a truly great recapture of Fairport Convention’s 40 year old french version of Dylan’s If You’ve Gotta Go, Go Now released last fall on her newest album The Life Of Lilly, and an even more recent take on the well-covered theme song to Weeds, recorded for a Pete Seeger tribute on BBC Radio 2.

Bonus tracks:

Recently on Cover Lay Down:
Ruth Notman covers Dougie MacLean’s Caledonia



Teenage sensation Sam Ramos, a.k.a. Fort deClare, made a splash here on Cover Lay Down just a few months ago with an exclusive look at his first recorded coverage tryptych; now he’s back with more of the delightful lo-fi indie electrofolk which won our hearts the first time around. Still delicate, but increasingly well-balanced in production and tenor, the new songs only reinforce our fandom, and their selection speaks loudly and clearly of Sam’s influences. With its thick, layered atmosphere and gentle repetitive elements, fans of Vashti Bunyan, Bon Iver, Sam Amidon, Iron and Wine, and that early Morning Benders covers album will find this an especially vibrant set - and Elise Krepcho’s vocal turn on Train Song beats Feist’s, too.



Meanwhile, with Christmas just around the corner, it’s great news indeed to find our favorite Sufjan-meets-Denison Witmer singer-songwriter Joel Rakes gearing up for another festive.mood.inducing.music holiday coverage sampler. This time, however, he’s looking for our input, letting fans vote to influence his yearly selection. And I’m thrilled to have a chance to advocate for both songwriter and song selection in one fell swoop.

We’ve featured the Philly-bred artist for several years running, thanks to his fun yearly takes on the classic hymns of the season; he’s sure to revisit some oldies this time around, too, but I’m gunning for some stripped-down coverage of more modern songs, like Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Won’t you help this coverblogger’s Christmas dreams come true? Head over to Joel’s blog to vote now, and pick up his newest full-band EP The Philadelphia Sessions, recorded just before his move to Nashville late last year, while you’re there. Here’s a pair of older Xmas covers to whet your whistle:



Finally, word of new work from local alt-country folkrockers Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers is always good news, and though they’ve already finished their swing through the lower half of the country, I’m happy to note that their Fall tour will soon bring them back to my own neighborhood as they continue to promote their newest record The Bear, which comes highly recommended. Kellogg himself is an over-thirty, and there’s nary a cover on The Bear, but the addition of fave young folkpop-slash-bluegrass sensation Sara Watkins on this very recent, somewhat raw live Townes Van Zandt* Rolling Stones cover, recorded from the crowd just last week in Pittsburgh, bring it into our under-thirty mix today.



*This version of Dead Flowers was sent along to Kellogg’s mailing list labeled as a Townes cover; it’s certainly derivative, but we know better, don’t we…

Posted by boyhowdy at 1:55 pm | 5 comments
Labels: (Re)Covered, Joel Rakes, Lucy Wainwright Roche, New Artists Old Songs, Ruth Notman

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

REPOST: Cindy Kallet Covers
Dylan, Springsteen, Dougie MacLean, James Taylor, Judy Collins & more!

We’re running tight against deadline this week, thanks to an increasingly hectic fall schedule; it’s ten pm and I’m still wearing a tie, if that’s any indication of how my day has gone. So although the mailbox is full to the brim of delicious new folk coverage, we’re pushing new content to Sunday, choosing instead to revive a first-year golden oldie featuring a favorite artist whose gentle way with song always soothes me when the world starts blurring by.



There’s something of the sea in the songs of Cindy Kallet: something of the honesty and intimacy of water and stones and the wild shorebirds, something of the tight-knit communities and strong, silent families of the New England coast she loves so much. It’s there in her lyrics, which speak of the small moments of hope and love and laughter that make life rich and worth celebrating. It’s there in her craft, which combines simple, heartfelt, unadorned elements — a crisp, pure alto, an almost classical guitar sound, the rich harmonies of friends – in skillful, effective ways. And it’s there in her style, which echoes the older folkways of the sea shanty, the Celtic folk ballad, and post-Puritan shape note singing.

Cindy Kallet’s music is folk in a traditional sense, unpretentious, unproduced, grounded in place and nature and community, celebrating a simpler life. It is of a particularly New England coastal school of music, of a mind with the work of Gordon Bok and a few select others who spend as much time building boats and serving community as they do performing and crafting songs of simple praise. As a product of and for that place, it contains elements of traditional rural folk ballads and sea shanties, combining them with Appalachian instruments and the trope and formal phrasing of Quaker plainsong. And it sounds older than it is, as if it skipped over the major transformation that folks like Dylan, Guthrie and Seeger brought to the table of American “modern” folk, to pull instead from a strong and uninterrupted tradition of simple music “of the folk” played earnestly and without pretense.

In a world which considers such rough-edged confessional poets as Dylan and Guthrie the forefathers of modern American folk music, the “classical sensibility” and delicate phrasing Cindy Kallet brings to her craft can seems like an anomaly. But for all its grounding in the folk sounds, imagery, and culture of the northern American coast, there is also something both more intimately familiar and more elusively original about Cindy Kallet.


Kallet is a truly talented and innovative songwriter and performer, one who brings her own uniquely skilled touch to her craft. Her first album Working on Wings to Fly, released way back in 1981, was named one of the Top 100 Folk Albums of the Millenium by Boston folk radio station WUMB. She has earned high praise and admiration from many folk musicians more typically identified with the “mainstream” singer-songwriter folk movement, such as Christine Lavin, Dar Williams, and Patty Larkin, who cites Kallet’s Dreaming Down a Quiet Line as one of her favorite albums.

In turn, Kallet cites James Taylor and Joni Mitchell among her influences, and indeed, there is something of James Taylor’s finger styling in her own, something of the phrasing of Joni’s sparser dulcimer tunes in the way Kallet pushes her pure legato voice soaring over her crisp stringwork. But the way she combines traditional and modern elements is truly her own. And the honest, intelligent eye she brings to bear on these elements is incomparable.

More than anything else, Cindy Kallet’s music is an overwhelmingly intimate and open experience. But though her music is extraordinarily unadorned, it is anything but simplistic. Kallet’s songs are simultaneously a celebration of the world, and a communion with it. Her way with language, and with emotional delivery, is deliberate and intelligent, carefully wrought to serve what comes across as an almost holy reverence for the small details that make life worth living well.

This is serious folk music, the core of the genre. It is simple, without being sparse. It is simultaneously delicate and complete. Every note counts, and seems carefully chosen. It feels like home, somewhere by the sea, on a warm Spring afternoon. I have never heard music that makes me want to listen so carefully.


Kallet’s skillful ability to bring together the elements of modern and traditional folk to revere and recreate a particular place and time is paralleled by an ability to bring together others, both as lyricists and as collaborators, to reach an equally powerful communion. As her own songwriting is celebratory, and rich in gentle purpose, the artists and songs she chooses to cover are equally authentic, in tune with the sea and the joy of life lived simply in every moment.

This has often meant reaching towards traditional songs of the Irish and British Isles, as in her most recent album Cross the Water, a collection of originals and Irish reels produced with multi-instrumentalist Grey Larsen; it has also meant covering the work of other contemporary musicians, like Gordon Bok and Dougie MacLean, who share her sense of place. And her collaborative work with compatriots Michael Cicone and Ellen Epstein, which produced two incredible albums over a decade apart and then another in the last few years, ranges farther, finding that same sensibility in the working-class community portrait of Bruce Springsteen’s My Hometown, and a gorgeous three-part a capella delivery of Dylan’s When The Ship Comes In.

For all its evident craft, Cindy Kallet’s music comes across as egoless and effortless. Even as her songs celebrate the world she loves, she delivers them as if the point of performance were to invest every bit of her energy into helping each song become that which it is trying to be. This is far rarer than many of us would like to admit. Combine this with that sweet, rich alto, a powerful sense of phrasing in service to praise, and that skilled ability to use not only guitars, but the rarer instruments — dulcimer, harmonium — to support her sound, and the end result is an artist who is worthy of the highest praise and celebration.

So let us celebrate Cindy Kallet, as she helps us to celebrate the simple things. For all of us need more laughter and joy in honest work and play, more sea and spray in our lives. And this, more than anything, is the soundtrack to that life we dream of.



If you’re interested in purchasing Cindy Kallet’s work, the AllMusic Guide recommends starting with Cindy Kallet 2, and both Patty Larkin and I highly recommend Dreaming Down a Quiet Line, though all three of her early solo albums are worthy additions to any folk collection. Parents may also be interested in Kallet’s wonderful children’s CD Leave the Cake in the Mailbox, which won a Parent Choice Gold Award in 2004.

Cindy Kallet’s collaborative work comes highly recommended, too. Kallet still tours with Grey Larsen in support of their 2007 release Cross The Water, which I have been enjoying very much. And the trio of Kallet, Epstein and Cicone released Heart Walk, their third CD, in May of 2008, which prompted the following (Re)Covered report:

…as expected, it’s a beautiful work, full of robust harmony and sincere emotion, primarily comprised of coversongs of underappreciated folk artists who share the same social and ecological sensibilities of Kallet and co. Like the trio’s previous two albums, Heart Walk is both an especially powerful musical experience, and a great and loving introduction to the work of other folk musicians you may not have heard of, but should. Kudos, all around.

Honestly, all three of the albums from the trio of Kallet, Epstein, and Cicone are chock full of coversongs, and each comes highly recommended, of course. But these two bonus covertracks from the newer album — a cover of an old Judy Collins tune, and an absolutely stunning cover of Peter Mayer’s Holy Now featuring Michael’s warm, clear lead vocals — are a great way to whet the appetite.



REPOST BONUS: Ann Percival covers Cindy Kallet’s Tide and the River Rising


Cover Lay Down posts features and coverfolk twice weekly without fail or falter. Coming soon: new work from young artists still on the rise, songs of the coming frost, and a tribute to a soulful singer-songwriter not often covered in the folkworld.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:15 pm | 0 comments
Labels: Cindy Kallet, reposts

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Columbus Day, Regained:
Native American artists cover The Smiths, The Cure, The Church, & more



Though I recognize that old-school-style celebration of Christopher Columbus’ journey and “discovery” is fatally flawed, ethnocentric, even racist, I was never comfortable with those who would use Columbus Day to one-sidedly revile the paleface conquest of American lands.

It’s too dismissive of the good stuff in the story, for one thing: of the context in which Columbus lived and sailed, and of the spirit of adventure which I struggle to instill in my own children. And ultimately, I find this approach highly hypocritical, dripping with self-loathing and a desire to remove oneself from responsibility to and of our ancestral past, given how many of those who speak out against white conquest are White Americans, their own freedom to protest and thrive rooted however distantly in that same migration which, for centuries, would follow in the oceanic pathways forged by Columbus’ fearless voyage.


Which is to say: though I’m cautious in my own treatment of Columbus, as man and as symbol, I’ve previously tried to distance myself from the anti-Columbus Day crowd, preferring to save celebration and recognition of the native American plight to other, less reactionary times of year. Though the mindset from which Columbus acted is suspect, and the death and destruction which followed truly terrible, there’s something worth celebrating in discovery - as long as we are ever mindful that outside of the scientific realm, the vast majority of discovery is both purely subjective, and subject to the natural law that the mere act of observation changes things, and that change is never without its consequences.

The ways we approach music shows us that we know this already, of course. Both in and out of the folkworld, especially when we’re talking about coversong, when we speak of and share musicians and song, we acknowledge that our rich and varied world is there to be found, was there all along. Last week’s Discovery theme over at Star Maker Machine, for example, showed that discovery need not be political: our celebrations were personal and life-changing, and nothing of what we found was ours alone. And my recent musings on the life and source of the coverblogging urge speak to this, as well.

That these songs are and were not ours until we made them so does not make our own joys moot: quite the contrary, our journeys are no less vital for their subjectivity. And acknowledging our respect to those who received us is a natural part of that celebration. To mistake it as antithetical, instead, is to miss the point. And as it is in music, so should it be in the other layers of our lives.


You won’t find us using Columbus Day as a vehicle for anger and confrontation, then; our stance as folklorists and ethnographic soundstalkers is inconsistent with that particular critical stance. Still, now that so much of our culture has moved past and subsumed the reactionary, politically correct protest of my youth, commodifying the anger to find a better balance, it’s high time to shift my own position towards the middle ground, as well, seizing the day to celebrate those who Columbus found first upon these shores.

Because although it’s neither impossible nor inappropriate to teach discovery when and where we find it, respecting those who were there first should ever be on our lips and tongues. In a world of “music as culture”, paying our dues to the artists themselves is fundamental to our mandate. The world is full of firsts, but to believe that we were there first is to get it wrong, indeed.

In celebration, then, of a still-struggling people ever teetering on the knife-edge false dichotomy of marginalization or absorption, today we present a short set of coversongs from performers and interpreters of Native American and First Nation ancestry - each and every one of whom I’ve found or come to appreciate more deeply through cooption and coverage, mostly through the songs and/or performances of white people.

Whether your nativity goes back for thousands of years or merely to the last generation of immigrants, we all come from the conquerors and the conquered, born to carry the weight of both search and struggle in our blood. May we celebrate both, for both are of our origin. And whether or not you, too, live in a culture that will honor Columbus tomorrow, may your Mondays be ever thoughtful, tuneful, and full of adventure.


Want more? Native Americans and First Nations members have made their way into the world of popular song on occasion, too; many folks never make the connection, but notably, Steven Tyler, Jimi Hendrix, and Robbie Robertson of The Band, among others, share the common bond of indigenous ancestry. Here’s a few favorite covers of songs originally penned and performed by these truly American artists.


Posted by boyhowdy at 4:04 pm | 6 comments
Labels: Holiday Coverfolk

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Covered In Folk: John Lennon, Solo
(12 songs, 17 covers, one inimitable legacy)





The blogs are abuzz with the impending anniversary of John Lennon’s birth; the man would have turned 70 this Saturday, and in keeping with the digital world’s everpresent bent towards relevance and immediacy, the faux-urgency of the date seems to have started an avalanche of tribute. And though we’re not usually the bandwagon types, it’s hard to ignore the way the Lennon story has come to define both the end of a social era, and the sad coda to the Beatles’ breakup - and the impact his songs and spirit have had on music, both in and out of the folkworld.

It’s a familiar story, but it bears repeating: post-breakup, Lennon was known as a deliberate songwriter, who turned to using song as a voice and vehicle for his political and social activism, thanks in no small part to Yoko’s influence. Though his first few albums with Yoko are essentially ambient noise - lyricless and abstract, in keeping with the Dada-inspired, Fluxus-grounded artistic vision which she brought to the table - his solo catalog from those final years is chock full of singable hymns and ballads, thick with cultural criticism, heavy with idealism and hope, grounded in a modern working man’s burden.

It’s always hard to predict what would have been, especially in cases of gunmanship. What we do know is that Lennon’s death at the hands of Mark Chapman canonized the man and his catalog, even as he teetered on the cusp of a potentially legacy-changing comeback after five years on hiatus as a musician, making for a legacy practically unparalleled in modern memory.


Imagine lies at the core, of course, and the song is sure to saturate the cultural surroundsound as we approach the 30th anniversary of his assassination this December. Preemptively, we’ve selected a diverse four of our subjective best from over 70 covers on the books to close out today’s set, but it wasn’t an easy choice; there’s easily enough greatness out there for a Single Song Sunday.

But a tribute to death ill-befits the man who bared his soul in the name of love and living; there’s much, much more to Lennon the solo artist than this single, simple peace-movement anthem. And happily, folksingers and singer-songwriters of all stripes seem to have noticed, coming back to his songbook again and again, as the world ever teeters on the brink of war and disaster.

Here’s a few favorites - from Willoughby’s gentle grunge to Shelby Lynne’s countrypop, from Rosie Thomas‘ layered lightness to The Dimes‘ soft indie-americana harmonies to The Peptides‘ cough syrup echo, from the produced roots-folk of Keb’ Mo’ and Richie Havens to Acoustic Philosophy’s live organic jamfolk, and from the emotive pianofolk of Regina Spektor, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jackson Browne and Allison Crowe to the subtle guitars and simple voices of Julia Francis, Thomas Meny, Marissa Nadler, Jack Johnson, and Damien Rice - in well-deserved tribute to a life that leveraged fame into as much peace and justice as he could muster.



As always, we’re all about the artists here at Cover Lay Down - so if you enjoy the songs you find and hear here, don’t forget to go back and click on the artist names above, the better to pursue, support, and help keep the love alive and growing for all involved.

That said: though we’re happy to share the love we know, we can’t cover everything - we claim neither omniscience nor completism in our role as tastemasters and promoters - and neither can we give it all away. If you’ve got a great Lennon cover to add to the mix, feel free to share it in the comments with our blessing!

Posted by boyhowdy at 12:40 pm | 20 comments
Labels: Covered in Folk, John Lennon

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Folk Families: The Waterson/Carthy Clan
(Waterson:Carthy, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Lal Waterson covers & more!)





Long before there was such thing as an American folk movement, the tradtunes and folk hymns of Britain, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales - including the 305 songs and variants which would eventually become known as the Child Ballads, after to their late nineteenth century collector Francis James Child - came to our shores singly, one or two at a time, in the hands and voices of several successive centuries of migrant generations. There, they found listeners longing for the sounds and stories of their ancestral homes, who took the songs, made them theirs, and turned them outwards to the culture at large, where they were reframed and transformed in the cultural melting pot that we call folkways.

What with our nation’s birth as a colony, in other words, it’s no wonder Britfolk has ever been in the American folkstream, part and parcel of its origins. But one of the wonderful benefits of the new digital realm is that it has allowed us to go fully global as listeners. As long as there are folkbloggers in Britain, the songs and songbooks of new musicians who sing the songs of their native lands, and whose playing styles, tropes, and themes are steeped in their own local folkways, come to us out of the mists as bodiless immigrants themselves.

From the newly-tuned indiefolk of James Yorkston and The Unthanks to the sweet sounds of Kate Rusby and Ruth Notman, the younger of these voices have found me unawares, shocking me out of the ethnocentric gaze that inevitably develops in those who know that folk is ultimately a local phenomenon, even as the world comes on connected. And it’s a good thing, truly, to be reminded that folk sounds are cultural sounds, and that ours is by no means the center of the world of interconnected communities. It’s part of why the world of folk is so rich, so diverse, so vast, after all.

But even as these new voices help spread the gospel of the old, they also remind us of other, older artists - Dougie MacLean, Dick Gaughan, and others both living and long-passed - whose quiet names grow ever fainter here on the other side of the pond despite long-standing homeland recognition as iconic spear-carriers of tradition. And though to me, these artists are equally new, tracking their influence and early careers helps us better understand the newest generations of tradfolk-grounded singer-songwriters from the isles - and, ultimately, the histories which make our own local folkforms.

As part of that ongoing exploration, today we take a look at a family of musicians whose voices were strong enough to cross the seas, finding a place in good record shops and in the hands of small-bore redistributors and collectors long before the advent of the instantaneous world brought them to my own heart, even as their names scatter to the wind on the label notes and copyrights of hundreds of songs. Without any further ado, then, we bring you The Waterson family, whose influence - on our ears, on our shores, and on the constant new voices who come to us from the once-United Kingdom - is as deep and vast as any.



Were I older, but with the same sensibilities in my youth that I have today, I probably would have discovered today’s featured clan through The Watersons - revivalists of the old traditional songs of their native Yorkshire and beyond who formed around the core sibling trio of Norma, Mike, and Elaine (Lal) Waterson in the sixties and, after four year hiatus from ‘68-’72, were born again in the seventies to increasing popular acclaim.

Well known their native land for their sparse instrumentation, close harmonies, and soulful treatment of well-arranged songs both traditional and original, The Watersons recorded over ten albums over three decades with a fluid line-up that would later grow to include Mike’s daughter Rachel, Norma’s singer-songwriter husband Martin Carthy, and their own daughter Eliza Carthy, before spinning off into various incarnations of the group, including ongoing English folk supergroup Blue Murder, a name originally adopted for a Waterson/Swan Arcade side project in the mid-eighties, and a one-shot collection of Waterson/Carthy women under the moniker The Waterdaughters.

But like many American listeners, I suspect, I’ve discovered the Waterson family in fits and starts, predominantly through coverage, working backwards through their catalog as each member came to me in solo or small group performance. Only this year, in fact, have I started to steep myself in the earliest work from the family - the elder generation, if you will - after years of hearing their songs in the hands of others, their voices in smaller collaborations, primarily via compilations and tribute albums.


Today, the Waterson/Carthy family torch is carried on predominantly by Martin, Norma, and their daughter, second generation folksinger and fiddler Eliza Carthy, who have been performing as Waterson:Carthy since 1994, and can be heard on every installment of the delightful Folk Collection series produced by Topic Records, as a trio and in pairings with other artists and bands. Eliza, Norma, Mike, Martin, and Lal’s children Maria Gilhooley and Oliver Knight continue to work together sporadically in various guises, coming together under the name The Waterson Family for the odd tribute concert or one-off concert. And most of their work, with the exception of Eliza’s solo outings, remains traditional in focus.

Though they made their name through traditional song, various members of the group did occasionally pen original songs, both for the family and for their own solo careers. Most notably, Lal Waterson, who passed on unexpectedly from cancer in 1998, released four duo albums in her time - one with Mike, one with Norma and daughter Maria, and two with son Oliver. A popular solo artist and collaborator, Eliza has featured her own compositions on several albums. And Martin Carthy, who was a solo singer-songwriter in his own right before marrying Norma - his arrangement of Scarborough Fair was unknowingly adopted by Simon and Garfunkel - has continued to tour and perform as a solo artist and frontman for other groups throughout his career, in addition to performing with his daughter, spouse, and others of the family.

Coming at the family backwards has meant finding coverage before the tradfolk - a not-atypical approach for a coverfan, as I noted in last week’s review of the coverblogger’s collections process, but an oddity in terms of recognizing the Waterson clan for that work which made them famous. But it seems to have been a success, if by that we mean that I have come to both appreciate and love the work of all members of the Waterson/Carthy family.

Norma’s voice, especially, comes across as evermore haunting as she ages, with her recent turn on traditional tune Poor Wayfaring Stranger a tour de force, comparable to Johnny Cash’s later work. Some of Eliza’s modern folkrock production is a bit unusual to the American ear - check out the two solo covers below to see what I mean - but it grows on you. And though their harmonies are startling and powerful for those who think of folk as something about a man and a guitar, there’s no denying that the full family turn on Norwegian Wood turns the clock way, way back on the Beatles songbook, proving that some sentiments are timeless, after all.

As a third “shadow” installment of our last week’s series, then, today we present a history of personal discovery - with some choice solo and small group work from the Watersons themselves, followed by a collection of Lal Waterson covers as a bonus set. Looked at in terms of chronology, we’re two generations past due. But uncovering roots is a vital component of the folk process, one often best done through the lens of the self. And, after all, better late than never is an understatement, here.





Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features and songsets each Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday. Coming soon: A new Dylan tribute tickles our indiefolk fancy, and we reveal the full tracklist for this year’s “free if you donate” Summer Bootleg Sampler!

Posted by boyhowdy at 9:24 pm | 3 comments
Labels: Eliza Carthy, Lal Waterson, Martin Carthy, Norma Carthy, The Watersons, Waterson:Carthy

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

How to be a Coverblogger, Part 2:
Writers Write, Bloggers Blog





Twice a week, instead of grading papers or putting my children to bed, I hunker down in front of the computer for a 3-4 hour writing session. Sometimes I start from notes, written on scraps of paper up against the steering wheel; other times, I start with the music, perusing artist catalogs, skimming songs collated by theme and subject over the years, willing inspiration to fall out of the sky. And once in a while, it’s just me in the dark, with a song to start with, trying to figure out what sort of framing device would justify posting the hook caught in my ears.

Of course, sometimes the urge strikes at the odd hour. Like life itself, my wordpress archives are littered with half-started drafts, a few sentences to hold an idea in place after it falls from the sky uninvited. But most of the time, I don’t know what I will write until the blank screen opens up before me. For, after all, I am one of those writers that writes first and foremost to find out what I think.

And you know what I think, at least so far. Because, after all, you’re here.


From the outside, this praxis must look like a lonely life - no different from the secret hobbyist who retires to his basement each evening to stuff delicate ships into narrowneck bottles. And certainly, at first, the impetus to write was not a social one, but a personal one: having just been stunned by Richard Shindell’s cover album South of Delia, the honed writer’s urge in me insisted that I write about it, the better to make sense of this all-covers folk album in the context of art and culture.

But if I’ve learned anything at all in my three years as a coverblogger, it’s that blogging is not as solitary an activity as it seems. Quite the contrary, in fact. Your daily comments, the occasional kudos and linkbacks from other bloggers and print sources, continued attention from the labels and musicians themselves, our inclusion on Hype Machine’s list of the 100 most popular music bloggers: these things make of this little project not a journal, but an epistle, a poster, a dialogue, a bi-weekly soapbox, with a crowd everpresent to shape expectations, call out suggestions, correct my misimpressions, and demand the best of me.

Which is to say: in all of this, I am sustained by the community. The artists who I’ve met on my travels who know the blog, and appreciate the approach. The fans who hug me in the audience between sets once the conversation turns to songsources, and who seek me out at my yearly folk festival jaunts. The label reps who write emails and send CDs and personal notes, making it clear that they know who I am, and really think I’ll like what they have to offer. You, the reader, who takes the time to comment, and critique, thus keeping us all honest, and helping make this place as much about you and your love of good music as it is about me and mine.

I’m also humbled by the willingness of otherwise strangers to give what they can do help keep the blog afloat financially. Yes, this blog runs on your donations - it has to, as I’ve no interest in compromising my focus on artists with advertising, and it currently costs just under $1000 a year to host the growing demand for dowloads. And in honor of our fourth year together, this weekend, I’ll be putting up a new year’s worth of bootleg coverage, recorded by yours truly in the 2010 Summer fields, ready to send out to those who give to the cause; this year’s package includes delicious, otherwise-unavailable coversongs from Dala, Chuck E. Costa, Red Molly, Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, Tim O’Brien, The Greencards, Sarah Jarosz, and more, and the quality is surprisingly good.

I’ve no intention to turn this year’s anniversary post into a full-blown pledge drive plea. But if you enjoy what we do here - if you, too, believe that our constant work to connect new fans and artists is worth sustenance - I hope you will consider giving a few bucks to help us continue that good work. As always, all who donate will receive our annual Summer Bootleg Mixtape, a grateful gift to you in thanks for your support. Donate now, and I’ll throw in BOTH this year’s and last year’s bootleg mixes - an offer good only until Sunday, when I’ll start sending them out, so act now if you’d like the set.



But whether you choose to lend your support through readership or participation or donations, the very fact that we are here together sustains me. It keeps me up late into the night, trying to make sense of the folkways inherent in coverage; it keeps me coming back week after week, even as life stacks up on the kitchen counter alongside me, demanding my attention.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I am grateful, humbled even, by the way Cover Lay Down has turned from a solo project into a shared space, a node, a community for all of us. And though there are certainly times when blogging seems onerous, know that as long as this place lifts me up - and it does, oh it does - I’ll be here in the morning.

A soundtrack for our shared journey, then. Nothing so tight as all that, just a few favorite songs that speak, however obliquely, to how we write our life into being together, and to the commitments that we make to the world. Some songs, in other words, about you.



Cover Lay Down is honored to be your favorite coverblog. Y’all come back real soon now, y’hear?

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:43 pm | 4 comments
Labels: cover lay down, metablog

Sunday, September 26, 2010

How To Be A Coverblogger, Part 1:
Starting (and Maintaining) a Covers Collection





People often ask me how I ended up in this little niche, at the intersection of folk and coversong. Usually, I just shrug, mutter something about liking covers and folk music, note my tendency towards being a somewhat obsessive collector and tracker of songsources in general, and move on.

But there’s more to it than that. And as we near our third anniversary, I thought folks might like a more substantive glance behind the scenes.

This week, then, we’ll offer some reflections on the process of coverblogging: a set of recommendations on how to keep up with the folkworld and the covers it contains today, followed by our traditional subjective look at the blogger’s life on Wednesday, our actual anniversary. If you find this sort of stuff boring, feel free to skim right to the songs.

Interested in the folkways, particularly in how songs move through culture via reclamation and repetition? Want to be a coverblogger, or just know enough to be one? There’s a whole host of evolved nuances involved in doing it well, of course, and I can’t claim to have the only method around. But it seems to me that there’s a finite number of basic practices that are vital to building and maintaining a strong covers collection. Here are three habits I, personally, find most useful as a blogger and audiophile.


1. Gather in good tributes and cover compilations

As I’ve noted often in our ongoing series on new tributes and cover compilations, the cover album is the coverlover’s bread and butter. Not all cover albums are created equal, of course - far too many are sheer tripe, better in concept than implementation; even the ones with promise often turn out to contain but a small handful of worthy tracks among the chaff. And those like myself who prefer to focus on a particular slice of the genre spectrum should be prepared to pick and choose tracks from multi-genre tributes, while skipping over those which truly don’t sound like what you listen to.

But because they offer such concentrated and dense coverage, finding and collecting strong, full albums of coversongs remain the easiest way to satiate the gatherer’s urge. The category includes both multi-artist tributes to single artists, albums, or eras, and single artist tributes to their influences (and, rarely, single artist tributes to single artists; see our early September feature on Mark Kozelek, who has recorded full albums of AC/DC and Modest Mouse songs, or our February feature on Tim O’Brien, which includes a pair of tracks from his mid-nineties Dylan tribute Red On Blonde, for recent examples of this concentrated approach). And taken as a whole, these albums form the foundation of any coverblogger’s collection, providing fodder for blogs such as our own.

We’ve featured many such albums in our ongoing journey here at Cover Lay Down. Their releases find space in our ongoing Tribute Albums and Cover Compilations series; their tracks quite often form the foundation of theme posts and Single Song Sundays. From top favorites A Nod To Bob and Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown, both of which can be found on the wonderful Red House Records label, to the myriad mixed-bag tributes which scatter my shelves, it is these albums which lie at the core of my catalog, the go-to discs which I turn to when I need a full hour of coversong on the road.

And the steady stream of concentrated coverage seems endless, especially in a world where recycling is fast becoming the norm. In our first few years, we were proud to feature new releases such as Cinnamon Girl, a wonderful all-female grunge-to-folk tribute to Neil Young, Splice magazine’s all-digital tradfolk tribute, and last year’s Teach For America tribute to the singer-songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s. We’ve seen excellent tributes to Judee Sill, Kath Bloom, Shel Silverstein, John Prine and more. And I’m really looking forward to the newest addition to the roster, a track-by-track tribute to Dylan’s seminal 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home due to drop on October 5th on Reimagine Music, with Denison Witmer, Ane Brun, William Fitzsimmons, Julie Doiron, and more of our absolute favorite artists from the delicate side of the indiefolk community.

We’ll continue to bring you such celebrated albums as they come, of course. Recently featured tribute albums Be Yourself: a Tribute to Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners and Riding The Range: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt remain on my playlist, but those posts are also still “live”, so I won’t repeat them here. And the above-mentioned tributes, while all excellent, have graced our pages in feature form before.

But in the interest of transparency, and of staying true to our mandate to constantly share and promote the best of the world of coverage writ large, here’s a short set of songs from some more of my own personal favorites - at least, the ones which run folk or mostly-folk all the way through.




2. Keep up with the artists

As our mandate suggests, coverage can have a powerful impact on fan familiarity, offering an invitation to those who would otherwise never bother. And in my experience, musicians take advantage of this fact, with both new and established artists often sticking a cover or two - or more - on each album.

Which is to say: some folk artists, especially those who lean closer to traditional styles and influence, mix covers with originals fluidly throughout their career; others tend to hew closer to the latter side of the singer-songwriter label. But eventually, almost every musician records a cover or three - even if it’s under duress, as with some of the artists who we’ve hosted for our still-growing house concert series.

So just because an artist has never recovered a beloved or otherwise-obscure song, or simply hasn’t taken on one that made you hit repeat ad infinitum, doesn’t mean their next album or radio station appearance won’t contain your newest favorite cover. And just because that new debut is one of two dozen arriving simultaneously in the ol’ mailbox doesn’t mean there isn’t a delightful new take on someone else’s song hovering there in the middle of the tracklist, just waiting to tempt you into listening more closely to that artist’s original work.

And the only way to know that is to keep attending festivals and shows, visiting artist webpages and myspaces and YouTube channels and those blogs and websites which specialize in bringing in artists for intimate sessions, and buying and listening to new music from all your favorite musicians and labels, all the time.

My long-term commitment to bi-weekly coverage has shifted my awareness of new original works, I suppose. The urgency of promised output here on Cover Lay Down has had no small effect on what and how I listen to music, and on weeks when my time is especially dear, I often find myself sticking to covers exclusively, even as new works by some of my favorite artists come down the pike alongside the rest of the everflowing river of new sound that streams past my ears.

The big idea here, though, is that not all covers come on compilations. Some of my most favorite coversongs have emerged from the serendipitous moment, when a favorite song appears in the hands and voice of a favorite artist. More significantly, our claim of coversong’s comfort applies to my own habits as well: hearing a familiar song in the hands of someone new has quite often brought me to appreciate that new artist, and make me more willing to consider their own songwriting. And some of the covers we’re shared here over the years arrived in disguise, only proving themselves covers upon reading the label; as we’ve written about here on these pages over the years, uncovering these gems, and realizing that they were covers after all, was how I discovered Buddy and Julie Miller, in fact, and how I came to truly appreciate both Tom Waits and Richard Thompson.

One reason I still prefer CDs to downloads, in fact, is that unless the artist is heavily promoting their newest coverage, downloads often do not come with enough data to know if a given song is a cover at all. To stick to the obvious one-off and the tribute album, then, is to miss the obscure and the unknown, those dark and half-hidden spaces from whence the best of the world can emerge unannounced. Here’s a few favorite covers that first found me as deep cuts, so good that they either turned me on to other artists, kept me listening to their interpreters, or both.



3. Follow the coverblogs

Like all bloggers, I suppose, cover bloggers come and go. When we joined the cacaphony of voices three years ago, the most popular coverblog on the web was Eliza’s Copy, Right?; within months, she decided to close up shop for good. Kurtis has scaled back his Disney cover blog Covering the Mouse, moving from a daily posting model to something more sporadic after a reasonably long period of radio silence. And just this month, Jamie Fong of Fong Songs put his blog on “indefinite hiatus”, going out with a bang by counting down his top 101 cover songs of all time.

But other coverblogs are thriving in the modern environment. Cover Me, for example, which started our around the same time we did, is growing fast and furious, thanks to both a new commitment to much more frequent posting and a new partnership with MTV. Podcaster Brian of Coverville has even gone pro, with advertising and sponsorships supporting a growing spectrum of programming each week. Constant companion Cover Freak remains a steady player, bringing diverse sets to the world each Sunday. And, as our sidebar notes, a number of new coverblogs have arisen in the past few years, and some are quite good indeed.

And Cover Lay Down? To say I’ll be here forever would be hubris, and surely lead to folly. One day, like all things, this, too, shall pass into memory, hopefully on our own terms, with our head held high.

But never fear; I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. Three years in, I’m happy to report that the horizon remains clear and crowded with coverage: there’s still tunes to be shared, artists to celebrate, features to be written, folkway paths to be considered. We’re here, and we’re glad you’ve chosen to join us on our little journey. Happy Birthday to us, indeed.

Here’s Jamie Fong’s favorite cover; a Disney song interpretation I picked up from new coverblog Torre De Canciones and passed along over at Kurtis’ place; and an exclusive recently found on Cover Me, well worth passing along. To celebrate ourselves, and to keep the torch burning.



Cover Lay Down turns three years old on Wednesday. Come back then for How To Be A Folk Coverblogger, Part 2, wherein we address the blogging life, and run through our annual review of the writing process.

Posted by boyhowdy at 10:01 am | 9 comments
Labels: cover lay down, covers, metablog

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