Tag Archives: singer-songwriters

Feb23

Happy Birthday, George Harrison: 10 Cover Versions

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Happy Birthday, George Harrison: 10 Cover Versions

George Harrison had always been seen as the kid brother to his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But, that would change.

Although it took him a while, George soon became as good a songwriter as his partners in The Beatles had become, and did so largely on his own steam. Yet, that was the kind of artist he’d always been, focusing his ear for melody early on in his solos, which were meticulously and very patiently wrought, as much as they were inventive, and later to be applied to some of the most celebrated songs in rock history.

Yet, by the mid-to-late 1960s, he’d pen some of the most enduring songs of that group’s catalog as a songwriter. This would be a skill he’d take with him into his solo career as well.

So, in celebration of that skill, and of the birth of George Harrison which is coming up this Saturday, February 25, 2012 (he would have been 69!), here are ten distinguished covers of Harrison’s songs that span his most fertile period. In that time, he mastered acoustic folk styled tunes, sumptuous psychedelia, Indian traditional music, and of course straight ahead guitar pop too. As such, the artists who covered his songs are varied across the stylistic spectrum as well, from pop crooners, to soul men, to blues players, to singer-songwriters.

Take a listen! Read the rest of this entry →

Feb13

Cat Stevens Sings “The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head”

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Cat Stevens Sings “The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head”

Cat Stevens in 1976 (Photo:William McElligott)

Listen to this song by former ’60s British pop pin-up turned ’70s bearded folky hit-maker Cat Stevens.  It’s “The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head” a spiritual parable positioned as a traditional English folk song. The tune is taken from 1972′s Catch Bull At Four album, his follow-up to the immense Teaser & the Firecat record. Because of the momentum created by that previous release, Catch Bull At Four was his best-selling record.

Cat Stevens had enjoyed some success previous even to his celebrated early ’70s albums as a pop star. He’d changed his name from Steven Georgiou to Cat Stevens in the ’60s, enjoying some success with respectably charting songs in the UK,  like “Matthew & Son”, “I’m Gonna Get Me A Gun”, and “I Love My Dog”.

He also would score some success as a songwriter of material for other people, including “The First Cut Is The Deepest”, a hit initially for P.P Arnold, and then for others down the decades (Sheryl Crow, Rod Stewart). Yet, it would be in the next decade where he’d forge his musical path, with a sort of baroque-flavoured folk style infused with a sense of the spiritual.

This tune is certainly one of those, starting off with a scene of  ’60s free-love, and eventually turning to a less carnal, and more mystically informed theme of spiritual wisdom, with a prescription for love and connectedness as a pay-off.

In some ways this wasn’t just a song, but it was Stevens’ story as an artist, too. But, how?

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Feb9

Jesca Hoop Sings “The Kingdom”

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Jesca Hoop Sings “The Kingdom”

Listen to this track from transplanted-to-Britain American singer-songwriter and experimental popist Jesca Hoop. It’s “The Kingdom”, the second track off of her 2009 full-length record Hunting My Dress.

Jesca Hoop had contacts with the music world even before she herself started her professional recording career,  being the daughter of folk-singing Mormons in Northern California, where she learned her craft for close harmony. Later on, she served five years as Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s nanny, of all things.

Subsequently after Waits championed her, she appeared as an opening act for artists as diverse as Matt Pond PA, Mark Knopfler, Eels, and The Polyphonic Spree. She’s sung back-up for Peter Gabriel. After having opened for Elbow, Hoop has moved to Manchester on the invitation of Elbow singer Guy Garvey.

She’s also worked on soundtracks, working up songs for the film Riding The Bus With My Sister, with soundtrack composer and drummer Stewart Copeland, who then appeared on her song, “Seed of Wonder“, which appears on her 2007 debut album Kismet.

But, Hoop has a singular voice of her own besides all of the artists with whom she’s had contact, with this song standing out for me as an example of her ability to balance weighty moods with light as air music. Read the rest of this entry →

Jan30

Teddy Thompson Sings “Take Care of Yourself”

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Teddy Thompson Sings “Take Care of Yourself”

Photo: Anthony Pepitone

Listen to this track by British folk dynasty progeny, and superlative singer-songwriter besides, Teddy Thompson. It’s “Take Care Of Yourself”, a gem of a tune from his 2011 album Bella.

The album traces the episodes in meeting someone, falling in love, and then being faced with the reality of having to say goodbye. The music here on this track can be described as a sort of country-folk torch song along the lines of a Chris Isaak, k.d lang, and Rufus Wainwright. Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright are well acquainted as friends and artistic collaborators, too. The commonalities between the two are notable,with both artists forging their own paths, and being the offspring of folk-singing families albeit on either sides of the Atlantic.

Teddy was born in 1976 while his parents Richard & Linda Thompson had been living in a Sufi community outside of London. This was around the time when they were creating some of their most celebrated work as a duo in I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silver, among others.

As such, his pedigree as a musician and songwriter is well-established, and the melancholy found in his own work is come by honestly. Since he established himself as a musician, he’s played a part in the creation of his parents’ solo records, including as co-producer on his mother’s Fashionably Late album, and has been the opening act for father Richard in the 1990s. But, in 2000, he struck out on his own with his own recording career apart from his work with his parents.

And with this song, he brings maturity and subtlety to one of the more bittersweet chapters in the span of a love affair; the mutually agreed upon break-up. Thompson treats his subject matter seriously, and accentuates his writing with an emotionally infused vocal delivery, helped along by twangy guitar, and swelling strings, the latter inspired by the strings Buddy Holly used on his records, and arranged in this case by producer David Kahne. His soaring vocals towards the end is a real treat, evoking yet another style; a sort of Bobby Hatfield-like soul-pop.

What comes out of all of that is a song that sounds as though it could have been written in any era, perhaps because the ecstasies and sorrows of love are just as timeless.

For more information about Teddy Thompson, check out the Teddy Thompson official site.

Enjoy!

Jan26

Graham Parker Sings “Partner For Life”

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Graham Parker Sings “Partner For Life”

Listen to this track by former angry young man turned happily-married stalwart singer-songwriter Graham Parker. It’s “Partner For Life”, an ode to love, commitment, and the realities of adult relationships as featured on Parker’s 1995 album 12 Haunted Episodes.

By the 1990s, Parker had been prolific as a writer and performer, even if his mainstream success didn’t match that of his contemporaries to whom he is often compared; Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, both of whom held Parker as an influence. He had become, and remained to be, a cult artist.

Parker had been through the wringer with various major label record companies as a result, suffering a lack of support and poor sales of his albums. Or was it the other way around, with the lack of support resulting in his cult status?

Either way, he’d established himself as an artist with a consistent body of work, despite the hardships and vicious cycles he’d experienced while tangling with the majors. He  certainly succeeded in consolidating a lasting core audience, doing so by being a steadfast songwriter, record maker, and tireless live performer.

By this record, he’d cut the shackles of major label skulduggery loose and gone indie on the Razor & Tie label. As such, there is a certain liberation that can be heard in a song like “Partner For Life”. And there is another kind of liberation to be found in this song, too.

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Jan12

Ron Sexsmith & The Uncool Play “Don’t Mind Losing”

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Ron Sexsmith & The Uncool Play “Don’t Mind Losing”

Listen to this track by St. Catharines Ontario favourite son and effortlessly awesome singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, with his former collective known as The Uncool – Steve Charles on bass, and Don Kerr on drums and backing vocals. It’s “Don’t Mind Losing”, a jubilant Moondance-era Van The Man style acoustic soul-pop gem as taken from his 1991 independently released album Grand Opera Lane.

The song, and the album off of which it comes exists as something of a prequel to his major label debut Ron Sexsmith in 1995. You can hear the decidedly different tone and approach to presentation and style characterized by more overt soul and rockabilly references.

Ron Sexsmith had spent some time living in rural Quebec, letting his dream of becoming a songwriter steep while mapping out how he was going to pay for his life in the meantime. While working out how to bring his talent to the table of the music industry, he had a wife and newborn son in tow, with a daughter soon to join them by the end of the 1980s. So, in returning to St Catharines, and then to Toronto, he had to secure a day job as a courier, wondering if his real calling as a songwriter and musician would ever really come to fruition.

It’s a pretty common tale, many versions of which we’ll never get to hear from songwriters who never found their path.

With that in mind, never has a song about feeling set upon by circumstance and existential despair sounded so bright and bouncy, gleaming with horns, a seriously groovy bassline, and ecstatic backing vocals.  But, in all of that aural joy, where does it connect with where Sexsmith was going as a professional musician?

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Jan2

Hannah Georgas Sings “The Deep End”

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Hannah Georgas Sings “The Deep End”

Photo: Brenda Lee

Listen to this track by Ontario born and Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas. It’s her radio single “The Deep End” as taken from her 2010 record with the self-explanatory title This Is Good.  This is certainly one of those songs that has dueling forces at work within it, with a joie de vivre to be found in the way it sounds, musically speaking, working against some pretty serious lyrical darkness.

Georgas began recording songs in earnest while a university student, having moved to Victoria B.C from Newmarket Ontario. Her career since has so far included TV spots for jingles, an EP, songwriting accolades and best new performer results from CBC3, and a debut record – this one. She has opened shows for Royal Wood, Joel Plaskett, and City and Colour, and is about to start touring the UK with Kathleen Edwards. At the time of this writing, the follow up to This Is Good is in progress.

So, as much as an artist who has been active for nearly half a decade or more can be thought of as new on the scene, Hannah Georgas’ star is rising steadily. But, what of this song, a loping, banjo-abetted joyous thing that lights up the radio, even while it deals with darker human concerns lyrically?

The situation is common. We have a friend who’s always in trouble. And when the shit comes down, we get the call. This is what this song seems to be dealing with; that vortex of helplessness, of pain, and of obligation that often comes out of trying to help someone who, perhaps, won’t help themselves in favour drawing on the energy of others instead. This is prime songwriting material, with Georgas’ otherwise encouraging “don’t let them break you down” sounding rather leaden and weary to support the emotional undercurrents of the song. That’s good performance, and good songwriting too.

For more information, check out the Hannah Georgas official site.

Enjoy!

Dec15

Shawn Colvin Sings “Love Came Down At Christmas”

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Shawn Colvin Sings “Love Came Down At Christmas”

Listen to this track by angelically voiced singer-songwriter and Christmas fan Shawn Colvin. It’s “Love Came Down At Christmas” as taken from her seasonally-flavoured 1998 Holiday Songs & Lullabies album , which is comprised of crisp and tender renderings of seasonal favourites, matched with restlful lullabies.

This song is a retelling of the Christmas story, infused with a sort of spiritual wonder. Yet, to me the ideas in this song are less about a religious message, and more about the universal themes of aiming one’s sights for greater awareness of, and connection to, those around them. What better message is there for this Yuletide time of year?

Aided by producer and fellow Christmas music fan Doug Petty, Colvin produced a record that put original songs alongside traditional holiday songs. The result is something deeply personal, yet accessible too.

But, where did this record come from, exactly?

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Dec1

Tom Waits Sings “Alice”

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Tom Waits Sings “Alice”
Tom Waits

Illustration: Eugene smith

Listen to this track by gravel-throated singer-songwriter and consummate storytelling force of nature Tom Waits. It’s “Alice”, as taken from the self-same 2002 album of the same name, Alice. The track is a wintry tale of love and obsession, and ultimately of destruction too, all set to the kind of late-night jazz sound for which Waits had become known many years before in the 1970s, and to which this track is arguably something of a return.

The record is the result of a theatrical production that Waits, and his wife and collaborator Kathleen Brennan, had worked on with playwright Robert Wilson. It was a stage production based on the supposed relationship between Alice Liddel and Lewis Carroll, who would eventually write Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass, with Liddel as his muse.

But, how does what Lewis Carroll’s muse inspired translate into Tom Waits’ song, and the album on which it’s the opening track?

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Nov28

George Harrison Sings “Rising Sun”

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George Harrison Sings “Rising Sun”
Dawn on the Ganges River

Rising Sun: Dawn on the Ganges River. The Ganges was where George Harrison's ashes were scattered. (photo: orange tuesday)

Here’s a clip of the squire of Friar Park, slide-guitarist, ukulele player, and singer-songwriter George Harrison. It’s “Rising Sun”, a track off of his last album, 2002′s Brainwashed. The record was released the year after Harrison succumbed to cancer, ten years (!) ago tomorrow, November 29, 2001.

The first sign of cancer in Harrison occurred in 1997, leading to a course in radiotherapy. The disease spread to his lung, and then to his brain. As he sought treatment, his efforts to complete his last record increased too.

One person instrumental  to that effort, in every sense of the word, was his son Dhani Harrison. Another was his old compatriot Jeff Lynne, he of Beatles-influenced ELO, Cloud Nine producer, and fellow bandmate in The Traveling Wilburys. Lynne would put the finishing touches on the record after George died.

It could be argued that there wasn’t a rock star on earth who was more prepared for the Great Beyond than George Harrison. Since his twenties, he’d been interested in Eastern mysticism of all kinds, and in the belief that the material world and all it offered was temporary by its very definition. This is the guy who wrote “All Things Must Pass”, after all.

But, even if George had dealt with the theme of death and the passing of the physical through out his career, this album is unique. But, how so?
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