Cover Lay Down

I’m flat out this week, preparing new classroom and new curriculum for another year in one of the toughest urban schools in Massachusetts, so I hope no one minds a relevant repost as we round the corner on the cusp of yet another school year. As with all our reposted features here at CLD, I’ve included a couple of new additions to the original setlist, too – so scroll down for covers of Black Sabbath, Sia, Paul Simon, Little Feat, Elvis Costello, Townes, Dylan, and more…





On the canvas of my mind, I paint the summerself as a towheaded Tom Sawyer, barefoot and fancy free. And though I cannot see into the infinite otherminds that share my world, it’s healthy, I think, to imagine that we all recreate our childhoods as such.

But there was little point in going unshod in my suburban childhood. A walk meant pavement, not sidewalks, and on the street, the threat of broken glass or ancient gravel shards was everpresent. Even our own backyard was sparse and prickly, a minefield of instep acorns; even the woodchips beneath the swingset were too splintery for toes untoughened by a lifetime of bare earth. For me, shoes and sneakers were the way of the world. And until recently, they always were.

Today, thanks to influence and instinct – evoked, in part, from the better memories of my farm-bred spouse – my children’s lives are different. Here in the woods, the girls run free, digging in the dirt with their heels, leaving muddy footprints across the flagstones as they scamper in for supper. As a consequence, their feet are tougher, the soles and pads thickening with age far earlier than mine ever did. Though I winced my way through the selfsame pathways, watching them run over the rough rocks and pebble beaches as we traveled up the Pacific Coast these last few weeks was validating, affirming the value of our choice to raise them without barriers between earth and flesh.

And such barefoot afternoons and weekends may continue for a while yet, though the rain and chill which arrived this week are a harbinger of colder months to come. But tonight summer ends, and the world of socks and laces rears its ugly head.

Which is to say: the elderchild starts school tomorrow morning, and my own classes will begin on Monday. The wee one will enter the world of public education this year, too, with Kindergarten a given in a world of second grade standardized tests. And school means shoes – for bare toes are outlawed in most schools these days, and for good reason: though flip flops are en vogue, the new world of liability and oversensitivity to hygiene make such summerwear moot in the classroom.

Time to put summer sandals back into storage for another year, then, and climb back into our sneakers and hard shoes, still scuffed from Spring, and dusty with the sifted sunbeams of a summer’s rest. We’ll buy new ones when the paychecks start coming in again, and perhaps by then the pride of shod and booted life will return to us. Too soon, the leaves will fall, and the snows begin, turning shoes to boots with high-top laces. In the meantime, here’s a soundtrack for our sorrow.

• Hem: (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes (orig. Elvis Costello)
  (from Almost You: The Songs of Elvis Costello, 2002)

• Freakwater: Put My Little Shoes Away (trad. / arr. Woody Guthrie)
  (from Feels Like the Third Time, 1993)

• The Sacred Shakers: Travelin’ Shoes (trad.)
  (from The Sacred Shakers, 2008)

• Ruthie Foster: Death Came A Knockin’ (Travelin’ Shoes) (trad.)
  (from Stages, 2004)

• Randy Newman w/ Valerie Carter: Sailin’ Shoes (orig. Little Feat)
  (from Rock and Roll Doctor: A Tribute to Lowell George, 1998)

• Abigail Washburn: Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot? (trad.)
  (from Song Of The Traveling Daughter, 2005)

• Jeb Loy Nichols: Flyin’ Shoes (orig. Townes Van Zandt)
  (from Riding The Range: The Songs of Townes Van Zandt, a 20 song tribute album arriving Sept. 13, 2010, now available for pre-order)

• Lyle Lovett: Flyin’ Shoes (ibid.)
  (from Step Inside This House, 1998)

• Mark Bates: Flyin’ Shoes (ibid.)
  (from Down The Narrow, 2009)

• Martin Simpson: Boots of Spanish Leather (orig. Bob Dylan)
  (from A Nod To Bob: An Artists’ Tribute To Bob Dylan, 2001)

• Nanci Griffith: Boots of Spanish Leather (ibid.)
  (from Other Voices, Other Rooms, 1993)

• Chris Smither: High Heel Sneakers / Big Boss Man (orig. T. Tucker / L. Dixon)
  (from Another Way To Find You, 1991)

REPOST BONUS TRACKS, August 2011:

• Andrew Gregory: White Shoes (orig. Jack Hardy)
  (from as-yet unnamed Jack Hardy Tribute, 2012)

• Bill Patton: Fairies Wear Boots (orig. Black Sabbath)
  (from Gets It On, 2006)

• Genevieve: Little Black Sandals (orig. Sia)
  (via YouTube, 2011)

• Mike Gennarini: Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (orig. Paul Simon)
  (from Facebook, 2011)
  

Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features and songsets each Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday.