Category: (Re)Covered


(Re)Covered, vol. XX: more covers of and from
Sam Billen, The Farewell Drifters, Rufus Wainwright, Dylan & more!

June 11th, 2011 — 08:54 pm

Our tendency towards revisiting posts gone by through the lens of new releases and projects is especially apropos this weekend, given the continued recovery efforts in our little tornado-ravaged town.   While the rest of us sift through the rubble, let’s sift through the archives, taking account of some new and noteworthy works from artists featured previously here on Cover Lay Down. 


We first featured young started-out-bluegrass band the Farewell Drifters on the release of the hook-heavy Yellow Tag Mondays, their 2010 release; back then, they were already leaning towards a broader stew of Americana and indie roots music, and you could hear both their influences and their growing trend towards folkrock in the Beatles covers we posted, which had been recorded a year apart from each other.

Today, in a (Re)covered two-fer, the Drifters bring us a song that we visited through other coverage way back on the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11, and like the rest of their newest album, it’s another step towards something rich and subtly different, both more mainstream and more original in sound and sensibility, couched in deeply layered pop-rock with just a hint of ‘grass, though relatively true to the original in most other ways. The cover – a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s Only Living Boy In New York – is nowhere near as sweet or somber as the Shawn Colvin cover that so deeply speaks to my soul, but these days, being in the thick of the disaster, I need hope more than I need sadness, and this bonus track from Echo Boom, released just last week, provides just the trick, making for some fine summer soundtrack material.

  • Farewell Drifters: Only Living Boy In New York (orig. Simon and Garfunkel)

    (from Echo Boom, 2011)

Bonus Tracks:



Sam Billen is a stand-up, sensitive indie musician and producer who has shown up on Cover Lay Down several times, both for his several holiday projects and for REMOVERs, the electrofolk remix and coverage project which he has been building and posting – in public and entirely for free – for over a year as he adjusts to the home studio joys of new fatherhood. He’s long been on the top of our watchlist, in part because of the sheer authenticity of both his voice and the evident care and craftsmanship with which he produces his material, and in part because, unlike most musicians, he comes off as perfectly sincere, even humble in both his work and his occasional emails announcing new developments in that work.

But Sam gets major kudos for reaching out this time around – because in the midst of the chaos we’ve experienced since the tornado hit our tiny town, it was genuinely touching to receive an email that contained both a full paragraph reaching out to us in the context of that disaster, thanking us for our reporting of it and sending hope that we are all okay out here, and a link to the newest songs which Sam, his brother, and his father have taken on: a set of loving living-room covers of predominantly countrypop hits, just three guitars and voices taking on Neil Young and others, as honest as a campfire circle among family. Here’s two of my favorites, with encouragement to check out the rest of ‘em over at The Billen Brothers’ YouTube channel – plus an older bonus from the now-completed REMOVERs project.

  • The Billen Brothers: Ventura Highway (orig. America)


  • The Billen Brothers: I Will (orig. The Beatles)




Our 2007 feature on the Wainwright/McGarrigle Family was the very first of our Folk Family features; since then, we’ve revisited the extended clan multiple times, making note of Loudon’s Charlie Poole tribute, youngest daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche‘s delightful work as a solo singer-songwriter, and Kate McGarrigle’s passing last winter after a long struggle with cancer. Now, we return once more to report on a new work from what is perhaps the least “folk” of the modern Wainwright clan: Rufus, who has made a name for himself in movie soundtracks and pop circles as a balladeer, forging far beyond the folk roots which mother Kate and father Loudon set before him.

To be fair, Rufus has crossover appeal to folk audiences; as such, we’ve covered him here, too. But though the new Rufus box set House of Rufus – 19 full-length discs, both CDs and DVDs, a relatively complete compendium of demos, in-studio rarities, side projects, soundtrack cuts, live material, and 6 studio albums – primarily focuses on his work as a nuanced pop crooner (including the entirety of his infamous Carnegie Hall Judy Garland tribute), the sheer breadth is wide enough by far to be well worth collecting, including a vast and varied compendium of his collaborative work with family members and friends, many of which we’ve celebrated here before, and a few of which (most notably, a delicious duet on Richard Thompson’s Down Where The Drunkards Roll performed with his father which, unfortunately, I’ve been asked not to release too early) are otherwise entirely unavailable. Here’s a couple other favorites from the box and beyond, just to show the diversity potential in such a sweeping set of coverage.



Finally: social and professional pressures caused us to skip past two Bob Dylan tributes as his birthday came and went towards the end of May; recent tornado events in our local area kept us from coming back until now. But the pair is worth noting, even now, in part because both feature well-known, long-standing artists taking on the Dylan canon with aplomb.

First and foremost, Ralph “Streets of London” McTell released an EP-length set of Dylan covers two weeks ago, and though nobody seems to have noticed except astute Aussie folkwatchers Timber and Steel, the set is absolutely worth finding and purchasing. Somewhat akin in tone and timbre to the late Johnny Cash’s reinterpretation of the work of others late in his own life, yet imbued with McTell’s distinctive britfolk tones and fingerpicking, the six songs here are darkened with age, and deep with the pensive eye and mind of a fellow folksinger who has seen his share of fame, which is to say: as T&S notes, McTell’s Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright sounds like the song was written for him. Check out the full tribute here.

Second and no less noteworthy, Red House Records took advantage of Dylan’s 70th to release a decade-later follow-up to their defining Dylan folk tribute. Like the “original”, A Nod To Bob 2, the second release in this series, stars a set of recognizable folk artists taking on the canon – though notably, this time around, a few cuts can be found elsewhere, such as Danny Schmidt’s Buckets of Rain, or Eliza Gilkyson’s Jokerman, and some of these artists, such as John Gorka, are no longer in the prime of their careers, and their voices show it. Still, the roster here is sound, and the interpretations well-selected, with deeper cuts than the last round, and standouts all around, including a wonderful wail from the Jimmy LaFave, the Texan master of Dylan troubadour coverage, a delightfully bouncy, bluesy take from Hot Tuna, a truly sultry country blues from Pieta Brown, and Meg Hutchinson’s wonderful, echoing piano-driven reinvention of rarity Born In Time – the latter pair of which we could not help but pass along.




While we’re all about the artists here, and our server costs continue to rise as our popularity continues to grow, here at Cover Lay Down, we believe in passing it forward. So although we encourage you to check out and purchase albums by all artists featured here before moving on, Cover Lay Down is pledging 40% of all donations given between now and June 30th to rebuilding our local community after the recent tornado cut a swath through the hills and into our downtown area, destroying our Town Offices and leaving well over 100 people homeless. Won’t you consider helping out? Click here to donate.

15 comments » | (Re)Covered, Bob Dylan, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Billen, The Farewell Drifters

Dylan, Etc.: More covers of and from
Sarah Jarosz, Lavinia Ross, Lisa Hannigan, Anna Vogelzang & more!

May 16th, 2011 — 07:46 pm

There’s a lot of Dylan in the air this month – see, for example, both our recent feature on Thea Gilmore’s John Wesley Harding, released in honor of the seminal singer-songwriter’s 70th birthday next week, and last weekend’s house concert preview for our upcoming show with Anthony Da Costa, who many have compared to Dylan himself. But as we’ve noted several times here at Cover Lay Down, the Bob Dylan canon is far too vast to justify a single feature. So here’s an omnibus of a different sort: five vastly different new and newly-found takes on Dylan, plus more from the mailbox and beyond.


We’re huge fans of the Sugar Hill Records catalog here at Cover Lay Down. But this two solid releases this month have raised the bar even higher for the best little bluegrass label in the business: Follow Me Down, a stunningly powerful sophomore album from festival circuit fave and local college student Sarah Jarosz, and a strong solo record from Tara Nevins, better known as the sole female voice behind roots rockers and folk festival faves Donna The Buffalo.

Cover Me already hit the ground running last week with Sarah’s Radiohead cover, which features her singing alongside the Punch Brothers, but as a nod of the head towards our ongoing support of her burgeoning career on the border of bluegrass and indiepop – the girl turns twenty next week, for goodness sake – we’ve been given exclusive first-stream rights for Jarosz’ cover of Dylan’s Ring Them Bells, and it’s a masterful take, warm and sweet and aching, with rich production, a pitch-perfect tonality, and subtle harmonies by Vince Gill. Meanwhile, Nevins takes on Van Morrison amidst a spate of deep, mystical originals, and it fits in just fine with her rootsy sensibility. Both albums come highly recommended; head over to Sugar Hill to order.

  • Sarah Jarosz: Ring Them Bells (orig. Bob Dylan)




Our feature on the songbook of Kate Wolf last summer found us wandering North through Kate’s own hills of California, and on upstream to Oregon. Now, in the mail, comes Keepsake, the sole solo album from Lavinia Ross, Oregonian farm-owner and musician whose music is as earthy and honest and organic as her produce. The album includes three Kate Wolf covers, a take on James Taylor’s Millworker, several originals, and a rock-solid interpretation of Dylan’s Tomorrow is a Long Time, recorded with her husband, singer-songwriter Rick Ross, and the whole thing is light and gentle as it comes. Here’s a pair to get you started.


We keep a close eye on little-lo-fi-UK-label-that-could Where It’s At Is Where You Are; though their catalog yaws wide, their taste for covers is insatiable, as we noted way back in March of 2009 upon the release of their gigantic Springsteen tribute, and again over the holiday season, and their stable includes a number of quite wonderful otherwise-unknowns emerging on and about the folkworld. This month’s news takes note of The Lobster Boat, the newest release from Howard Hughes of French band Coming Soon and David Tattersall of The Wave Pictures, whose work together sounds a bit like a mostly-acoustic folk-rock band whose members grew up listening to the Kinks, Belle and Sebastian, and the Violent Femmes; if the below bonus b-side and the title track streaming on their homepage are any indication, this one is well worth the pounds.

  • Howard Hughes and David Tattersall: The Locusts Sang (orig. Bob Dylan)



Elseblog, the collaborative at covers tumblr Copy Cats shared this 2009 bell-driven Lisa Hannigan cover of Just Like Tom Thumb Blues a few weeks ago, but it finally caught my ear – a sharp shock amidst a long slog – as I was digging through the feedreader, trying to catch up after two weeks of being out of the loop. Not sure if it’s folk, per se, but we’ve celebrated Hannigan’s beautifully torn voice here before, and the sparse instrumentation and stark pub setting are utterly delightful to this folk listener’s ears.



Finally, since we were trending Dylanesque this week, I headed over to YouTube and did a quick search, just to see what would pop up, hoping to find the perfect coda. Sure enough: amidst the grungy bedroom amateurs, indie-folk banjo-player Anna Vogelzang‘s just-recorded after-midnight cover of Don’t Think Twice comes off road-weary and delicate, providing the perfect excuse to finally tout this long-admired up-and-comer. The ex-Dresden Dolls bandmember’s upcoming new album will feature Anthony Da Costa (thus bringing this entry full circle), and members of Dresden Dolls and Righteous Babe, among others; check out Anna Vogelzang’s YouTube channel for more, more, more from this amazing post-punk singer-songwriter.

Bonus Track:



Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features and themed songsets twice weekly.

44 comments » | (Re)Covered, Anna Vogelzang, Bob Dylan, Sarah Jarosz

(Re)Covered, Vol. XIX: More coverfolk of and from
Stevie Wonder, Sara Lov, Edie Carey, The Water Is Wide & more!

March 12th, 2011 — 06:26 pm





Early this week, my trusty, relatively rusty laptop went kaput, leaving me stranded with but an iPad to access the universe. With 50,000 songs and their library locked in limbo, and the iPad unable to load the full WordPress interface, I was in no position to let folks know what was happening behind the scenes; the resulting radio silence through what is usually a midweek blog feature deadline was frustrating, and I apologize for leaving regular visitors hanging on the line.

Today is a recovered day in more ways than one, then: not only is the world outside melting down to Spring, revealing last year’s leaves still unraked across the slowly surfacing front lawn, but I am once again able to blog with impunity. And for this, I owe much thanks to the fine folks at Apple, who – over the course of a very stressful week – imported every last file and bookmark from the old, inoperable machine into a new one, and proudly presented me this morning with a sleek 2011 MacBook Pro that feels delightfully new under my fingertips, yet on the screen looks and behaves like an old friend, down to its interface and organizational infrastructure.

And so here we are, grateful and relieved, with credit card maxed out but once again able to step wholeheartedly into the blogging fray. And given the context, it’s a perfect time to explore the ways in which the past echoes through the present through another edition of our popular (Re)Covered series, featuring new and newly-discovered songs that revealed themselves just a little too late to make it into the original posts where they rightfully belonged.

Sara Lov runs a little pop for the trad set, but people seemed to appreciate her joyful way with the songs she clearly loves, and we loved her playful, well-crafted covers of Beck’s Timebomb and Arcade Fire’s My Body Is A Cage enough to feature her prominently in the midst of our New Artists, Old Songs Week way back in 2008. So it’s especially exciting to note that her mid-February release, I Already Love You, is a full-bore covers album, one that pays tribute to an especially broad set of influences from Frank Sinatra and The Thompson Twins to others, like Ron Sexsmith, The Smiths, and Conor Oberst, more commonly cited among the indiepop world.

The production here is especially inspired, akin to the best settings and soundscapes of Aimee Mann or Rosie Thomas. Sara’s Sexsmith cover contains just enough of both Sexsmith’s signature slippery vocal mannerisms and the signature twang of the original guitar to ring familiar without sounding derivative; her Vasti Bunyan waltz, a delicate, lazy revelation, benefits greatly from its strings and piano; her take on Magnetic Fields classic Papa Was A Rodeo has AAA Radioplay in every perfect downbeat. But in the end, it is Sara’s voice, sweet and warm and ever so slightly rasped, which makes these songs ring out loud and true. Check out these tracks, and then – once you’ve heard their value, and extrapolated accordingly – head over to Sara’s website to pick up the whole thing for a donation of your choice.

Bonus Tracks, since they’re long gone otherwise:



I tend to do as much research as I can when presenting new discoveries, the better to provide thorough context for you to embrace new artists, as our mandate encourages. But though my Google Fu is highly honed, thanks to vocationally-relevant post-graduate coursework in webbed research methods, our ability to be comprehensive in such introductions can be stymied by multiple factors, from the tendency of older works to fall out of print to the modern digital dilemma which trades speed and ease of access for the loss of liner notes which might aid us in matching names to voices in the works of others.

New discoveries from two recently celebrated folk artists provide ample evidence for the effects of these limitations, and for why we depend on you to fill the gaps in our knowledge. We owe our first find to Lucas Miré, a fine singer-songwriter in his own right who we featured way back in 2009, who followed up on last weekend’s feature on Edie Carey by sending along this amazing cut from It’s Gonna Be Great, Carey’s 2008 cover-heavy out-of-print collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter Rose Cousins (often featured here for her own collaborative work with Boston singer-songwriter Rose Polenzani), along with notice that he was recently privileged to host Carey in the studio to accompany him on one of his own recordings, leaving us eager to hear more when the time is ripe. And the second? Turns out it was actually already in my archives – but it took notice from a reader to realize that not only does recently celebrated NY-based bluegrass musician Michael Daves tour with Tony Trischka, he also lends his highly trained, powerfully barbaric tenor yawp voice to several tunes on Trischka’s more recent albums.



Speaking of Daves, and Trischka, and of the bluegrass world which we explored after our recent trip to the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival: We mentioned loving their stage companion Tashina Clarridge in that entry, but I should also note that my own impression of her performance was supported by fellow fiddler Andy Reiner, of Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, who I met over lunch in the lounge later that day – and given how friendly Andy was, and how avidly we touted their work as they prepared to take the mainstage as winners of the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s 2008 Emerging Artist Showcase, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that after a single EP, and several years of smaller-scale YouTube and web releases, BMUZ finally released their first full-length album in November, and it’s a beautiful romp, combining old time americana with scandinavian folk and other influences to great effect. The Berklee College crowd just keeps impressing us, eh? Here’s a slippery teaser from Rousted, plus a track we posted way back when we first discovered them.

Bonus Track:



I love my wife, but let’s be honest: because she is one of those people who own one or two albums per mood, and because as a folk-listener she has a strong preference for soaring high-soprano celtic sirens, I don’t usually look to her to introduce me to new music. Nor do I usually end up listening long to recommendations from my mother, who trends towards the syrupy sweet end of folk.

Still, when I heard this version of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground filling the living room as a soundtrack to a recent cleaning binge, I couldn’t help but rush to the stereo to figure out how I missed this one in our recent Covered In Folk feature on Wonder’s songbook. Turns out that’s one-time Cover Lay Down feature artist, ex-Nickel Creek and current WPA member Sara Watkins on vox with Darol Anger’s American Fiddle Ensemble, whose “gloriously eclectic album” Republic of Strings was released was back in 2004, and then passed along to us by my mother just a few years ago. Guess that’ll teach me to keep my ears and mind open – and to digitize everything when I get it, so it shows up when I search iTunes.



Finally, as expected, our Valentine’s Day 2011 Single Song Sunday feature on the scottish ballad The Water Is Wide brought some fine versions out of the woodwork. Some of these submissions came from you, our readership, via comments and emails; standouts here included takes from Luka Bloom and Steve Goodman, both of whom we’ve covered before here and there in our tenure, and an amazing Emmylou Harris-led multi-artist take from Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Celebration at Madison Square Garden in May of 2009 which, frankly, just makes me ache for the availability and cashflow to attend such things.

Sheer chance landed us a brand new-to-us cover of the traditional tune, too: mere days after we posted the original entry, I found a set of CDs from dulcimer player and singer-songwriter Thomasina, a former Connecticut State Troubadour, in the mailbox, and her 2003 setting of the song, which is built around a previously recorded piano arrangement from friend Monica Robelotto, is a beautiful standout among strong tracks for those who prefer their folk a bit more formally phrased. Here’s the lot, with grateful thanks to all those who pass along the good stuff, and a recommendation that you also check out both the Cowboy Junkies’ and the Maura O’Connell versions of the song if you can find ‘em.





765 comments » | (Re)Covered, Sara Lov

Holiday Coverfolk 2010, Vol. 1: Christmas, (Re)Covered
(New and newly-found holiday songs from familiar faces)

November 27th, 2010 — 07:41 pm





Every year, I find my struggle to stave off Christmas Creep stymied by the drive to provide the meaningful and new before early-season eagerness can be replaced by weary resignation.

Oh, sure, I wish it were otherwise – after all, December has so much more to offer, from Hanukkah to the very real possibility of an early snow day. But being the last blogger on the block to cover Christmas risks hitting folks when their patience for the songs of the season has already been exhausted. And dropping the best of what we have to offer into an unwelcome lap frames fruitful artistry as fruitcake, heavy and unwanted, when it should arrive fresh and new as the December snow, sparkling and light with joy.

So yes, it’s early for the holiday samplers to begin in earnest. But then, we’ve but a month before these songs get shelved again, and all competitive urgency aside, giving artists their due time in your worthy ears does seem to warrant the immediacy.

In the spirit of the modern season, then, and in the interest of giving the people what they want to hear, here’s the first of what will surely be several holiday-themed features this year. We’ll start with ringing in the new, so that this year’s top crop can be given their full potential, with new work from familiar faces this weekend; stay tuned for old favorites, carols and coverage from young and newly-discovered artists, and more as the weeks progress.



The Indigo Girls – who we covered in full way back in September, 2009 – have waited a long time to take on the holiday spirit, perhaps because their early work, so heavily steeped in raw depression and rage, was anathema to the tone and tenor of the season.

But the long-standing duo has broadened their perspective since then, finding comfort and joy in creating anthems and courting hope where once they spewed forth only anger. Now, in keeping with their long-standing commitment to diversity and social justice, they present new seasonal record Holly Happy Days, a diverse set of songs from various sources and traditions, which yaws from sparse yet cheerful pop to dark folkrock. And though the synthesized production causes a few tracks to come off as cursory, the underlying pain of their earlier work still lingers appropriately in such tunes as Peace Child and the album-closing piano-led hymn There’s Still My Joy – providing balance to the larger mass of upbeat and hopeful numbers, including both their fast-paced take on a Klezmer Hanukkah tune, which would have fit easily into our midweek feature on the Guthrie family, and this mellow cowboy take on O Holy Night.



In his new holiday EP Christmas Gift, alt-country fave Scott Miller, who we’ve not yet covered, takes on John Prine, who we have. I don’t know as much about the Southern-based one-time rock star as I apparently should, though several Americana bloggers I trust seem to think he’s at the forefront of the modern canon. But the gentle gospel lilt he lends to Prine’s old chestnut makes for a pretty stunning transformation of an oft-covered favorite, while other cuts, from a “dueling banjos” arrangement of Joyful Joyful to a slow twangy cover of Neil Young’s Star Of Bethelem, along with several well-crafted originals, shine as well. If the Christmas Gift EP is typical of Miller’s work, he’s got one more fan in me as of right now.

For comparison’s sake:



Just One Angel, a new project spearheaded by Christine Lavin, is predominantly a collection of originals, from many of the same crowd that brought you the In My Room tribute album which we featured earlier this year. Lavin’s lighthearted spirit and tender nature are easily evident, with songs ranging from irreverent to holy, and like the aforementioned tribute, this one comes recommended especially for older folkies, who will recognize the names of many artists here.

Among the gems on Just One Angel, I found a Dar Williams cover from Darryl Purpose, who we first took note of in our July 2010 tribute to the Dave Carter songbook; a quick search of the archives brought me to the softspoken folksinger’s self-released 2002 Christmas album The Gift of the Magi (And Other Seasonal Stories), a delightful set of modern folk coverage which includes both the Dar tune and a second Carter cover. Head back into our own archives for features on both Dar covering and Dave covered, but don’t forget to pick up both Darryl’s holiday record and the Just One Angel compilation first.



Bonus points for Kate Taylor‘s take on Auld Lang Syne from the same compilation as above, originally released at the turn of the century as her very first single after a 20 year hiatus from musicmaking. We hit a few of our favorite covers of the perennial New Years tune last year around the turn of the calendar, but there’s a hidden secret bonus traceback here, too, for those who recognize the harmony vocalist on the track. Yes, that’s Kate’s more famous brother, alright. Uncredited here, but unmistakable.



Like many labels this time of year, Bedroom Community – that’s Sam Amidon‘s label, for those without encyclopedic recall – will be releasing its own collection of seasonal tunes, aptly entitled Yule, which in the case of the tiny Icelandic outlet in question means remixes, exclusive tracks, unreleased album outtakes and scores which trend towards the fragile, icy extremes of the indiefolk world, all available free to download exclusively with every purchase made through their web store until the New Year. The collection includes an acoustic version of Kedron, Amidon’s contribution to the 2008 nufolk spiritual gathering Help Me To Sing: Songs of the Sacred Harp; the tracks from Yule haven’t been released yet, but here’s the original release to warm the heart a bit before it drops.



Finally, and in other news: Sam Billen, whose kickstarter-funded holiday project we wrote about several weeks ago, reports that the album has been sent along to the printers as of last Friday, so expect the freebies to be available pretty soon; in the meanwhile, here’s a pair of delicate, sweetly soaring tracks from his 2008 holiday collection Merry Christmas, now available free to download from the website.


Oh, and in the interest of not repeating myself this year, while also providing fodder for those once again searching for just the right mix for the holiday season, here’s the full set of last year’s Christmas posts:



Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk sets and features twice weekly without fail, come snow or unseasonal warmth. Coming soon: new holiday covers from new artists, acoustic favorites from yesteryear, and more holiday cheer!

1,280 comments » | (Re)Covered, Holiday Coverfolk

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

October 16th, 2010 — 01:55 pm

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…

1,631 comments » | (Re)Covered, Joel Rakes, Lucy Wainwright Roche, New Artists Old Songs, Ruth Notman

(Re)Covered, Vol. XVIII: More covers of and from
Kate Wolf, Simon & Garfunkel, U2, Slowcoustic, Lucinda Williams and more!

September 5th, 2010 — 09:15 am

The last few weeks have been busy on my end, prompting us to stick to thematic posts and reposts. But the floodgates never close on the inbox passalongs and blogsources – and with almost three years of posts under our lifebelts, the rising tide of flotsam and jetsam falls easily into line with the water table.

Looks like it’s high time for another edition of our popular (Re)Covered series, featuring new and newly-discovered songs that bobbed to the surface just a little too late to make it into the original posts where they rightfully belonged.

According to her bio, late bloomer Sherry Austin came to songcraft after a full and fulfilling stint as a single mother left her with an empty nest and a heart full of love and music to share. And if her newest album Love Still Remains is any indication, we’re lucky to have her. The 14 track Kate Wolf tribute – 11 covers, two new settings of Kate’s unrecorded lyrics, and a gorgeous original that aptly echoes Kate’s soaring style – offers a consistent set of songs eminently worthy of its iconic muse, with rich contemporary production settings that only lift her sweet voice and gentle Americana approach that much higher.

Love Still Remains arrived this week too late to make it into our California Coverfolk feature on Kate Wolf, but serendipity smiles on those who shine, and truly, this well-imagined tribute deserves its own moment in the sun. Check it out, head over to Sherry’s website for her first two albums, and then follow up later for news of a release date.



Film producer Barry Mendel may not be a household name, but cover lovers owe him a great debt for his work with Seu Jorge during the filming of Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, when he helped the Brazilian actor and singer-songwriter learn and arrange the David Bowie covers that provided much of the movie’s on-screen soundtrack. Writes Barry,

    “as we were learning the songs and jorge would need time to roll cigarettes and what not, i’d pick up the guitar and play and he’d sing along, and when we were finishing the recording of all the bowie covers in the studio, his kind wife mariana insisted we record one of the songs she would hear me play with jorge singing along…so here is the boxer from 2004 w/ me playing and singing and jorge singing back-up and doing some whistling, to boot… “

The Simon and Garfunkel cover (yeah, we’ve covered ‘em) which came appended to Barry’s email is quite good for an amateur, actually. Barry said it’s never been heard outside of his presence until today, and added that he’d be honored if we’d be up to sharing it, but truly, it’s an honor to release it to the world.



I don’t usually go back to guest posts, but when Sandy of Slowcoustic – who sat in for us while I was off in the folk festival fields this summer – sent along this triplet of private-label tracks from countryfolk cowboy troubadour Bobby “Caleb” Coy, whose new disc Wild Desert Rose is due to drop Tuesday on the Yer Bird label, they definitely caught my ear. As Sandy notes, the covers are pretty lo-fi, but the songcraft and performance hiding under the mic distance and murmur is an apt reflection of the sparse presentation and raw potency of Caleb’s studio work, whetting the whistle for a full album of unmixed demos rife with strong, mournful dustbowl ballads and the simple, subtle power of the sepia-toned soul stripped bare.



We covered U2 for St. Patrick’s Day back in 2009; we’ve done the Bluegrass thing several times, most notably in and around my two favorite New England festivals Grey Fox and the Joe Val Fest. But we really don’t do country here at all, so putting the three together may not be the obvious choice. Still, if anyone can do it, it would just have to be with the help of cross-genre-covering bluegrass icons Del McCoury and Chris Thile, wouldn’t it?

To be fair, even on the tracks that don’t feature those particular bluegrass stars, Dierks Bentley‘s newest album Up On The Ridge sounds pretty damn good to me, country label or no. And Dierks is known for genre-crossing, touring with jam bands and recording with rock stars long before this most recent tribute to the roots and bluegrass influences which brought him to country in the first place. Songs by Dylan and Buddy and Julie Miller? Guest spots from Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Rob Ickes, and Chris Stapleton of the Steeldrivers? Is it time to give the genre another look, or is this just another good country singer gone ‘grass? You be the judge.



Finally, as mentioned a few years ago on these pages in a feature on live in-studio coversources such as Daytrotter, KCRW, Hinah and World Cafe, I follow hundreds of blogs and webzines, most especially those radio stations and production spaces which post intimate regular sessions online. But I had totally missed American Songwriter’s ongoing in-studio series until just last week, when a random check-in on a few favorite sons and daughters led me to a whole heap of well-curated, stripped down EP-length sets from all over the singer-songwriter map. Score one more for the little guys.



Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features and LP-length songsets every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday. We’re all about the artists, so if you like what you hear, please support the arts by clicking on the links provided to purchase and pursue your favorites.

Coming soon: a sweet set of folksongs pay tribute to yet another seminal indie band, a late summer EP has us looking back on two decades of coverage from an indie alt-rocker turned solo singer-songwriter with a penchant for classic rock, and Cover Lay Down turns three. And don’t forget to check out yesterday’s Townes, (Re)Covered feature!

1,359 comments » | (Re)Covered

Townes, (Re)Covered: Riding The Range
(plus two new tracks from Isobel Campbell and friends!)

September 4th, 2010 — 11:45 am

It’s a (Re)Covered weekend, with Townes today, and more from the wide world of coverage to come tomorrow. Happy long weekend, and enjoy the tunes!





As noted in last week’s comments, we’re just days away from the official release date for Riding The Range: the Songs of Townes van Zandt, a 20-track benefit for the QE2 Activity Centre, which “specialises in providing day activities and activity holidays for people with disabilities”. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve heard of the 20-track compilation before – we’ve been watching it closely since last winter, when the project was still in its development phase – but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take one more opportunity to celebrate the impending release of a tribute album bound for glory and our year’s end top ten.

Riding The Range is the brainchild of two men: Phil Oates, the director of the QE2 Centre, and musician Michael Weston King, a masterful songwriter and performer in his own right whose song Riding The Range, as performed by Townes himself, gives title to the tribute. And both Oates and King deserve kudos, for their combined curatorial efforts have paid off in spades. Riding the Range contains a particularly strong mix of US and UK singer-songwriters and countryfolk troubadours, including new and newly-recast recordings from Cover Lay Down favorites Devon Sproule, Boo Hewerdine, Peter Case, Danny Schmidt, and Jeffrey Foucault. And though a number of the featured players were new to me, including Johnny Dowd, The Magic Numbers, and King himself, the resulting collection is consistently excellent, even breathtaking – no mean feat, considering the album’s length and diversity.

Previous nods to Riding The Range here at Cover Lay Down have included our recent Folk Couples feature, last month’s (Re)Covered, Vol. XVII, and last week’s topical post containing songs about shoes; each contains a track from the album, and you’re welcome to head back into the archives for a few bonus cuts. But pre-orders are finally open, so place your order today, and rest easy in the knowledge that by buying Riding The Range, you’re getting a great album, and helping a great cause to boot.



Seems the cowboy troubadour is due to haunt our (Re)Covered series ad infinitum; even without Riding on the Range on the cusp of greatness, we’ve already looked back twice upon our original Covered in Folk tribute to Townes Van Zandt. But this pair of Townes covers from Hawk, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan‘s newest release, are just stunning. Snake Song is a dark alt-countryfolk masterpiece, but don’t miss Isobel’s duet with young second-generation singer-songwriter Willy Mason on No Place To Fall, a slow country waltz which plays masterfully off the tension between Isobel’s breathy soprano and Mason’s rich, echoey campfire baritone. The album is amazing, too.

964 comments » | (Re)Covered, Townes van Zandt, Tribute Albums

(Re)Covered, vol. XVII: more covers of and from
Springsteen, Townes, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Disney & more

July 18th, 2010 — 10:49 am





By the time you read this, we’ll have been in the fields for two days already, camping out just a short hop from the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest mainstage while we help build the place from the ground up – and I’ll have spent Saturday at Grey Fox Bluegrass Fest, too, so it’s a reasonable bet that I’ve got a starter burn across my neck and nose, and a camera full of close-up press-access shots and shaky video of the best cover sets I could find.

I’ll have a lovely guest post or two for you later in the week, as usual. But in cleaning house for my absence, I unearthed a whole waiting list of coverage from the usual sources – artists, commenters, labels and more – that calls back to the archives. So rather than leaving you emptyhanded, here’s yet another edition of our popular (Re)Covered series, wherein we recover new and newly-discovered songs that surfaced just a little too late to make it into the original posts where they rightfully belonged.



There’s plenty of Springsteen covers in the ether, and so we’ve covered him plenty here, in thematic posts and in a compendium shared way back in September of last year. Most recently, we even included three covers of I’m On Fire to close out our set of songs for May’s heat wave. But the canon continues to attract the best and brightest, as evidenced by my recent serendipitous discovery of Erik Balkey’s amazingly transformative take on Born in the USA unearthed while looking for covers for our recent Dave Carter tribute.

Since any excuse to pass along the goods is good indeed, I’ve included yet another backstage take from the MVYRadio SXSW archives, and a bonus cut from Catie Curtis found on In My Room, a tribute album which we featured back in our first look at this year’s Tributes and Cover Compilations – a feature which also included Jeffrey Foucault and Mark Erelli’s take on Springsteen’s Johnny 99 from recent collaborative cover compilation Seven Curses.



One of the best thing about blogging is you, the reader – especially when you share covers I haven’t heard yet in the wake of a particularly interesting post. Case in point: this live take on American Tune, recorded live at Kerrville a few years ago, which was sent along via email after we shared ten versions of the seminal Paul Simon song for our July 4th Single Song Sunday. Kenny White‘s new to me, too, so head on over to his site to learn more…



Similarly, “friend and fan” Ted emailed the week after our recent feature on young Couples of the Folkworld with a take on Paul Curreri’s Letting It Be from singer-songwriter Daniel Boonelight, and I’m greatly appreciative for the introduction. Daniel’s a true-blue newcomer, with a few other covers and some nicely crafted originals up at YouTube but nothing formal recorded yet as far as I can tell, but his earnest voice and gentle, generally acoustic tendencies have real potential, and his preference for video-based recording reveals an organic approach to music that dovetails nicely with the modern digital trend towards realism and authenticity.

Though it seems likely that Boonelight would prefer that you take a gander at the VideoSongs, the tracks hold together well on their own as sonic landscapes, too. So here’s both: two video covers – the Curreri cover and a rough take on Ryan Adams’ Sweet Carolina recorded with friends – with stripped-from-video mp3s for the win.




We first took on the Townes Van Zandt songbook back in October, but the Townes covers have been coming fast and furious this year, thanks in no small part to the impending release of Riding The Range: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt, coming this September on Righteous 23 Records to benefit the UK’s QE2 Activity Centre.

This week, a last-minute mailbag submission from Vermont singer-songwriter Hip Hatchet put me in mind of Loretta, Townes’ paean to a sweet young barroom girl, if only because he’s got a great cover of the tune on his MySpace page – one which, he claims, was inspired by John Prine’s cover of the song, as heard on Poet, the 2001 country tribute to the cowboy troubadour. Hip Hatchet, whose lovely new album Men Who Share My Name, available for just two bucks on Bandcamp, is on target to become one of my favorite field listens during my impending absence, thanks to shades of Nick Drake’s performance and songsmithing, Arborea’s rural atmosphere, and a delightful chamberfolk-meets-nufolk production dynamic, full of rich horns and strings.

But it turns out I’ve got quite a few covers of this one. So in addition to Hip Hatchet’s mellow basso version, how about a growly back porch blues from the coming Riding The Range tribute, a slowcore indie lullaby take from Fort King, Ralph Stanley II’s bluegrass turn, and Steve Earle’s old timey alt-country cover from his own recent Townes tribute.



A double-dipper here from Jeff Pianki, who we first featured way back in February in honor of his stunning Loggins and Messina cover, and who has just released his newest cover: a delightfully low-key and gentle take on The Jungle Book monkey song I Wanna Be Like You, perfect as a follow-up to April’s Disney Songs post. Also solid, for those interested in Jeff’s songwriting skills: Joe Hertler‘s cover of Jeff’s Seeds In The Ground, which showed up on the same page just a few months ago.

Hello Bones, Pianki’s debut full-length, remains impending, though you can download demos of the songs and a b-sides prerelease EP cutely titled Hello Scones at jeffpianki.com; personally, I can’t wait to see what he does with the production, but the demos hold together nicely as a preview. Head over to Jeff’s Tumblr for more, but be warned: you’ll definitely fall in love with the sunny, sweet original love songs posted July 5 and June 25.



Finally, though Joni Covers week ended last Sunday over at the theme-driven, multi-member music blog Star Maker Machine, I’m particularly proud of my own postings, which included two chilly, etherial folkpop takes on Joni’s Blue and three lovely, delicate turns on All I Want – only one of which had actually come from our own Joni Covers post way back in June of last year. As noted above, I’m off to Falcon Ridge this week and next with three other members of the collaborative, so posting may be a bit sparse over there, but I’m pretty sure the others put up a few scheduled posts to go on in their absence, so you’re still missing out if you’re not a regular visitor or feedfollower.

Here’s two faves from the Joni Covers set, one from those selfsame MVYRadio archives, and one which was actually posted by fellow SMM contributor and folkblogger Darius of Oliver Di Place, whose tent is waiting for him alongside our pop-up camper as we speak. Can’t wait to meet him in person…

Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk sets and feature articles every Sunday and Wednesday without fail – even when we’re out standing in our field.

1,460 comments » | (Re)Covered

(Re)Covered, XVI: More covers of and from
Townes Van Zandt, Arborea, Annalivia, Broadway Shows and more!

May 19th, 2010 — 06:54 pm





Like a rain-swollen river, the late Spring rush of music from blogs, readers, labels, and other friendly pass-along sources continues unabated. The bounty is rich, and though we remain committed to bringing you only the best and brightest of the coverfolk world, there’s more than enough gems to tempt the palate and confound our preference for tightly organized artist-centered features and themes.

Happily, however, much of this month’s flood calls us back to themes and artists previously covered in these pages. Which makes it high time for yet another edition of our popular (Re)Covered series, wherein we recover new and newly-discovered songs that bobbed to the surface just a little too late to make it into the original posts where they rightfully belonged.


A surprisingly large quantity of great Townes Van Zandt covers came in on the heels of our October tribute to the softspoken troubadour. Several of these are still in-the-works and unbloggable, awaiting the official go-ahead to begin the buzz for a late summer double-sized Townes tribute album, a lovingly compiled collection which will feature a smashing set of 25 songs from some of our favorite US and UK singer-songwriters – including new tracks from Danny Schmidt, Devon Sproule, Johnny Dowd, Fionn Regan, Jeb Loy Nichols, Boo Hewerdine, and more. The as-yet-unnamed tribute, which will benefit the QE2 Activity Centre, is due in August on Righteous Records; watch this space for exclusives as the summer goes forward.

But as we mentioned in our original post, the Texan poet has many admirers. Today, unsigned emerging Americana prodigy Mark Bates comes in with an exclusive cover of Flyin’ Shoes, a serious alt-country ballad, dark and sweet, with just the right elements of pop and blues, off his highly recommended debut album Down The Narrow. Local favorite Mark Erelli turns in a lovely lullaby cover which missed round one on a technicality, but deserves to be heard. And prolific UK singer-songwriter Michael Weston King, whose cover of Marie will appear on the aforementioned tribute, passes along his deliciously crisp-yet-maudlin tex-mexified take on A Song For off his 2007 all-covers album Loves A Cover; his upcoming protest songs collection I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, which is due to drop in August as well, is worth watching for, too.

Bonus Track:



Speaking of tribute albums: late word of a Grass Roots Records tribute to Graham Nash’s 1971 debut album arrived just yesterday via fan-to-artist connection service The ConneXtion; the digital download went up just this week, and now that I’ve listened to it twice, I’m here to declare definitively that Be Yourself: A Tribute To Graham Nash’s Songs For Beginners is a delicious indie- and nu-folk collection, ranging from ragged country-folk band-driven songs to delicate medieval flute-and-strum pieces, featuring many familiar faces, from Alela Diane and Marie Sioux to Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Port O’Brien, Vetiver, and Robin Peckinold of Fleet Foxes. Fittingly, a portion of the proceeds will go to Wavy Gravy’s circus and arts camp, Camp Winnarainbow. Don’t eat the brown acid, kids.


In a similar vein, last month’s featurette on Maine indie-folk duo Arborea noted the impending release of a tribute to musical philosopher and acoustic steel string pioneer Robbie Basho; we posted a partial track at the time, and though I tend to be reluctant to post partial tracks, it proved to be one of our most popular downloads for the month.

Since then, I’ve received my very own copy of We Are All One, In The Sun, learned much about the Eastern-influenced contemporary of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and fallen in love with the man, his music, and the delicate work that Arborea frontman Buck Curran has collected to pay him tribute. By popular demand, then: here’s the full version of Arborea’s take on Basho’s Blue Crystal Fire, plus Meg Baird’s cover of Moving Up A Ways, with grateful thanks to the artists and their promoters for granting permission to stream the full tracks. Don’t forget to pick up your own copy of We Are All One, In The Sun for the full effect – the album is gorgeous, a well-curated journey through a branch of the folkworld well worth preservation and celebration.


Of course, it takes more than just tribute albums to float the coverfan’s boat. Our recent feature on Broadway Showtunes brought out the comments like nobody’s business, and as always, I’m greatly appreciative of all recommendations – after all, I lay no claim to completism, and indeed depend on the ears and hearts of others to help ensure that the joy of discovery is ever in the air we share.

Many of the covers mentioned in that particular aftermath were pre-millennial or upbeat; as I noted at the time, my aim was to stick to more recent covers, and mellow ones at that, but I couldn’t resist digging up The Lemonheads’ older take on Frank Mills, originally from Hair, and the decidedly upbeat Annie tune from Dan Zanes’ recent folky Broadway tribute 76 Trombones, after others mentioned them. More fitting, however, was Arlene’s reminder of Emmylou Harris’ 2008 take on Millworker, which I seem to have overlooked during my original search despite being a huge fan of both the countryfolk songstress and the James Taylor original. Here’s the goods.



Finally, in other non-tribute news: Though – as we noted on Sunday – buzz for the upcoming Crooked Still album continues on the eve of its release, I’m actually a bit more excited about the newest from fellow Bostonians Annalivia, who we first featured in our preview of last year’s Boston Celtic Music festival.

Annalivia’s early MySpace cuts, self-released debut, and live performances fell closer to raw Irish/Celtic tradfolk fusion, and the Scottish, Irish, Appalachian and other influences remain strong here, but Barrier Falls – their first “official” label debut, which dropped yesterday – shows movement and maturation towards a fuller, smoother, and less derivative sound, thanks in no small part to some utterly wonderful, warm production dynamics that retain all the energy of their performance while really setting their beautiful vocal tones and masterful stringwork alight. The difference in tone and tenor between the below tracks is stark and telling; if it doesn’t make you want to run out and buy Barrier Falls right away, then one of us is off our rocker.



Cover Lay Down posts new features and coverfolk sets each Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional otherday. Coming soon: the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival preview tour, and other dreams of summer.

1,213 comments » | (Re)Covered, Tribute Albums

(Re)Covered: Rising Stars
Arborea, Sam Billen, Mike and Ruthy

May 1st, 2010 — 05:51 am

The newest twigs and branches of the folk movement are still growing strong, if this month’s inbox is any indication – and that’s a very good thing, indeed. So today, for our regular weekend feature, we present news about a set of relatively new, relatively young artists that we’ve posted about before, making them ineligible for inclusion in our regular New Artists, Old Songs feature series…but perfect for a particularly focused edition of (Re)Covered.


A majestic set came in last week from Arborea, a Maine-based indiefolk duo who I’m dying to see live. We’ve pushed the echoey, delicate, almost nufolk sound of Shanti and Buck Curran in the midst of several features, most recently for their work as part of last year’s excellent Odetta tribute from Wears The Trousers, but never truly written about their work alone. But these stunning new recordings force my hand: “spooky” and “shimmering”, inviting further comparison with the work of Vashti Bunyan, Karen Dalton, Sandy Denny, Devandra Banhardt, and Sam Amidon, and with the birdsong tones and woodsy atmosphere of their rural origin.

Today’s trifecta, sent along on the tailwinds of their most recent release House of Sticks, aptly represents the fine balance between tradition and experimental delicacy which we’ve come to expect of Arborea. The two whole tracks – a Tim Buckley cover recorded at SXSW which will appear on their next studio recording, and a video from a February house concert in France which mixes an Arborea original with familiar Led Zeppelin and Dylan tunes – maintain the etherial tones of their studio sound, demonstrating once again that the raw, organic delicacy of their early work is neither fluke nor parlor trick.

There’s also a frustratingly partial halftrack sample from We Are All One, In The Sun, an upcoming tribute to American Primitive artist Robbie Basho, curated by Buck and featuring tracks from Meg Baird, Helen Espvall, and others, which – despite containing Basho-influenced originals as well as several covers – nonetheless joins an ongoing dead heat for the top spot in my list of this year’s tributes and compilations. And, as a bonus, I’ve included both of the Arborea tracks we’ve posted here before. Listen, and be transported.

  • Arborea: Phantasmagoria In Two (orig. Tim Buckley)

    (unreleased, 2009)




Bonus Tracks:



Way on the other end of the sound spectrum, Kansas singer-songwriter Sam Billen – whose “achingly fragile” version of Auld Lang Syne we posted at the New Year – has recently added two more tracks to REMOVERs, an ongoing covers and remixes project “of songs that influence [his] music” which he’s been producing in his home studio in and among the various stresses and joys of new fatherhood, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Trusting any artist’s listed influences can be a challenge in the catch-’em-all world of MySpace and promotional soundalike set-ups; it’s hard enough to know what to make of artists who cite folk, rock, and techno all at once, let alone those who, like Sam, include Todd Rundgren and The Yellow Magic Orchestra on their list, and yet come out with sparse, gentle, well-curated folk albums for the holidays. But whether you find yourself familiar with the modern indie alt-rock namedropping or just shake your head at the names listed for the coming project, there’s something both unifying and unified about this set, and it’s not just how Billen makes these songs sound right in his own voice and modality.

As you might expect from the premise, much of the sound on this album bleeds past the boundaries of electrofolk into a kind of gentle-beat DJ fare, hypnotic and chilled. But Billen’s relatively sparse treatment on tracks such as The Republic Tigers’ Made Concrete and his fuzzed-out remix of Capybara’s The Wimp come off perfectly balanced between the post-folk work of Sufjan Stevens and the electroindie moodmusic of The Postal Service. And sure enough, in apt acknowledgement of those influences, the series – which to date contains six tracks, all available for stream and download perfectly gratis via The Record Machine – includes covers of both artists. His take on Sufjan is a personal favorite, a deliciously etherial boundary-crossing dreamscape built from hoarse harmonies, bells, banjo, and just the right touch of electronic interference. Check it out, and don’t forget to pick up his previous albums, too – both the all-acoustic Tokyo Sessions EP and his most recent full-length Headphones and Cellphones, while vastly different, come highly recommended.

Bonus Track:



In other news: Folk Rock has always been a bit tricky to define on this side of the Atlantic Ocean; outside of the traditional grounding of the British Isles, most modern electrified music with a solid beat comes in categorized as just-plain-rock of one sort or another, and sure enough, hearing Mike and Ruthy‘s 2008 original I’m Going To Get My Baby Out Of Jail on this morning’s radio was more like a fresh blast from some delicious combination of the Velvet Underground and Cowboy Junkies than anything – and a far cry from the sometimes delicate, sometimes rootsy acoustic folk sound which has previously characterized the bulk of their work as a duo, as solo artists, and as members of The Mammals.

Which reminded me that Mike and Ruthy, who we first featured within a substantive post on Ruth’s work in various guises, are currently raising funds via Kickstarter to release their newest and upcoming album Million To One – which, judging from the album cover, the Kickstarter video, and the album description on their webpage, is bound to continue their move towards a broad redefinition of the American folk rock sound. Nothing new to post, yet – the album is recorded, but no tracks have been released – but with the recent decision to close our archives, it’s a good time to repost some older favorites from the married ex-Mammals, in the hopes that it will help spur donations to the cause…all of which come with the usual goodies, rewards, and extras, as good micro-finance models should.

1,213 comments » | (Re)Covered, Arborea, Mike and Ruthy, Sam Billen

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