As I noted earlier this week, we don’t hold with ordered lists at year’s end, preferring instead to recognize the diversity of greatness we hear and rediscover as part of an ongoing process. But in keeping with our ongoing mandate to bring you our subjective best in folk and acoustic coverage, in the hopes that you might pursue our recommendations and passalongs to support those artists directly, it seems fair to note which songs still remain high on our playlist, echoing through our head long after we introduced you to them through the pages of this blog.
Today, then, we present a hybrid feature of sorts, revisiting the year’s stickiest songs and earworms, and tossing in towards the end a few very recent discoveries which – though they arrived at our door too late to truly sink in in time to make the collection – just might have that selfsame staying power in the new year.
If I had to pick a favorite new cover this year, it would likely be Peter Bradley Adams‘ stunning interpretation of Matthew Ryan’s I Hear A Symphony, which emerged as a startling gem amidst the chafe and chatter on LML Records cover compilation In My Room. Though the song itself was new to me at the time, the combination of Ryan’s words and melody and Adams’ lush, hushed acoustic “landscape pop” won the coveted “most played on iTunes” spot in the Boyhowdy house for 2010 – no mean feat, given that it didn’t come out until April, and that on a covers compilation which I didn’t discover until even later.
I had been peripherally aware of Adams’ work since discovering his previous work as one half of undersung dustbowl alt-folk duo Eastmountainsouth, though I missed most of his forty-odd appearances on TV and film soundtracks in the past few years thanks to a tendency to avoid the CW network. But hearing this single song converted me instantly, and since then, his originals have received almost as much play. Indeed, I’ve become an avid collector of Peter Bradley Adams’ growing catalog of deep, pensive, inspirational craft, from his debut Gather Up to his 2009 release Traces, and am eagerly awaiting release of what promises to be a strong fourth solo full-length in 2011. If you’ve not yet been struck by the beauty of his work, I highly recommend Peter’s Free EP, which showcases a single, gorgeous song from each album.
Any song which so draws you to an artist and so powerfully frames your life for so long deserves the replay, and the kudos. And, as a bonus, his collaborative cover of Hard Times Come Again No More, which we featured among other interpretations of the same song at this time last year, is timely as ever, reminding us that appreciating what we’ve got in the midst of strife and sorrow, trouble and pain, is a year-end trope that remains relevant today.
One of the biggest joys a coverhound can receive is when a favorite artist covers another, giving new and warmly familiar voice to a beloved set of lyrics and chords. This year, the best such package came to us secondhand, off of the 41 song compilation from environmental leaders 1% For The Planet, with Lori McKenna and her touring compatriot Mark Erelli breathing new vibrancy into my absolute favorite song from southern grit singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier.
It was especially wonderful to hear McKenna, who took her chances with country a few years back, coming back to the folkfold, with something sparse and broken yet ever-beautiful, proving that it’s where she truly belongs. As much as I love the hoarseness of the original, the transformed song wails with renewed hope more than enough to do justice to it and then some, standing on its own as a paean and plea for a better world that will live in my ears for good. And the sentiment is aptly seasonal, to boot.
Lucy Wainwright Roche has been heavy on my mind, having spent a few days moping around the house after missing her opener for brother Rufus up in Northampton last week due to other obligations. But Lucy’s songs have stuck with me, with that sweet and somehow innocent voice ringing in my ears long after her full-length debut Lucy hit the streets in October. Both her richly harmonied cover of Paul Simon’s America and her older take on a Crash Test Dummies hit were among the first to make it to my newest portable listening device; though we posted the former when the album hit the shelves, we never shared her crooning, almost delicate transformation of Superman’s Song, which hit me just as hard in the aftermath, so here’s both, for keeps.
Though I had heard and scavenged from their lo-fi kitchen-recorded Valentines Duets cover series for years, this was also the year I truly fell in love with Devon Sproule and her husband Paul Curreri as both solo artists and performing partners, finally garnering the chance to see them live, and finding them as potent a combination in person as they are in their respective studio recordings. I think I said all I needed to back when I first touted their work as part of our July feature on folk couples, so I won’t repeat myself here, but both their new albums have stuck with me, with Devon’s Plea For A Goodnight Rest haunting my dreams ever since.
Duo of the year goes hands down to Dala, who won my heart for real at this year’s Falcon Ridge Folk Fest after a long, slow burn sparked by their double-dip appearance on American Laundromat Records’ 2008 tribute to Neil Young. The twenty-something popfolk Canadians released cover-laden live album Girls From The North Country early in 2010, which fueled the buzz on the summer festival circuit; a subsequent appearance at the Canadian Songwriter Hall Of Fame produced a sweet live take on an old Doris Day standard, and their delightfully retro cover of Dream A Little Dream Of Me was a standout on ALR’s popular emopop Sing Me To Sleep: Indie Lullabies collection, too.
The biggest news on the Dala front these days is the January 2011 major label US debut of Everyone is Someone on Compass Records, an album which has already hit my living room, where it remains on rotation pretty much full-time. Though the latter has no covers, it’s chock full of the same etherial harmonies and dreamy lyrics which we’ve come to expect from the pair of young rising stars; the songs range from playful to sentimental, and their youth and giddy cheerful spirits allow them to get away with it all. And those gorgeous voices make it well worth the purchase, too.
Closer to the bluegrass end of folk, local college student Sarah Jarosz continues to impress a growing crop of bloggers and fans, showing increasing maturity as she leaves her teen years behind. We dropped a teaser of her newest 45, including a sample of a transformative b-side take on an old Bill Withers tune, just last month, but I keep coming back to her turn with Black Prairie on this year’s Shel Silverstein tribute, where it stood out among several other gems.
Which reminds me: Decemberists side project Black Prairie rocked the year, too, and I am startled not to find their March release Feast of the Hunter’s Moon on more bloggers’ end of year countdowns.
It’s hard to isolate the songs on Be Yourself: A Tribute To Graham Nash’s Songs For Beginners, the full-album tribute to Graham Nash’s earliest solo work released earlier this year – the album works so well as a collection, it feels like sacrilege to strip the songs of their sequence. But playing it for a room full of fellow mid-level organizers at last Spring’s Falcon Ridge pre-fest staff meeting, I knew we had found something special. Today, the indie-folk feast, first featured in May, remains my most played album of the year – no small feat, in a post-digital world of pay-per-song singles and one-shot releases. And though it’s the journey itself which truly makes this album great, Robin Peckinold and Alela Diane’s covers remain standouts. So here they are again.
And what’s on the list for the coming months? Though there’s only originals to be found on their homepage, I’m eager to hear more from They Will Hate Us, a Boston-based “Gothicana” duo reminiscent of early A.P. Carter and other dark gospel harmonizers from before the split between folk and country music, who will be releasing their first major album at a late afternoon Passim show on Sunday January 23, playing authentic instruments and evoking the ghosts of the past through originals and coverage alike.
I’m loving the tension between the atmospheric production and the narrative delivery on this broken-voiced Steve Earle cover from Brooklynite Arron Dean, an “ornate songwriter” a la Bon Iver or Nick Drake, who came to his current countryfolk style via jazz and punk, and New York via South Africa; the song comes via email in support of his first solo record, titled MPLS.
And already in the spinner, and staying there, is local singer-songwriter Jason Spooner‘s newest, titled Sea Monster: unlike earlier work, which went for the acoustic folkrock trio sound, it’s more produced than spare, and subsequently more pop than folk, which explains why it’s currently in heavy rotation at Starbucks. But we won’t hold that against him. Indeed, having seen him at Falcon Ridge Folk Fest several years running, and shared a pair of his older covers back in March, I’m eager to share the funky, horn-laden Terence Trent D’Arby cover he sent along just a few weeks ago, to see if you hear what I hear.
Happy Christmas! I’m off to Memphis just after the New Year for a short vacation, so stay tuned for the usual vacation coverfolk features on the regional songs and setting. In the meantime, if you’re still looking for that last minute holiday gift, and you’ve already bought your fill of the CDs and downloads we tout here, we hope you’ll consider donating a buck or two in someone’s name to help keep Cover Lay Down going into 2011 and beyond…Thanks!