Category: Valentines Day Coverfolk


Single Song Sunday: The Water Is Wide
(A Valentine’s Day tribute to the song which brought us together)

February 13th, 2011 — 09:36 pm





Twenty years ago this fall my wife-to-be and I broke into a deserted chapel at our college to sit by the piano and make this song our own, staking our claim for the future and for each other through natural harmony and a shared sense of adventure. And now, if we have a song, it is this: a traditional English ballad which we knew before we met, that jumped out at us from the page that sunny afternoon, and, in doing so, guided us to forge ourselves as something more than the sum of our parts.

It’s an unusual choice, despite common inclusion as a tender love song in the broad canon of modern culture. Though the first verses of The Water Is Wide stake a claim for love as the only way across the deep waters of our lives, its subsequent narrative moves on from romanticism to disillusion, becoming a litany of potential pitfalls: faithlessness, and the waxing of love, until love falls away like a sapling, or fades like summer dew.

And yet, and yet. The history of this song in modern culture is such that most of its many performances return to that first verse as a coda. Depending on its mood, the repeated stanza becomes either a wistful reminder of the false promise of love at its inception, or a renewed commitment to the work that we must undertake if we are to live deep inside our love forever. And though the third and fourth verses are couched in absolute terms, clearly, those of us who take this song to be our own together have made our choice to see them as a warning, not an inevitability.

Hallmark would have it that love is made of candy hearts, and a thousand other gifts that mimic thoughtfulness: lingerie and chocolates, bright cards and flowers, diamonds and chains. But love has no shortcuts. To be honest with love is a prerequisite for its success and its permanence. As I’ve written about in previous Valentine’s Day posts, flowers are nice, but if we are to make love stay, time and attention and respect must be a daily absolution.

So here is your oar, my darling, my love. Here is mine, beside. Come, row with me into the setting sun, to the eternal shoreline. May we never stop singing our way home.



Looking for something a bit more romantic? We’ve had six Valentine’s Day posts in four years here at Cover Lay Down, and all remain relevant and live – so whether you’re looking for a dozen songs about roses or one of several sets of sweet songs about love, don’t forget to head back in time for the following previously posted tributes to the ones we love.

955 comments » | Single Song Sunday, Valentines Day Coverfolk

Love, Afraid: Coversongs to Prepare the Heart for Valentine’s Day

February 6th, 2011 — 08:37 pm

It’s been a long, busy weekend, and it’ll be a long night, too, with end-of-term grading due in the morning and a thick stack of final exams to go through first. I’ve got a great Covered in Kidfolk post half-drafted, complete with a contest give-away for Putumayo Kids’ new acoustic lullaby CD, but it will have to wait; for now, here’s a taste of Valentine’s past, originally posted in 2008, to remind you to start making plans for next Monday.


I spent all morning trying to script a post about songs which struggle with the infinite and indescribably complex mysteries of love. The idea was to celebrate this complexity, and acknowledge as valid the stuff that often holds us back from putting a name to what we feel, lest we call it wrong and mess everything up.

But every time I try to put words to love, things fall apart. Love’s like that, I think. I guess that was the point, after all.

Instead, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, here’s a mixed bag of folk-tinged coversongs that address the myriad and multiple fears we have about love: naming it, finding it, losing it, and losing ourselves to it.

May each of us, regardless of our romantic status, find something in the words of these poets and songwriters which speaks to our secret heart – the better to withstand the oversimplified, candy-red onslaught of emotion sure to come by Thursday.


As always, all artist and album links above go to artist websites and stores, the better to show our love for the folks who speak for us when we run out of words.

Hoping for some more traditional Valentine’s Day fare? Never fear: we’ll back next Sunday with more short, sweet romantic soundtracks for the lucky ones.

1,070 comments » | Holiday Coverfolk, reposts, Valentines Day Coverfolk

Sweets for the Sweet: Songs of Sugar & Candy for Valentines

February 14th, 2010 — 12:10 am

Part five in an ongoing series.

With two little girls in the family, and a deliberate tendency towards inclusion over babysitters, Valentine’s Day seems to have become a family affair by default. This year, for example, what was originally intended as a suggestion for a romantic afternoon has somehow turned into plans for a nice brunch out with the four of us, followed by a family hottub soak – though I’m not saying what might follow once the kids are abed.

It’s nice to think of Valentine’s as a platform for love on a larger scale. And, as long-married couples well know, though it is truly both sin and stumble to miss Valentine’s Day altogether, missing the mark the other 364 is a bigger sin by far. Hallmark notwithstanding, it is the careful craft of the life together throughout the year which really matters – and planning and capturing the romantic moments as they come is a big part of that.

As such, I think it’s important to take Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to not only mark our love, but to reflect on our expression of it, and consider what we can do better in deed and word as the year goes on. And though I tend to be a romantic soul by nature, I’ve been tired this year, missing opportunities more often than not.

Which is the whole point of the flowers and chocolate, in the end – to make our offerings as neither overture nor apology, but as a confirmation of love, and renewal of commitment to that love.

Happily, my sweetheart is a doozy of a gal: sweet and sassy, tender and confident, solid as a rock, understanding in all ways, and always sure of what I need before I can put it into words. Most years I’m her candy man in more ways than one come Valentine’s Day, but she’s been skipping desserts as of late, so this small virtual sampler of Valentine’s candy will have to do – until the kids fall asleep, anyway.



As noted above, we’ve had four Valentine’s Day posts in three years here at Cover Lay Down, and all remain relevant and live – so whether you’re looking for a dozen songs about roses or one of several sets of sweet songs about love, don’t forget to head back in time for the following previously posted tributes to the ones we love.

1,415 comments » | Valentines Day Coverfolk

Love Is A Rose: A Coverfolk Bouquet
(on memory beyond Valentine’s Day)

February 15th, 2009 — 12:49 am

I’m tired, I say. What should I write about tonight?

Flowers, she says. It’s almost spring. And she smiles at me, as if to say I love you.


Another Valentine’s Day come and gone, and now I’m running ragged against our usual Sunday deadline after a rare evening out without children, just my love and I amidst the white linen and wineglasses, a dozen other couples, and a small cadre of harried, presumably single servers.

It’s time well spent, though I regret any lost opportunity to read to my kids at bedtime. Recent studies have shown that time spent has more power on our sense of selves than money spent on things. Experiences last longer than the moments they take. And on Valentine’s Day, even with the wife and kids asleep upstairs, this means that love remains in the air, as it is wont to do.

This is not to sell gift-giving short, of course. Valentines given are experiences, too, our symbols by definition far more than the objects we use to represent our love. Which is to say: the dozen roses I sent my wife on Friday will live on our table for a week or more, bringing their scent and color to a world still cold and crisp with the last weeks of winter, but even beyond that, their meaning can transcend their brief cut life. The flowers may fade, just as someday soon tonight’s courses will fade and blur into memory. But like our experiences themselves, the flowers will move on to the compost heap, to become fodder for yet another crop of green and growing flowers in the fast-approaching Spring.

Here’s a dozen roses for your table this week. Experience them all, and choose wisely how you keep their meaning: each has the potential to last a lifetime, or an average of three minutes each, depending how you measure your time. And, as always, if you like what you hear, follow artist and album links below to independent and artist-preferred purchase sources, and buy a CD or two. Valentine’s Day may be over, but it’s never too late to show you care.



Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features every Wednesday and Sunday, and the occasional holiday and otherday.

1,553 comments » | Valentines Day Coverfolk

Love, Complicated: Coversongs for the Bittersweet Heart

February 10th, 2009 — 08:50 pm


Part three in a series.

The heart has many hiding places, many meanings: hearts that break and mend, hearts that fail and falter, hearts that fly away after touching ours. This tiny lump of meat, its electric pulse no bigger than a battery, that flutters like a bird to tell us we are alive. And we who are human and claim to know our hearts, we forget that living hurts, and are surprised when it reminds us so often.

This afternoon my children pen store-bought valentines, march around the house demanding that I read the tiny messages on their candy hearts. While I try to explain the metaphoric meaning of every X and O to the wee one just beginning to recognize letters as sounds, not symbols, the older one sounds out the words, struggling to make sense of these little phrases we use to cue and coo, to bless and hurt and curse and caress each other.

One day, I think, they will understand everything. It breaks my heart, even now. And it lifts it, too, to know that they will know so much love, enough to feel its ever-impending loss. Love like a cinnamon heart — so bright and tempting, we forget how much it burns, even as it sweetens our tongues.

Some songs with nothing in common, then, save perhaps the most powerful metaphor we share with everything alive. Songs of the heart, written for lovers, wives, exes, children, selves. Something for everyone, no matter how scared or scarred, how heavy or light our own hearts might be.

For in the end, there is no joy without the context of sorrow, no loss without the awareness of what once was. Every heart is bittersweet, and every love song, too. And so we are never alone.

 

As always here on Cover Lay Down, we encourage you to show your love by following the above links to label-sponsored and artist-preferred stores and sources. Because groove, as they say, is in the heart.


Previously on Valentine’s Day 2008, and now with all mp3s live for a limited time only:

1,674 comments » | Valentines Day Coverfolk

The Opposite of Fear: Songs Of Hope and Love For Valentines

February 13th, 2008 — 11:08 am

I remember the night we drove everywhere just to find a place to commit ourselves to a future together. It was cold, like tonight is cold.

It wasn’t Valentine’s Day. But it was love.

Looking back, I can’t believe it took me so long to accept that the feelings I had for you were real, and worth risking everything. All that time I thought I was too broken, too battered. All that time, I thought a fool like me didn’t deserve a woman like you.

But you always believed. And every morning when I kiss you in your sleep before I leave, I thank you for that calm certainty. Without your willingness to wait forever, I might never have found the courage to jump into the abyss.

A companion post to Sunday’s songs of Love and Fear, then: a soundtrack for that long shared silence; a short sweet story of the miracle of us. If I could give you anything, it would be this feeling, always. No longer afraid, I fly with you.

Thanks to all who come, read, sample, and support artists.

May you, too, find love.

898 comments » | Alison Krauss, Holiday Coverfolk, Liz Durrett, M. Ward, Matthew Good, Patty Larkin, richard shindell, Rosie Thomas, Swati, Valentines Day Coverfolk

Love, Afraid: Coversongs to Prepare the Heart for Valentine’s Day

February 11th, 2008 — 01:45 am


I spent all morning trying to script a post about songs which struggle with the infinite and indescribably complex mysteries of love. The idea was to celebrate this complexity, and acknowledge as valid the stuff that often holds us back from putting a name to what we feel, lest we call it wrong and mess everything up.

But every time I try to put words to love, things fall apart. Love’s like that, I think. I guess that was the point, after all.

Instead, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, here’s a mixed bag of folk-tinged coversongs that address the myriad and multiple fears we have about love: naming it, finding it, losing it, and losing ourselves to it.

May each of us, regardless of our romantic status, find something in the words of these poets and songwriters which speaks to our secret heart – the better to withstand the oversimplified, candy-red onslaught of emotion sure to come by Thursday.

  • Feist, Secret Heart (orig. Ron Sexsmith)
    (live at KEXP; also available on Let It Die)

  • Jose Gonzalez, Love Will Tear Us Apart (orig. Joy Division)
    (from Remain)

  • Marc Cohn, I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You (orig. Tom Waits)
    (from the Prince & Me soundtrack; more Marc here)

  • Emiliana Torrini, I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You (ibid.)
    (from Merman)

  • Aimee Mann, The Scientist (orig. Coldplay)
    (live; from the Lost In Space Special Edition)

  • Evan Rachel Wood, If I Fell (orig. Beatles)
    (from the Across the Universe soundtrack; Evan’s not a recording artist, but her movies rock)

  • Jonatha Brooke, God Only Knows (orig. The Beach Boys)
    (from Back In The Circus)

  • Peter Malick Group w/ Norah Jones, Heart of Mine (orig. Bob Dylan)
    (from New York City)

  • Amy Winehouse, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Goffin/King)
    (from the Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason soundtrack; more Amy everywhere but the Grammys)
    Link removed due to hotlinking. Please stop stealing my links — I pay for my bandwidth!

  • Nanci Griffith, Are You Tired Of Me My Darling (Cook/Roland)
    (from Other Voices, Other Rooms)

  • Eva Cassidy, If I Give You My Heart (orig. Doris Day)
    (live 1994 bootleg; more Eva here)

  • Evan Dando, How Will I Know (orig. Whitney Houston)
    (live, unknown origin; more Evan here)

    As always, all artist and album links above go to artist websites and stores, the better to show our love for the folks who speak for us when we run out of words.

    Hoping for some more traditional Valentine’s Day fare? Never fear: we’ll back Wednesday with a short, sweet romantic soundtrack for the lucky ones.

  • 870 comments » | Aimee Mann, Amy Winehouse, Emiliana Torrini, Eva Cassidy, Evan Dando, Evan Rachel Wood, Feist, Jonatha Brooke, Jose Gonzalez, Marc Cohn, Nanci Griffith, Norah Jones, Peter Malick, Valentines Day Coverfolk