New Artists, Old Songs Week Vol. 1: Popcovers
The songs of Bob Marley, Aha, Beck, Neil Young, Survivor & more!
January 30th, 2010 — 09:53 pm
Here’s how it works: become a brand-name niche-blogger, and people send you stuff. Most of it is way off topic; some of it is decent, but not ready for prime time. A bunch more has saturated the blogmarket so much already, there’s little point in posting it again. And a few songs just don’t tickle the fancy – after all, if every song worked for every blogger, you’d never know who to trust.
But there’s wheat in the chaff, if you’re willing to listen. And in the interest of serving our stated mission – connecting artists with fans, through interpretation of familiar song – I listen to all of it, trying to find the best of an otherwise undiscovered country, always with an ear out for what our ever-growing readership clamors to hear.
This week, in a series of genre-focused features (Top 40 rock and popsong covers today; folk covers, indie covers, and a few random oddities to follow as the week progresses), we turn our ears and hearts to the best of those emerging artists whose new works have come our way in the past few weeks and months. Though they remain under the radar, may these songs help these musicians claim their rightful places in the pantheon of modern music.
I found out about Kelley Ryan through a short review in Straight No Chaser, who called the one-time astroPuppees frontwoman’s solo debut Twist “the best female folk record of this short year” and compared it to the Indigo Girls, Linda Draper, and Mindy Smith. Intrigued, I promptly wrote off for the full album, only to discover that, if anything, SNC may have undersold Ryan’s subtle-yet-potent way with song and performance, missing equally valid comparisons with Janis Ian, Sandy Denny, Lisa Loeb and Kate Wolf.
Ryan, who has also been paying the bills collaborating with and selling songs to the likes of Marshall Crenshaw, aimed to make this record a true feminine folkpop manifesto, eschewing the masculine sounds of the electric guitar for warm loops and acoustic strings; the result is a masterstroke of femmefolk prowess, strong, seductive, and eminently accessible. This Beck cover is a perfect example: where the original evokes slow lazy summer, low and buzzing, Kelley’s cover is frozen winter incarnate, her beautifully clear voice, coupled with a slow electropop production, catching the song in crystalline ice without losing a whit of the power and beauty of the song itself.
Twist drops Feb 16, but until then, it is being sold digitally through Kelley Ryan’s website for just a single buck – so preview below, and then head on over for a great deal!
- Kelley Ryan: Lost Cause (orig. Beck)
(from Twist, 2010)
I wish I could remember how I heard about Acoustic Americana fiddler and guitarist Sadie Compton, whose bright red dreadlocks and heavily tattooed punk-rocker’s skin seem completely counter to her Tennessean drawl and the timeless mountain sensibility of her performance. But a search of inbox and feedreader alike reveal nothing, and Sadie’s web presence is sadly out-of-date. I am forced to conclude that Sadie’s music dropped out of the sky, and be grateful for such gifts: clearly, the universe loves me.
Much of the music on Compton’s MySpace page is sparse and broken, a fine mix of fiddle-led cajun blues and old time Appalachian music reminiscent of an old Lomax field recording; listen with your eyes closed, and you can almost make out the ancient backporch countrywoman she channels through her music. But the lazy sixties folkpop sound of Compton’s Three Dog Night cover, complete with banjo and sweetly ragged harmonies, is an equally delightful antidote to the winter blues, while her Hank Williams cover just has to be heard to be believed. New album Black is the Color was supposed to be released last year, but I can find neither hide nor hair of evidence; if anyone out there can help me out here, I’d be eternally grateful.
- Sadie Compton: Shambala (orig. B. W. Stevenson; pop. Three Dog Night)
- Sadie Compton: Please Don’t Let Me Love You (orig. Hank Williams)
(from Black is the Color, 2010)
Backwater-born Australian singer-songwriter Emily Barker has enjoyed a bit of press recently in the rest of the English-speaking word, thanks to the folks at the BBC, who selected a version of her song Nostalgia as the theme to the award-winning series Wallander. But Americans are notoriously slow to pick up on folk beyond our borders, so you’ll have to forgive me if I’ve just discovered this countryfolk chanteuse despite her long history in BBC-land, a record which includes several years touring and recording in the UK as part of folk group The Low Country, and her 2007 solo debut Photos.Fires.Fables., which provides a solid introduction to the able, twang-voiced songwriter, framing her performance as tender and wry, and reminiscent of fellow countrymen The Waifs.
Barker and her all-girl Aussie band The Red Clay Halo, who lend cello, fiddle, accordian, flute and four-part harmonies to Barker’s guitar-based singer-songwriter fare, originally recorded Nostalgia for their intimate 2008 group debut Despite The Snow, which led to opening slots for the likes of Jose Gonzalez, The Waifs, and Mary Gauthier. Since then, there’s not been much in the way of new recordings – the single for the new version of Nostalgia doesn’t come out until Feb. 8th – but their press kit included this gentle recent take on Neil Young’s Look Out For My Love, and it’s a wonderful showcase for Emily’s warbly alto and sensitive songwriting, and the band’s lush, modern take on the british tradfolk sound.
- Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo: Look Out For My Love (orig. Neil Young)
(from Emily Barker’s Bandcamp Page, 2009)
Ghana-born, Ontario-based “Urban Folk” artist Kae Sun pulls from a vast cultural stew – a childhood in the church choir, his father’s soul records, traditional folk chants, and the reggae and hip-hop so prevalent on Ghana radio – emerging with an evolving hybrid sound that teeters exquisitely on the line between fluid worldbeat and intimate songwriter fare. This soulful cover falls more solidly on the acoustic side than the vast majority of his recent album Lion on a Leash, but the combination of reggaepop origin and subtle folk performance are lovely, and given Sun’s preference for acoustic performance, provide an apt entry for any folklistener willing to follow the thread to African continent and beyond.
- Kae Sun: Natural Mystic (orig. Bob Marley)
(unknown source; more Kae Sun here)
Nominally an indie-rock band, The Rural Alberta Advantage – yes, they’re from Canada, too – are nevertheless a folk-minded bunch on paper, mining the experience of their own rural small-town upbringing to craft driving, guitar-heavy songs which play just fine as folk once the reverb fades a bit. 2008 debut Hometowns, which contains some great hipster dancetracks, was all over the blogs; this tune, which layers earnest alt-whine vocals over a play-it-straight Jose Gonzalez guitar-trance approach to a classic tongue-in-cheek cover favorite, was released as a B-side mid-January; I picked it up via Captain Obvious, whose January Covers Mixtape also includes a few tracks from past and recent posts on Cover Lay Down.
- The Rural Alberta Advantage: Eye of the Tiger (orig. Survivor)
(from the Drain The Blood single, 2010)
Finally, eminently cute folk-uke-centered duo Shiny and the Spoon came together in 2008 after a chance meeting at a folk festival. Since then, the gleeful couple has gone on to record several YouTube videos, mostly covers, and most notably this playful cover of Aha classic Take on Me, which netted over 70,000 views in its first few months – and, like many surprise YouTube sensations, they’ve now moved on to record their first EP, hoping to cash in on the cute cachet. The EP will drop ASAP on CD Baby and iTunes; keep abreast of the news via their YouTube channel.
- Shiny and the Spoon: Take On Me (orig. Aha)
(YouTube rip)
Want to hear more? As always, Cover Lay Down exists first and foremost to promote the spread and survival of folk music. If you like what you hear, follow links above to support the artists herein: buy the album, see the concert, and spread the word.
And don’t forget to return Tuesday night for the second installment in our New Artists, Old Songs Week extravaganza! Still to come: new takes on classic and revival-era folk songs, a whole slew of acoustic indiecovers, and a few surprises from the American Popular Songbook.