Cover Lay Down

Joni Mitchell‘s early influence on her peers is part of the mythos of her era, and their support a major factor in her future success; it’s telling that David Crosby, Fairport Convention, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Buffy St. Marie, and Judy Collins all thought enough of Joni’s songwriting to cover her work long before she won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance in 1970 — or indeed, in many cases, before she had a chance to record those songs herself.

But though Joni Mitchell’s emergence is often lumped in with the transformation of folk into a mass and popular musical form in the American seventies, her impact on what folk music would become is more than just that of the crowd. For while traditional folk songs generally tell third-persona narratives, and though earlier singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan or Sandy Denny often use the self as a narrator and observer of the universe, it is Joni who is generally thought of as introducing feelings themselves as the primary subject in song.

Whether or not she was truly the first to take this approach, Joni’s establishment of the confessional in folk music is unparalleled. Her explicit exploration of the inner emotional core — those conflicted, inward-looking lyrics, so powerful that they seem to be constantly on the verge of overwhelming the singer’s soft, soaring vocalization of them — did more to create the sense of modern folk music as intimately about the self, longing and faults and all. And the universalization of those emotions defined new ways in which folk music could connect artists and the cultures which they spoke to. Where previous folk music had evoked through narrative and metaphor, Joni’s music strung a direct line from emotional core to emotional core, from her lips to our hearts.


If Joni is over-covered — and certainly her songs are at least as familiar in the mouths and hands of other artists as any female singer-songwriter I can think of — it is because her deceptively plain lyrical poetry has resonated with subsequent generations of musicians struggling with their own voices and emotions, just as it has with her fans. And as singer-songwriter folk music has continued to trend towards the confessional and the local since Joni’s best-known albums have become such staples of the folk canon — the folk imagery and narrative of Clouds, the starkly personal inner darkness and jazztones of Blue, the almost cheerful pop voices of acceptance and celebration in Court and Spark — the covers just keep coming.

I’ve long been a fan of Joni’s — in fact, one of our very first Single Song Sundays here at Cover Lay Down featured an exploration of River, which has become a part of the melancholy side of the holiday canon. Today, we take a broader look at her influence, through some sweet, mostly lesser-known tributes to the seminal singer-songwriter who helped us see that folk doesn’t need to dance around the inner truth to reach every heart and soul.

• Natalie Merchant: All I Want
  (from the Wonder UK single, 1995; more Natalie here)

• Angus Stone: River
  (from No Man’s Woman, 2007; more Angus here)

• Mark Erelli: A Case of You
  (live, via Mark Erelli’s Mp3 of the Month series)
• k.d. lang: A Case of You
  (from Hymns of the 49th Parallel, 2004)

• Cyndi Lauper: Carey
  (from a live Joni Mitchell tribute, 2000; more Cyndi here)

• Alicia Wiley: Little Green
  (from Before the Goldrush, 2008; more Alicia here)

• Cat Power: Blue
  (from Jukebox, 2008)

• Kristen Vigard: Man from Mars
  (from the Grace Of My Heart soundtrack, 1996; more Kristen here)

• Bonnie Raitt: That Song About the Midway
  (from Streetlights, 1974)
• Dave Van Ronk: That Song About the Midway
  (from Sunday Street, 1976)

• Darrell Scott: Urge for Going
  (from Modern Hymns, 2008)
• Mary Black: Urge for Going
  (from Babes in the Wood, 1991)

• Eva Cassidy: Woodstock
  (from Time After Time, 2000)

• Karan Casey: The Fiddle and the Drum
  (from Ships in the Forest, 2008)

• Marian Call: Chelsea Morning
  (from Vanilla, 2007)

• Adrienne Young & Little Sadie: Free Man in Paris
  (from Room to Grow, 2007)
• Sufjan Stevens: Free Man in Paris
  (from A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, 2007)

As always, folks, Cover Lay Down exists to support artists, and the best way to do that is to buy direct from the artists themselves wherever possible. Joni’s work is available everywhere, and if you don’t have at least the aforementioned disks you really should, but all links above lead directly to label- and artist-sanctioned stores and purchase sources; follow ‘em to hear more of what you love. And don’t forget to pre-order Jay Brannan’s new CD to hear his incredible cover of All I Want.


Previously on Cover Lay Down:

• Tom Rush covers Urge for Going
• More covers of Joni’s River from Lex Land and Amy Kuney, and a stream from Rosie Thomas

Special thanks to fellow coverblogger quietcore of Blowin’ Your Cover, who first posted the Natalie Merchant and Cat Powers covers above way back in January of last year.

I’ve fallen far behind on my new music listening; the stack of great music out there grows faster than I can get to them, sadly. While I winnow down the pile, I’ve spent most of the week listening to some wonderful, relatively new folk releases from Compass Records, and let me tell you, I’m impressed.

Today, we feature the coversongs of three Irish artists who have emerged from this fruitful collaboration to release authentic, predominantly acoustic records in partnership with Compass/Green Linnet in the last year.

If Heidi Talbot sounds familiar, it may be because you heard her as lead singer of long-standing Irish-American supergroup Cherish The Ladies, and it may be because, like the folks who commented when Muruch posted about Talbot’s newest album way back in January, you were lucky enough to hear her on your local folk radio show, and made it a point to follow up.

It certainly isn’t because you’ve heard that many other artists with voices as confidently and carefully understated as Talbot’s. I Love + Light is Talbot’s second solo outing, and this sophomore album shows a singer and songwriter on the verge of going singer-songwriter. The tracks range broadly from intimately performed Celtic music to a delicate acoustic folk that would sound welcome in any coffeehouse; overall, they make for a perfectly balanced post-americana album, a return to the broad roots of the folk tree which gains everything from Talbot’s eclectic experience as a musician on both sides of the Atlantic.

I Love + Light won an Indie Acoustic award for best album just a month ago; supposedly, Talbot will also appear on an upcoming album by Radiohead’s drummer, and we all know how popular Radiohead is on the blogworld. For some reason, though, blog searches reveal few hits. Clearly, Heidi Talbot is still working on building up her name recognition, and I’m happy to help by adding my recommendation. Buy I Love + Light, start listening now, and one day, you can say you knew her when.

Being a coverfan means spending an awful lot of time scouring the universe for obscurities. Cover songs are often found outside of an artist’s core output: tribute albums, radio or web exclusives, and live recordings are all rich sources for the sort of music any cover blogger counts as bread and butter. And notably, much of this material comes from labels, radio stations, and fans, rather than from the artists themselves.

So unless you’re a madcap collector like myself, you’ve got a right to be suspicious of any artist who mines past product for pay or promotion. Greatest Hits compilations too often sacrifice hidden gems and broader sound to focus on the radioplay sameness which brought a band to power; self-tribute albums tend to come across as sappy. Rarities and B-Sides albums can go either way; though my recent feature on Cake over at Fong Songs celebrated their own release in this vein, in some cases, at least, and for many artists, there’s plenty of good reasons why these songs were buried to begin with. And, as the poor recording quality of last-gasp posthumous releases from Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, and Eva Cassidy can attest to, the very possibility of a second such album of such rarities practically screams “bottom of the barrel”.

But it’s been twelve years since Canadian pianopop songstress Sarah McLachlan released her first Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff, and she’s done some fine, increasingly mature work since then, both on her own albums and in collaboration with numerous label compilations and other artists. And as a collector of the arcane and obscure, as well as a Sarah McLachlan fan since early adulthood, I’ve been gathering these songs in as I find them for over a decade.

As such, I already know most of the songs on Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff, Volume 2, which hit stores just a few weeks ago. And I am pleased to report that like McLachlan’s first Rarities compilation, Rarities v. 2 contains very little scrap metal, and plenty of perfectly-tuned songs from the border of folk and pop, most of which lean towards the delicate sound of, say, her sweet take on the Randy Newman-penned When Somebody Loved Me from the Toy Story 2 soundtrack, rather than the pounding remixed radiopop of so many of her produced original albums. There’s some great collaborative work here, with the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Emmylou Harris. And some wonderful covers, too — of the Beatles’ Blackbird, The Rainbow Connection, Joni Mitchell’s River, and more — most of which fall to the delicate, folkier side of her sonic spectrum.

Which is why I am especially excited to announce that today, in partnership with the fine folks at Filter and Artista, we are offering one lucky winner a prize package consisting of the following:

• One CD copy of Sarah McLachlan’s Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff, Volume 2

• An autographed 11×14 high stock matte print featuring the album cover as depicted below

To be fair, though I am a long-time fan of Sarah McLachlan’s work, I almost chose not to participate in today’s contest offering. Sarah McLachlan prefers heavy, swirling, pulsing pop production in much of her performance; if this is folk, it is a form better suited to the Adult Alternative radio station and the large arena than the folk festival stage or coffeehouse where we spend the vast majority of our time here at Cover Lay Down.

But folk is a big umbrella, and in today’s world, production alone does not make or break a folk designation. To deny Sarah even partial acceptance would require similar rejection of the produced popfolk sound of other female singer-songwriters, from Dar Williams and Shawn Colvin to Joan Osborne and Aimee Mann. And under all that production, this music is, at heart, built from the ground up, just one woman and a piano: listen to the delicate swing of Ice Cream, or the first few measures of her XTC cover Dear God, and you can hear the singer-songwriter heart coming through.

The point, of course, is moot. More than anything, genre designation is a tacit agreement between listener and artist, and I know more than enough folkfans who enjoy Sarah McLachlan’s sweet alto range and soaring, powerful vocals to believe that ours is the right context for offering such an opportunity. So prove me right, folks: leave a comment below to enter the contest — just a shout out and an email address is all it takes to qualify to win a great CD, and that special edition autographed poster.

I’d post an album teaser, but though by definition many of them have already been released elsewhere, the label has asked that we refrain from posting tracks which will be on Rarities, B-Sides, & Other Stuff Vol. II. Instead, here’s a few well-tuned takes on songs from the folkworld from Sarah’s “other” and earlier releases, plus a few bonus tracks to get you in the mood.

• Sarah McLachlan, Blue (orig. Joni Mitchell)
• Sarah McLachlan, Ol’ 55 (orig. Tom Waits)
• Sarah McLachlan, Dear God (orig. XTC)

Contest will run for one week, so enter today to ensure your place in the proverbial hat full of scrap paper. Only one winner, folks, though if you act fast, you can double your bets by entering to win the album (no poster, though) over at Muruch. Of course you can also purchase the album now via Sarah’s preferred source; if you win, you’ll have an extra copy of the disk to pass along to a friend. And while you’re there, I highly recommend picking up Sarah McLachlan’s first Rarities and B-Sides album, as well.

Looking for a few rarities even the true fans may not have found? Today’s bonus tracks are truly folk: a golden set of harmonies from the first Lilith Fair tour, and one of my favorite Canadian folkgroups with a cover of one of Sarah McLachlan’s best known originals.

• Indigo Girls, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan come together for a live version of tradfolk song The Water is Wide

• Celtic folkpop group Solas does a sweet version of Sarah’s I Will Remember You

Remember, folks: to enter the contest, merely comment below with a shout-out and an email address. All entries received by midnight (EST) next Friday will be counted. Good luck to all!

Though each year brings a few wonderful additions to the caroling songbook, eventually, every truly great holiday song gets covered and recovered in a multitude of genres and styles. Which is to say: there’s plenty of folk covermusic for the holidays. As we slide towards December, stay tuned for a cornucopia of features on Christmas albums, folk musicians, and folksinger favorites, from the Roches We Three Kings to the very best label-driven holiday compilations.

Today we begin our foray into the holiday coverfolk spirit with a focus on perhaps the first truly modern folk song to be brought into the cycle of once-a-year covers that is the Christmas Canon: Joni Mitchell’s River.

For a Christmas standard, Joni Mitchell’s River is extraordinarily complex. The subtle piano instrumentation and tongue-in-cheek intro lend itself to holiday ballad; even in the original, the way the sharp chords of Jingle Bells segue into a flowing, languid piano and Joni’s soaring vocals calls up images of drinks by the fireside, snow falling outside frosted glass. But below the surface, this song reveals its songwriter’s mental state. And Joni’s not feeling very Christmassy.

Like the rest of Joni’s 1971 album Blue, River bears the bitter mark of Joni post-relationship, struggling to put words to a feeling of defenseless fragility. The lyrics are explicit: though it helps to know that Joni was in sunny California at the time she wrote this song, far from the Christmas cold of her native Canada, the litany of faults and life failures which causes Joni to long for a river to “skate away on” certainly transcends mere geographical dissatisfaction.

Has River become a Christmas standard in denial of its wistful, cynical core? Or is Christmas, in our modern, overcommercialized world world, becoming something from which we long to escape? It’s hard to say. Certainly the song has been disproportionately covered in the last decade: according to one authority, there are over 130 recorded versions floating out there in the ether. But most are saccharine sweet holiday pap, and many change neither instrumentation or voice much beyond adding a few layers of this era’s production. Only a tiny few truly reinterpret this simple hymn of longing and regret.

But those few are treasures. For despite how easily it slides into the repertoire of the pop balladeer, and regardless of what it says about our changing feelings toward Christmas, River is eminently a song worth saving.

Today — in a reluctant nod to the fact that half of our local radio stations have already switched over to holiday music — we offer a short list of the best and folkiest.

Each manages to make the familiar meaningful again — whether it is Peter Mulvey‘s low, broken voice bringing out the true core of Joni’s longing and sadness, or just James Taylor being James Taylor, bright and full of hope even in acknowledgement of the deepest depression.

Each truly brings new light to an aging standard. Most notably, Angus Stone‘s re-rhythming of the song into a light, bouncy, fully orchestrated work of strings and guitar casts the work as a product of the modern mellow indie-folk movement without losing a drop of poignancy. Allison Crowe‘s solo piano version and Rachael Yamagata‘s piano-with-bass cover may not sound so different from the original at first, but listen again and the subtleties stand out: Yamagata’s slurred, cracked breathiness lends tears to the sadness, while Crowe’s majestic tonal read turns the song on its ear.

And each is eminently listenable. Listen to the way the waterfall tinkle of the harpsichord compliments the string-and-piano (and jingle bell) poppiness of Aimee Mann‘s version. And, sure, Sarah McLachlan is hardly folk, but this fellow Canadian still manages to bring the fireside feel of winter to her electrified popversion.

Enjoy today’s covers, the first of many gifts from us to you as we celebrate the holiday season here at Cover Lay Down. And remember: without the bittersweet world for context, we could not so love our songs of comfort, joy, and peace.

• James Taylor, River
  (from James Taylor at Christmas)

• Peter Mulvey, River
  (from Wonderland: A Winter Solstice Celebration)
• Angus Stone, River
  (from No Man’s Woman)
• Aimee Mann, River
  (out-of-print; more Aimee Mann here)
• Rachael Yamagata, River
  (unreleased b-side; more Rachael Yamagata here)
• Allison Crowe, River
  (from Tidings; also here)
• Sarah McLachlan, River
  (from Wintersong)

We’ll host a full Joni Mitchell edition of Covered in Folk sometime in 2008, but if you just can’t wait for your coverfix, buy Blue, and start catching up on one of the truly seminal artists of American folk music.

Or head over to Coverville to download The Joni Mitchell Cover Story II, which ends with the incredible title cut from Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters.

Or visit The Late Greats for an incredible 30-song post of songs with the word river in them, including both Joni’s original and an amazing version from Madeleine Peyroux and kd lang.

Or, whet your appetite with today’s bonus coversongs:

• Joni Mitchell and James Taylor re-cover Taylor’s You Can Close Your Eyes
• Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell cover Dylan’s Girl From the North Country

Come back Monday for a very special feature on folk covers of Disney’s Winnie The Pooh, guest hosted by Kurtis of Disney coverblog Covering the Mouse! Meanwhile, I’ll be over at eclectic coverblog Fong Songs analysing covers and original of The Smiths’ Girlfriend In A Coma, while Fong closes the loop with a sweet write-up of yet another Winnie the Pooh cover over at Covering the Mouse. It’s coverblog musical chairs!