Written last night in a rainstorm's aftermath. Posted this morning in bright dappled sunlight.
They say April showers bring May flowers, but I'm not so sure. This evening's thunderstorm was a big one, and in our end-of-the-wire rural existence, even when the power stays on, thunder knocks our 'net connectivity for a loop. Meanwhile, now that the trees have finally filled in, our newly-terraformed backyard doesn't seem to be getting more than a few hours of sun each day; as a consequence, we're having trouble getting flowers to do much of anything back there.
I've got dozens of posts half-formed and half-written, in my mind and on the screen: new and beloved artists to feature, a long-overdue return to our Covered In Kidfolk series, a few great songwriters to rediscover through folk covers. But writing this with a waning battery and no 'net access means being shut off from my usual research materials. And in the darkness, the sounds of rain pattering against the leaves, punctuated by the intermittent gutterball of thunder, are sweeter than any music I could play – so sweet, it's hard to think about anything but the world outside.
Instead, I spent the last hour watching the flowerbeds all but wash away, and the muddy water wash the fill from between the flagstones. The rain against the windows turned the yard beyond into an everchanging pointilist dream. And I lost the thread of anything but the present.
Some rainstorms disrupt; some destroy; others help things grow. All involve chaos, in their own way; even if it is only because rain challenges our default image of the world outside as inherently sunny and easily navigable. Here's a playlist compiled quickly, in the dark, and researched only afterwards: a set of coversong, from the usual wide variety of folk artists and singer-songwriters, that celebrates storms both real and metaphoric.
- Grant Lee Phillips, So. Central Rain
(orig. R.E.M.)
I've always liked this song –- the way the the storm gets entangled with the emotional distance in the lyric, the repeated cry of I'm sorry that serves as the chorus -- but the original comes off like a maudlin torch song in my ears. On his 2006 cover album nineteeneighties Grant Lee Phillips plays the song out straight, holding his emotion in check, letting the way the words trail off reveal the true heart of the damaged, emotionally tongue-tied narrator. The song is transformed. - Cassandra Wilson, I Can't Stand The Rain
(orig. Ann Peebles)
Despite her powerful interpretive voice, Cassandra Wilson is usually billed as smooth late night Jazz. But this song is something sparse and jangled from the eye of a storm: tense, frenetic blues from a single slide guitar, a tapping foot like rain on the roof, Wilson's alto floating above it all like a howl of wind. From the surprisingly good collection The Best Smooth Jazz...Ever. - Neko Case, Buckets of Rain
- Jimmy LaFave, Buckets of Rain
- Beth Orton and M. Ward, Buckets of Rain
(orig. Bob Dylan)
I posted Redbird's excellent version of this song at the bottom of a post on Grateful Dead rainsongs a while back. Of the three versions here, Jimmy LaFave's is loose bar-room folkrock americana, with a bit of dustbowl mixed in; Orton and Ward are lo-fi and spare, like a living room cover; Neko Case is sweetest, and oh so perfectly countrified. - Joan Baez, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
- Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
(orig. Bob Dylan)
More Dylan. A very young Joan Baez released this surprisingly tender version of his condemnation of society and its lack of commitment to social justice in 1965 on her Dylan tribute album Farewell, Angelina. Almost forty years later, Edie and the boys bang it out like a poprock anthem. - Northern Lights w/ Vassar Clements, Rainmaker
(trad.)
Newgrass pioneers Northern Lights worked with master fiddler Vassar Clements on and off for over a decade; I especially like their 2000 live album Three August Nights. This high-energy live cut is a five minute bluegrass festival, the perfect jam for a sunny summer afternoon. - Nanci Griffith, Coming Down in the Rain
(orig. Buddy Mondlock)
Mandolin and piano, robust harmonies in little-girl voices, and a story of love lost to the sky make this one of the strongest cuts on Nanci Griffith's excellent cover album Other Voices, Other Rooms. - Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, I Get The Blues When It Rains
(multiple artists)
Previously featured artists Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem turn this over-covered 1929 country and blues chestnut into a cheerful stroll of a song, a tight gem of acoustic folk swing music with a little sultry swagger built right in. From Cocktail Swing, which is all like that. - Juju Stulbach, Have You Ever Seen The Rain
(orig. Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Played as a tender, ragged waltz, a Creedence classic becomes pensive and atmospheric. This bright psychadelic indiefolk from newcomer Juju Stulbach, the Brazilian frontwoman of NYC band Mosquitos, keeps growing on me. Bonus points: it's the soundtrack to this subject-appropriate commercial for GE. - Petty Booka, Singin' In The Rain
(orig. Gene Kelly)
This lighthearted romp with double-uke and doubled girlvoices from Japanese duo Petty Booka is bright like a rainbow at storm's end. Because, in the end, what better way to meet chaos than to smile and dance within it?
Previously on Cover Lay Down:
11 comments:
awesome. thanks.
Edie's Hard Rain was a mix-tape staple for me for years, still love it. Never heard that Central Rain cover before: nice. Your post made me think of "It Stoned Me", surely there is a good cover of that somewhere :).
Great post, love the Grant Lee Phillips tune....always a pleasure to read your post esp in glorious June irish Sunshine!
So Central Rain is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs. I've never heard the Phillips cover and was prepared to be underwhelmed. I am surprised.
The Neko Case cover is beautiful!
Redbird are awesome. What ever happened to them?
Glad to see some consensus on the Grant Lee Phillips cover, here -- it is one of my very favorite coversongs, hands down.
Ekko: Redbird were pretty much a one-shot collaboration: a single album and a year of touring to promote it. The three artists involved continue to play gigs and record as solo artists, and lend a hand to each other when asked; I saw Mulvey and Delmhorst as part of a song swap in the early winter, and they played on each others' songs plenty. I HIGHLY recommend the solo stuff from all three. And Delmhorst and Foucault are now married, I believe; she's due to give birth any day now.
Wonderful selection. I rarely download mp3s anymore, but I nabbed a few this time. I love Grant, Joan & Edie.
Btw, in regard to your other post about "freak folk" - since you've come 'round to Joanna Newsom, I highly recommend Gabriela Kulka (friend of mine), Anais Mitchell, Mariee Sioux, and Alela Diane. I don't think any of them have recorded folk covers (though Gabriela did a love version of Sting's "Russians" among other covers), but they all have a quirky style. I prefer each of them to Newsom.
Hey, just discovered your blog doing a Google search for James Taylor's cover of "A Change is Gonna Come." (Found it! Didn't think there was a recording available - just saw him do it on The West Wing.) Anyways, IRT this post, thought you should know (if you didn't already) that the Wood Brothers have a great cover of Buckets of Rain on their newest album, Loaded.
Great blog! I'll check back more often.
I actually went hunting for the song myself after seeing it on West Wing first time around; I'm glad to see I was able to return the favor.
Haven't heard the Wood Brothers album yet, but if the stunning Jimi Hendrix cover with Amos Lee on vocals that was hitting the blogs a few weeks ago is any indication, the whole album should be worth getting.
Thanks for coming by, Tim! Come back anytime!
conversationalhypnosis -
conversational hypnosis -
cure for bruxism -
declutter fast -
driver checker -
earth4energy -
earth 4 energy -
easy member pro -
easy tv soft -
eatstopeat -
eat stop eat -
fap turbo -
fatburningfurnace -
fat burning furnace -
fatloss4idiots -
final sync -
final uninstaller -
fitness model program -
fit yummy yummy -
flatten your abs -
forex ambush -
governmentregistry -
government registry -
healthy urban kitchen -
homebrew installer -
homemadeenergy -
home made energy -
instant article wizard -
jamo rama -
joyful tomato -
lose man boobs -
lower body make over -
maternityacupressure -
maternity acupressure -
web traffic machines -
wedding speech 4u -
wind plans -
xp repair pro -
your fun business -
zygor guides -
500 love making tips -
acid alkaline diet -
acne no more -
advanced defrag -
anti spyware bot -
art of approaching -
banish tinnitus -
beat eczema -
blood pressure normalized -
burnthefat -
burn the fat -
conversationalhypnosis -
conversational hypnosis -
cpa arbitrage -
creative date ideas -
debt free in three -
digital background -
dirty talking guide -
discus fish secrets -
duplicate file cleaner -
dw insider -
earth4energy -
earth 4 energy -
easy tv soft -
easy web video -
eatstopeat -
eat stop eat -
end your tinnitus -
error doctor -
evidence smart -
fap winner -
fat burning furnace -
fat loss 4 idiots -
final sync -
final uninstaller -
firewall gold -
fitness model program -
fit over 40 -
fit yummy yummy -
flatten your abs -
forex auto pilot -
gain opinion -
gold secrets -
government records -
governmentregistry -
government registry -
green diy energy -
healthy urban kitchen -
highest pay surveys -
holo think -
homemadeenergy -
home made energy -
i want a teaching job -
joyful tomato -
keyword elite -
learn photoshop videos -
lmt forex formula -
lower body make over -
macro virus -
malware bot -
maternityacupressure -
maternity acupressure -
Post a Comment