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[youtube]VNIEtwZ1OYQ[/youtube] Paul Simon & Willie Nelson – Graceland

[Originally Published: February 26, 2008, CLICK TO SEE WHO WON]

This week features six artists competing for the best cover of Stevie Wonder’s Boogie On Reggae Woman. This song comes to us off the 1974 record Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Here’s a look at the contenders:

Addison Groove Project: As you may recall, this now retired (but is any band ever really retired?) funk-fusion outfit from Boston has previously been mentioned on Hidden Track, by me, and about this song. AGP got a mention in my Top Ten Big Red sit-ins.

Legion Of Mary: LoM was Jerry Garcia’s side-band from 1974 to 1975 and featured Garcia, Merl Saunders (Keyboards, Vocals), John Kahn (bass), Martin Fierro (Saxophone, Flute) and Ron Tutt (Drums). This track comes to you from a ’74 show in Berkeley, Merl takes vocal duties, but Garcia’s guitar work starting around the 6 minute mark is definitely worth hearing. READ ON…

Mickey Rourke’s return to film glory in the title role of the The Wrestler comes at the same time as Laurence Fishburne’s new role on CSI, the long-running television hit. Both actors appeared under the tutelage of Francis Ford Coppola during a time in the early 1980s when the director was attempting to reinvigorate his mojo by filming S.E. Hinton’s teenaged rebel with a purpose novels. And Coppola was true to his cause as he experimented with style and tone poetry at a time when those virtues were being smothered by slasher flick and Reagan-era teen angst motifs.

“Loyalty is his only vice,” is one of my favorite film lines and it crops up about midway through this week’s Hidden Flick as we head into the second season of films that are off the beaten cinematic path with a look at the minor gem, Rumble Fish.

Filmed in black & white, Rumble Fish also stars Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid and Nicolas Cage, Coppola’s nephew in one of his earliest roles. However, it is the weird and twisted appearances of Rourke, Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Waits that add nuance and texture to what could have been a forgettable cheesy endeavor. Hopper is the alcoholic father who spouts historical references and odd sound bites to his beleaguered son, played by Dillon, and Fishburne, is sort of a guardian angel to the hapless lad, as well. Waits sinks his teeth into his role as an eccentric billiards hall owner, foreshadowing his 1992 bent romp as Renfield in Coppola’s Dracula.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – Rumble Fish…

Cat Power played the second of her two nearly-sold out gigs at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater on Saturday night. For almost two hours, vocalist Chan Marshall and the Dirty Delta Blues Band wove in and out of a cover-laden set and lulled the respectful crowd into a dream-like state.

While she played mostly other people’s music with a few originals sprinkled in, she put her own spin on each selection. The show moved at the pace of molasses but was enjoyable in is thickness. Marshall sounded, at times, like Janis Joplin if she weren’t allowed to scream. Often it was a little tough to pick Marshall’s voice out of the mix when the band played beyond hushed tones and her annunciation isn’t the best. But she can belt out a tune like few others and while I never actually fell asleep, I certainly hovered in that space between awake and asleep for a good portion of the night until a slightly more upbeat – and I mean slightly – tune would snap me back to reality.

With the sparsest of lightning and no stage setup to speak of – you could see the heating vents on the back wall of the stage, Marshall spend so much time in the shadows she was reduced to a pair of white shoes and a silky voice for most of us in the Mezzanine.

But the show was streamlined with minimal time between songs and no banter between Marshall and the audience save for throwing some roses into the crowd as she took her final bow.

READ ON for more of Luke’s Cat Power @ The Apollo review…

When I was growing up, I used to love watching the Grammys each year. The event’s producers always got big names to show up and my taste in music was

moe. is returning to New York City for the first time in eight months this weekend, so this week’s Stormy Mondays is a preview of the Valentine’s celebration (massacre?) at

Despite the tough economic environment, the Rothbury Festival will return to Michigan on July 2-5. Be sure to signup at rothburyfestival.com to be the first to get the scoop on

McLovin? What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogell? What, are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?

Well, they’re not exactly Irish R&B crooners, but this trio of young musicians from the Hartford, CT area, Jake (Drumlovin), Jason (Basslovin) and Jeff (Axlovin), have certainly gained a lot of attention in a hurry with their raw talent, impressive chemistry and wise-way-beyond-their-years musical tastes.

In a genre of music that normally requires a good three years of 100+ shows and slow burn word of mouth publicity, the McLovins appear to be the first band in the jam scene to actually blow up. We see it almost every day in the realms of indie rock and pop music, but it sure is fun to see the internets buzzing with fury over the threesome of musical whiz kids because they tackle Phish covers like YEM and Harry Hood as well as plain old virtuoso material like Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover, songs that most players stumble over for months (or years) just to get through a few sections.

Having already made big waves by gracing Rolling Stone’s Smoking Section, igniting the blogosphere, appearing on the local news and making a new friend in Phantasy Tour, we thought it’d be great to get to know a little more about the three J’s: Jake, Jason, and Jeff. The boys were kind enough to collaborate and shed some light on their friendship, the new found internet fame and their plans for a first album. Hopefully, this will help tide you over until we get to see the McLovins live in action.

Hidden Track: Let’s start with a little background on the McLovins; how did you guys all get to know each other and come to realize you shared a common interest in heady stuff like Phish, Eric Johnson, and Weather Report?

McLovins: We met last summer. (Jake and Jason met at Jazz Camp and Jake and Jeff met at Rock Camp). We started playing together in the basement, sharing the songs we already knew and learning new songs we’d heard that we were interested in. We started sitting in together for a few songs every Wednesday night at a restaurant in Collinsville. People started to come to hear us play, even though it is a small place and we could get pretty loud.

READ ON for more of the first print interview with The McLovins…

VH1 Classic will air Oliver Stone’s 1991 flick The Doors on Tuesday at 7PM. The movie is more about Jim Morrison, portrayed wonderfully by Val Kilmer, and his nutjob antics