Alison Krauss: This track comes off the soundtrack for the movie Crossing Jordan. The vocals being at the top of any man’s vocal range automatically makes it a fantastic classic rock song for females to perform. If you like this, you need to hear her version of Baby Now That I Found You off of her double-live release.
John Cowan Band: There were a few other bluegrass/newgrass covers of this on the Live Music Archive but I thought this one was the strongest. Take note of John counting off the song while singing the guitar intro to himself, I got a kick out of that. Check out the whole show on The Archive
Little Feat (Blues Brunch): Well this sounds like fun. Blues Brunch on the Grand Terrace from the Fourth Annual Little Feat Fan Excursion to Jamaica. On this track we’ve got Shaun Murphy singing lead with Little Feat members Bill Payne and Paul Barrere. Also on the track are Piero Mariani (Percussion) and Ron Holloway (Saxophone). Check out the whole show on The Archive
New Monsoon: New Monsoon makes their CW debut this week with a great rendition of this tune. You can check out the whole show on The Archive
Blind Faith
Ryan Montbleau Band: Just about what you’d expect from the RMB: Soulful vocals and tasteful instrumentation. It appears this may have been a one-off or rare cover from these guys as this is the only version available on the LMA. Check out the whole show on The Archive
Umphrey’s McGee: In case you missed it, UM has been inducted into the imaginary Cover Wars Hall of Fame (they won three contests and have been temporarily removed from any future votes. They share this honor with Mr. Blotto). This performance comes from one of my personal favorite concert experiences at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo Michigan. This is a perfect example of why Jake Cinninger needs to sing more lead. Jake’s the one handling the falsetto high vocal part and Brendan Bayliss seems to have written his own harmony part. Jake also lends his strong vocals to other rare UM covers such as Bell Bottom Blues and Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.
For the best version of this song that UM has performed, you need to purchase this acoustic version from Philadelphia in 2006.
Widespread Panic: How I made this far in Cover Wars with an angry WSP yelling at me for not including them has me quite baffled. Better late than never right? Call me a WSP ignorant, but I had never heard them do this before. If I was more well versed in all things Panic, I probably would have known JB likes to sing lyrics from Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child over a rockin’ outro jam. Hearing that for the first time – that was fucking awesome. Sometimes it’s nice to be a n00b. To download this show (04/07/1995), and many other classic Panic shows, sign up for the Digital Panic tracker.
Yvonne Elliman: If you’re wondering where you recognize her from, perhaps it’s the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Yvonne played Mary Magdalene. You can also hear her singing backup on such classic tracks as Eric Clapton’s rendition of I Shot The Sheriff.
[youtube]GDFRVWMA8wY[/youtube]
Zero: Much like their cover of Like A Rolling Stone in the Highway 61 Revisited Cover Wars, this is a drawn-out and down-tempo rendition. Been listening to a lot of Zero in the recent months after Martin Fierro’s passing. I imagine jam sessions with Martin in the next life just got a great new player with the addition of Bo Diddley. Check out the whole show on The Archive
Speaking of Steve Kimock (The guitar player in Zero), one of his groups walked away with the trophy of last week’s Allman Brothers Edition with his great cover of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. This is Kimock’s first Cover War trophy.
While the Democratic primaries might be ending today, Cover Wars will take it’s fight all the way to the convention. If you have any songs/artists you would like to see in a future Cover Wars, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment…I might just do it – like I did for today’s!
Here’s some videos of Blind Faith and Clapton/Winwood:
1969:
[youtube]mUW1SGF7bR8[/youtube]
Clapton & Winwood in 2007
[youtube]3052QFRu-1Q[/youtube]
A nice montage of images with the studio recording:
[youtube]IN1J5sMv28Q[/youtube]
14 Responses
You don’t happen to have the Clapton/Winwood version from MSG in February huh? Be a lot cooler if you did. That pretty much takes the cake for me. Full tour is in the works. Probably to support a DVD of the MSG shows.
Don’t have audio, but versions from all 3 nights are up on YouTube:
2/25/08:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=URZjCwz9bAQ
2/26/08:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tEXACkhx2yU
2/28/08:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8Zp67_z5DPU
Oliver – You just lookin’ for the audio? There are incredible DVDs up on thetradersden and dimeadozen.
I’m not BT capable right now but will get them when I can. I’ve heard some decent AUD tapes, but looking for that factory-pressed flavor. Thanks for the looks guys, and for your good work here.
What about Bonnie Raitt? There is a version here: http://mog.com/sonical/blog/142209
The version I have (Bonnie Raitt with Little Feat – Sofa Blues – Track 2)is similar to the above link except it is live, has Lowell George, and is AWESOME! If you hear that Lowell George is “cute too” and “Is that a transitive verb?” you have the right version. Good luck finding it. It is amazing.
The Alison Krauss and the Bonnie /Lowell George covers are good, but so far my favorite is the Eric Clapton/Mark Knopfler cover (Shoreline Amphitheater, 1988). Which is now driving me crazy, because I have no idea who the bass player vocalist is. The vocals are way too high for most male vocalists, Steve Winwood and this guy must have really unusual voices for men. The Yvonne Elliman/Eric Clapton version is okay too; further evidence that the song really calls for a female vocalist.
I think the vocalist is Nathan East
This one take it to another level – The Swans
https://youtu.be/wR6niiAh0uY