Tag Archives: Cover Songs

Soulive: Rubber Soulive

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Organ-jazz trio tribute to the Beatles

Soulive is an organ trio (Hammond B-3, drums and guitar) that has been cutting soul-jazz grooves since the late ‘90s. This 2010 entry in their catalog offers instrumental interpretations of eleven well-known Beatles titles, drawn from the Fab Four’s mid-to-late period albums. Jazz and soul tributes to the Beatles are a well-trod path, including Bob Hammer’s Beatlejazz, Roger Webb’s John, Paul and All That Jazz, Count Basie’s Beatle Bag, Don Randi’s Revolver Jazz, the Music Company’s Rubber Soul Jazz, Ramsey Lewis’ Mother Nature’s Son, Booker T. & the MG’s McLemore Avenue and George Benson’s The Other Side of Abbey Road, but none of these earlier efforts reduced their approach to an organ-driven trio. In typical jazz fashion, the arrangements state the melodies – with the guitar or organ taking the vocal line – before the players embark on some improvisation. In keeping with the Beatles’ pop radio roots, however, the jamming is concise and listeners will never lose sight of the familiar melodies. The album’s only real disappointment is the mediocre recording quality, with overbearing bass and drums that lack definition. It’s still enjoyable, but not the audio experience the playing deserves. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks 35

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Excellent shows from August 1971, long-lost at sea

The Grateful Dead were far ahead of their time in many respects, but none perhaps more so than the breadth, depth and quality of the tapes they archived (and as will be described below, occasionally lost) from their legendary live shows. The Dick’s Picks series was named for and originally curated by the band’s tape archivist, Dick Latvala. Following Latvala’s passing in 1999, the series was continued by the band’s current archivist David Lemieux. In contrast to the multi-track remixes released under the From the Vault banner, Dick’s Picks were mastered from stereo tapes, at times emphasizing performance over audio quality (which, to be fair, was almost always very good as well). This penultimate volume in the series features performances from three August stops on the Dead’s 1971 summer tour, Hollywood, San Diego and Chicago, spread across four CDs.

Originally released in 2005 (and reissued now for standard retail by Real Gone), the tapes behind Volume 35 have a story that’s as interesting as the music they contain. Shortly before Keith Godchaux auditioned for (and subsequently joined) the band, Jerry Garcia handed him a box of tapes from the 1971 tour – ostensibly to help Godchaux bone-up on the band’s repertoire. Whether or not he actually listened to them is disputed, but what’s known is that he parked them on his parents’ houseboat, where they sat until 2005, when his brother rediscovered them. Amazingly, 35 years at sea (well, canal, since the boat was moored in Alameda) had surprisingly little affect on the tapes, which are still quite full, crisp and balanced. Included is the entire San Diego show, the salvageable portion of the Chicago stop and an hour of the Hollywood performance.

With Mickey Hart having quit the band earlier in the year, Pigpen’s health issues minimizing his keyboard contributions (though not his vocals) and Godchaux yet to join, the band toured as a five-piece that played more as a guitar-guitar-bass-and-drums quartet. This gave them a rawer, less psychedelic sound, and seems to have simplified the board mix to stereo. All of the instruments and most of the vocals can be easily heard, and Phil Lesh’s bass sounds particularly rich throughout. The San Diego set (which fills disc one and a majority of disc two) mixes some of the Dead’s best-known originals (“Sugaree,” “Casey Jones,” “Truckin’,” and “Sugar Magnolia”) with country, blues and rock covers (“El Paso,” “Mama Tried,” “Big Boss Man,” “Promised Land,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Not Fade Away” and “Johnny B. Goode”) that show off the band’s taste and range.

Concise numbers, like Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” are stretched into showcases for instrumental improvisation. At the same time, they don’t loiter in one groove long enough to become repetitive; the segues are as interesting as the song choices, and even casual fans will appreciate how easily the band knit together disparate influences, often charting the flow of their sets on-the-fly. The Chicago set ends disc two and fills disc three, repeating a few songs from San Diego and introducing new titles and a few rarities. Chief among the latter is Pigpen’s “Empty Pages,” which is reported to have only been played twice, with its debut for this performance. Also included is an early version of “Brown-Eyed Woman.” Selections from the Hollywood Palladium show finish off disc four, culminating in a twenty-five minute rendition of “Turn on Your Lovelight.”

Other tapes from 1971 have been released through standard retail over the years, including February dates in Port Chester (the first without Mickey Hart) on Three from the Vault, the multi-venue Grateful Dead, and a legendary April stand at the Fillmore East on Ladies and Gentlemen. The Fillmore East dates are perhaps the most highly regarded by fans, but the band was in such fine form throughout 1971 that just about any of these sets provide great listening to fans and a good introduction to newbies. Those who shied away from (or were repelled by) the scene that surrounded Dead concerts may be surprised at how satisfying the music is on its own merits. Though the tribal vibe of their live shows may not have survived the transformation to tape, the band’s musicality certainly did. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Explorers Club: The New Yorker Suite

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The third in a trio of free ‘60s-styled AM pop suites

In 2008 this South Carolina band’s Freedom Wind so thoroughly evoked the Beach Boys golden age, that you’d wonder if their East Coast beach town of Charleston had somehow connected via a time and space portal to Los Angeles in 1965. More than just recreating the harmonies, instrumentation and arrangements, the band evoked Brian Wilson’s ethos in music, words and emotional tone. It remains a jaw-dropping achievement from start to finish. Four years later, in February of 2012, the band will return with their second album, expanding their exploration of 1960s sounds to the broad sweep of mid-decade AM radio hits, encompassing everything from the sophisticated writing of Burt Bacharach to the Latin-tinged schmaltz of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

In anticipation of the forthcoming album, which will be mixed by Beach Boys associate Mark Linett, the band is releasing a trio of free EPs, each featuring a non-LP cover song and two pre-Linett mixes of album tracks. The California and Carolinian Suites, released in October and November, included covers of Burt Bacharach’s “Walk on By” and the Classic IV’s “Stormy,” alongside two pre-release album tracks each. This third and last suite includes a cover of Vanity Faire’s “Hitchin’ a Ride,” with a bit of gas added to the original’s chugging rhythm and the signature recorder hook moved to keyboard. The EP’s original tunes include the bubblegum soul “Anticipatin’” and the breezy, Bacharach-ian “Run, Run, Run.” You can stream the tracks below, or download the EP for free from Amazon!  [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Download The Carolinian Suite for Free!
Download The Californian Suite for Free!
Download The New Yorker Suite for Free!
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Hitchin’ a Ride

Anticipatin’

Run, Run, Run

Elvis Presley: Elvis Country (Legacy Edition)

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Elvis caps his remarkable comeback

Recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, Elvis Country was the culmination of a remarkable career resurrection. Starting with his 1968 Comeback Special, Elvis went on to reel off the brilliant From Elvis in Memphis (and the second-helping, Back in Memphis), the smartly constructed Vegas show of On Stage, and the studio/live That’s the Way It Is. He capped the run with this 1971 return to his roots, branding these country, gospel, blues, rockabilly and western swing covers with authority. Elvis showed his genius was rooted in his passion for music, which encompassed everything from the early rockabilly of Sanford Clark’s “The Fool” (written, surprisingly, by Lee Hazlewood) to the then-contemporary hit “Snowbird,” as well as classics from Ernest Tubb, Lester Flatt & Bill Monroe, Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran.

Recorded in RCA’s famed Studio B with Presley regulars James Burton, Charlie McCoy and Chip Young; the newly assembled studio hands included several players from the Muscle Shoals powerhouse, and the sessions were produced by Felton Jarvis. The arrangements ranged from loose, down home country jams to Vegas-styled orchestrations, and hearing the variety back-to-back, one quickly realizes how easily Elvis transcended the musical boundaries between his ‘50s roots and his glitzy ‘70s stage shows. Much like the 1969 American Studio sessions in Memphis, Elvis’ enthusiasm and musicality directs the assembled players and provokes top-notch performances; he leads the crew through a rocking workout of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and brings “Tomorrow Never Comes” to a volcanic climax.

The original album tracks are knit together with snippets of “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago,” a gimmick that some listeners find irritating, and which wreaks havoc on shuffle play; the complete take is included in the bonuses. An earlier CD reissue expanded the track count from twelve to eighteen, and this double-CD pushes the total to twenty-nine, including all six earlier bonuses. Disc two opens with the third-helping of the Nashville sessions, previously released as Love Letters from Elvis, and adds three more session bonuses: the singles “The Sound of Your Cry” and “Rags to Riches,” and the album track “Sylvia.” The broad range of material on Love Letters doesn’t always connect with Elvis’ legacy as tightly as that on Elvis Country, but Elvis is in fine voice on each track, and the assembled players are sharp.

Everything here’s been issued before, but pulling together session material previously spread across singles, albums, box sets and latter-day compilations has created a superb recounting of the last chapter of Elvis’ incredible comeback. Not included are the eight Nashville tracks released as part of That’s the Way It Is. A third-disc with banded versions of Elvis Country (minus the musical segues, that is) would have been a great addition, but even without it, this is an excellent expansion upon previous standalone reissues, and a terrific complement to the Legacy editions of From Elvis in Memphis and On Stage. The remastered discs (by Vic Anesini) are housed in a tri-fold digipack with a booklet that includes liner notes by Stuart Colman and terrific photos. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

The Move: Live at the Fillmore 1969

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Stellar live recording of the Move at the Fillmore in 1969

The Move are barely known in the U.S., but their impact on the late-60s British rock scene, and all that tumbled from it, reverberates through to today. By the end of their run, they’d evolved an artier sound that would find full-flower as founders Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, and latter-day member Jeff Lynne, decamped to form the Electric Light Orchestra. But in their prime, they were a rock powerhouse that matched up to the Who’s incendiary music and daring social antics. The group is captured in full-flower of their most famous incarnation on these soundboard tapes, recorded at San Francisco’s Fillmore West in October 1969 on their first and only tour of the U.S. These tapes have floated around bootleg circles, but this is the first complete and official release, endorsed by Sue Wayne, the widow of the band’s vocalist, Carl Wayne.

Wayne had saved the tapes for over thirty years, but it was only in 2003 that digital restoration became sufficiently sophisticated to bring this archive back to life. Sadly, with Wayne’s passing in 2004, the project was once again sidelined. Now fully restored, the song list, plus a ten-minute interview with drummer Bevan, clock in at nearly two hours. The selections include their early single “I Can Hear the Grass Grow,” and fan favorites “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” and “Hello Susie.” Also included are covers of Nazz’s “Open My Eyes” and “Under the Ice,” Mann & Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby Blue” (which the Move likely picked up from the Shadows), Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind” and Ars Nova’s “Fields of People.” The set is surprisingly light on Roy Wood songs, given his position as the band’s main songwriter, but bits of stage patter help sew everything together.

The band’s combination of pop and rock – memorable melodies and tight harmonies played against heavy drums and bass – is a perfect fit for the stage, and particularly for the late-60s Fillmore. The band stretches out on long jams, but their focus contrasts with the meandering discovery of San Francisco’s original ballroom rock. Even Bev Bevan’s drum solo and the melodic salutes woven into “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” sound more like performance than on-the-spot experiment. The set is filled with energy from start to finish, and though the vocals are occasionally often mixed forward, the tapes are solid and reasonably balanced. It’s a shame the Move didn’t tour the U.S. again, as they surely would have been major stateside stars. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra: MTO Plays Sly

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Downtown jazz band plays funky soul

Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra is a New York nonet, featuring a five-piece horn section of brass and reeds, a foundation of guitar, bass, and drums, and drop-ins of violin and banjo. They’ve made a practice of not practicing, learning tunes and working out arrangements on stage and in the studio, giving their records the vitality of live performance seasoned by the simmered qualities of a road ensemble. Their repertoire mixes jazz-age standards with reworked contemporary pop songs, mating ‘20s and ‘30s classics with the works of the Beatles, Prince and Stevie Wonder. For their third album, they’ve focused on the songs of Sly and the Family Stone, with help from vocalists Sandra St. Victor, Antony Hegarty, Martha  Wainwright, Dean Bowman and Shilpa Ray, as well as Bernie Worrell on Hammond, Vernon Reid on guitar and Bill Laswell on bass.

As Greg Tates notes in his liners, Sly and the Family Stone date back to an era when collectives were a common social currency and bands mattered as much (if not more) than individual vocalists. Even among soul groups, however, the Family Stone stood out from the carefully groomed powerhouse acts of Motown. Not only was the membership almost defiantly multiracial, but in sound and style, the group was a combination of its unique ingredients, rather than a corporate-developed vision to which the members were trained. The aesthetic is a natural fit for the MTO, as Bernstein provides a framework within which the individual players express themselves – much as do members of jazz groups, and so to the members of the original Family Stone under Sly’s leadership.

The selections combine well-known hits (“Stand,” “Family Affair” and “Everyday People”) with flipsides and album tracks, including a drawn-out take on “Que Sera Sera” that models itself after the Family Stone’s 1973 Fresh cover. The B-side (and U.K. title track) “M’Lady” gives Dean Bowman a chance to wail against an arrangement that works violin into its hard-soul, and “You Can Make it if You Try” is taken by the band as an instrumental. Most of the tracks tread the fine-line between homage and reinvention, though Shilpa Ray’s brooding, gritty redesign of “Everyday People” may leave listeners missing the original’s effervescence. It’s no surprise that MTO has the talent to carry off this tribute, but the musical heritage it reveals is deeper than even fans might have realized. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Paul Anka and Buddy Holly!

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Buddy Holly, Paul Anka and Jerry Lee Lewis

The recent PBS tribute to Buddy Holly, Listen to Me, revealed this interesting tidbit: Holly’s hit song “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” was written for him by Paul Anka! Perhaps not as surprising when you consider that Anka also wrote the theme song for the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady,” and the English-language lyrics for Sinatra’s signature “My Way.” On top of all that, he donated his composer’s royalty for the song to Holly’s widow, Maria Elena.

Willie Nelson: Remember Me, Vol. 1

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Willie Nelson strolls through great country hits

In contrast to the deeper picks of last year’s Country Music, this year’s model has Nelson working through some of the most famous tunes in country music’s chart history. Included are signature hits from Ernest Tubb (“Remember Me”), Merle Travis (“Sixteen Tons”), George Jones (“Why Baby Why”), Hank Snow (“I’m Movin’ On”), Porter Wagoner (“A Satisfied Mind”), and many others. Nelson teams with Nashville session players and producer James Stroud (the ‘J’ in the R&J record label) to record surprisingly straightforward and twangy covers of fourteen selections. The singularity of Nelson’s artistry allows these simple recitations to escape the shadows cast by the original hits; the instant identifiably of his voice is all that’s needed to make these songs his own. The result finds Nelson easily sharing the stage with both the songs and their famous originators, as if he were a cabaret singer taking a stroll through the great American songbook. It’s just that the songbook in question is mostly Nashville’s rather than Tin Pan Alley’s.

The song list selects heavily from the 1950s, but dips back into the mid-40s and forward to Vern Gosdin’s 1989 hit “That Just About Does It.” The one pick from outside the country charts is Rosemary Clooney’s 1954 pop chart-topper “This Old House.” Nelson and Stroud set the latter into the song list with a light swing arrangement that’s half way between Clooney’s original and Shakin’ Stevens’ 1981 rockabilly cover. The swinging continues with Tex Williams’ “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” and Bob Wills’ “Roly Poly,” providing balance to ballads that include a wonderfully idiosyncratic take on Ray Price’s “Release Me.” It’s a mark of Nelson’s stature and impact on country music that his unique styling provides inspiration, rather than a challenge, for the assembled pickers. This is a fine, easy-going collection of covers, as much about Nelson as it is about the hits. The sessions turned out enough finished works for a second volume, which is expected next year. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Arthur Lyman: Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

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Vibraphone master gives holiday classics an exotica twist

Together with Martin Denny, vibraphonist Arthur Lyman defined the Hawaii-based instrumental style known as “exotica.” After recording the seminal Exotica album with Denny’s combo, Lyman struck out on his own, recording numerous jazz-flavored exotica albums for the Hi-Fi and Life labels, including the classic Taboo in 1958. This holiday entry was originally released in 1964, and features Lyman’s exquisite mallet work on a dozen titles. In Lyman’s hands, these classic Christmas songs take on an island languor you’re unlikely to hear in others’ versions, but it’s not all drifting and dreaming, as Lyman’s combo turns up the tempo on a few stagey romps. If you’ve tired of the crooners and rockers, Lyman’s brand of Polynesian pop-jazz will provide you a sheltered cove for the holidays. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]