As in past years, I'm a bit woozy today after yesterday’s all-day drive up the East Coast from North Carolina. My head still swims with the sights of barbecue joints and crabcake stands, and roadside shacks where one can get smoked ham and sausages, local peanuts, and fireworks to celebrate it all. But it’s good to be home, where the daffodils are in full blown bloom, even if the lawn still struggles against the moss and hemlock. The American South is a wonderful place to visit; I like seeing the world, and though I've been to more [...]
...because sometimes there are no words. The Changing Colors: Take Care Of All My Children (orig. Tom Waits) [ 2011 ] The Wailin' Jennys: Calling All Angels (orig. Jane Siberry) [ 2009 ] Laura Cantrell: I'll Remember You (orig. Kui Lee) [...]
Mark Erelli: Hollow Man [ purchase ] Chuck E Costa: Hollow Man (Mark Erelli cover) [ purchase ] I grew up in a house where it was common practice not to speak of politics, and especially not of politicians; as an adult, I continue this practice, registering as an independent and preferring to keep my vote private from everyone, even my own spouse, no matter how many times my inner-city students might dismiss such machinations [...]
If tribute albums are a coverlover's bread and butter, then in-studio covers are quite often the wine: sweet, dry, subtle, and the perfect complement to the studio recordings which bring one to a musician in the first place. But if I take an arms-length approach to live concert recordings, it's because so many cause me more pain than pleasure. Years of ear training as a choral vocalist leave me unable to appreciate instrumentation which is even slightly out of tune, a problem endemic to the live session, where crowd-pleasing can rush the re-tuning process. Similarly, a [...]
Teaching Romeo and Juliet to my inner-city ninth graders this past year was an uphill battle with multiple casualties, but I'm quite proud of how effective we found it to start outside the text, with a week-long exploration of pop and mass culture referents, the better to understand which elements of story and structure, character and cast we westerners are expected to retain into adulthood. Indeed, our very first day featured a side-by-side comparison of Taylor Swift's Love Story and Dire Straits Romeo & Juliet - perhaps the two most currently recognizable songs [...]
Another school year comes to a close on Wednesday, and although I'm planning on spending a few weeks earning extra cash for writing curriculum and attending in-house workshops here and there in the months ahead, for the most part, the end is near, the pace of my life about to shift to summer. By this time next week, I expect to be puttering around the yard, catching up on the long grass and wilderness that springs from order in the inevitable Spring; by July, I'll be deep into rehearsals for a production of As You Like It, and [...]
We're braving it alone this week, the wee one, the elderchild and me. And though this meant an especially sniffly, snuggly Monday night, happily, the four stages of grief have passed quickly in such intense, obvious circumstances, leaving us accepting, if not yet perfectly balanced in our adoption of the adapted dance that is life with Daddy. If I'm nervous but grateful for the chance to try, it's in no small part because my time with the kids is too often stolen from Mama's world. From the moment we find ourselves on the [...]
We've got an unusually large post today, both to acknowledge a growing backlog of recent projects from familiar, beloved folk artists, and to make up for our recent vacation-driven absence from these pages. Read on for an unheard-of 20-track (Re)Covered set , focused around a plethora of new releases and recordings from singer-songwriters and bands previously featured on the Cover Lay Down radar screen... I've known of Halifax-based singer-songwriter Rose Cousins for years, though almost exclusively through her rich and ongoing collaboration with a number of local [...]
As noted on our Donate page , here at Cover Lay Down we insist on remaining ad-free and non-profit - the better to focus our attention and your support on those artists we tout week in and week out, thus making it possible for them to keep their hands and voices in the game full-time, for the benefit of all. But making and reinforcing connections between musicians and the community they serve isn't free. The amount of bandwidth it takes to serve our growing readership runs well over a terabyte of data [...]
Student grades are due tomorrow, but we went to church anyway - we had to sing, and anyway, after two years of semi-regular practice as a Unitarian Universalist, I have come to a place in my life where I find peace and solace in shared practice which starts and ends with love and service, togetherness and open-ended truths, and a shared commitment to social justice. Much of this is due to the particulars of our chosen worship setting. The UU church which we attend is in transition, with an interim minister who has my [...]
Bill Morrissey: Handsome Molly [ purchase ] Bill Morrissey: Birches [ purchase ] His songs were like Elmer Rising's pen and ink masterpieces--you could admire each confidently executed lyrical brushstroke and melodic twist on the finest of scales, and never diminish the overall impression of their honesty and truth. At the height of his powers, on 1989's Standing Eight, 1992's Inside and 1993's Night Train, each Bill Morrissey record contained [...]
I've been a Mark Erelli fan ever since I saw him on stage at the 1999 Green River Festival, just two years after his 3 a.m. discovery at a folk conference hotel room jam. I was thrilled by the release of 2001 breakthrough album Compass and Companion, which brought several singles to local folk-and-roots radio station WRSI thanks to their close connection with the Signature Sounds label. And since then, I've discovered multiple connections between us - among them, a love of coverage, a love for the history and natural imagery of New England, [...]
Two years ago, my annual visit to the folkfields produced a manifesto of sorts, anticipating and acknowledging the blur between old time, bluegrass, folk, and other american roots forms being performed by a rising crop of very young artists. Much of this came from the dual nature of my summer revelry: moving from Grey Fox Bluegrass to Falcon Ridge Folk allowed for a surprisingly consistent journey, and that which I saw in one site, I confirmed in the other. This year, though work and other obligations left me unable to attend Grey Fox, I [...]
We're home from the folkfields after a two-week hiatus, tanned, rested, and ready to explicate the current state of folk as represented by this year's mainstage and sidestage lineups and their accompanying buzz. While we gather our thoughts [and CDs] for our annual post-fest megapost, here's the best of what landed in the mailbox during our absence. With its tender mix of old-timey reconstructions, traditional tunes, original songs, and recorded field narratives, On The Brooklyn Road - an incredible new country roots album from [...]
The Cambridge music community is dazzling with the songs and voices of some of this country's finest independent musicians. The March 8th showcase features a beautiful sampler of sorts of the Cambridge area's most talented voices and musicians. This is a show for the most seasoned Camberville music fan as well as a newbie wanting to get a heaping dose of the best live music in the area. March 8th show will feature Dennis Brennan , Jess Tardy , Mark Erelli , Billy Beard , Jeese Dee , Zach Hickman and Margaret [...]
As we've alluded to in our recurring Covered in Kidfolk series, there's a growing universe of family-friendly music out there that doesn't suck, and a large portion of it seems to be centered around the American Northeast region which we call home. Not all of it is folk, of course - increasingly, alternative music, world music, and even rap have found a niche in the hands and ears of cool moms and dads, who continue to insist on healthy yet artistically mature songs which they can enjoy alongside their offspring. [...]
The days grow short enough to burn at both ends; it's dark when I wake, still dark when I leave for work, and dusk when I return. In today's rain, it was darker still: hard to find the school building in the thick, clouded air; dismal on the return trip, wind whipping wet leaves across my path as I crested the hill into the mist towards home. I'm hardly home, of course. Play rehearsals in the looming darkness of the local town hall take their toll, as do late [...]
It's a point of personal pride that in almost three years of existence, we've never missed a scheduled post here at Cover Lay Down. But tonight we're as close as we've ever come, thanks to the sudden, time-consuming duality of both long days in the classroom and long nights at rehearsals for our local community theater production - and the heat wave we're experiencing here in New England doesn't help. I had half a post written, but it looks like it's not going to make it out of draft form 'til Sunday. [...]
I first discovered Ontario-based singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn via 1987 singles collection Waiting For A Miracle, a double album set whose bright aboriginal cover art called to me from my father's record collection. Even to my untrained adolescent ears, the seventeen year songspan told a story of a potent guitarist and prolific artist who had slowly turned from sparse acoustic folk to something urban, electrified, and politicized. And though I found myself favoring the middle of the album for its contemporary, catchy pre-rock melodies and accessible yet spiritual imagery, his astute, often poignant observations [...]
Cover Lay Down
Star Maker Machine
Keep the Coffee Coming
The Deli Magazine
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Better Days
New Track: "Trying to Be Cool" (Moon Bounce Remix) - Phoenix
Giorgio Moroder - Live at Deep Space
Listen The Lonely Island and Solange together on “Semicolon”
