it takes a very very brave person to record an album of cover songs. it is not for the shy or the faint of heart. it’s quite possibly the most revealing sort of album one can send out into the world. more revealing than a record full of original compositions even. an artist will live or die on an album full of cover songs. it’s glaring, it’s naked, it’s unforgiving. personally, i’m a magnet for cover songs. i will usually buy any record, sight unseen, sound unheard if the artist has one particularly interesting choice of a cover song. never am i more excited to hear a new record as when i play that cover song for the first time. and i’m always hoping that that the artist will make it their own and that it will be more magical than the original recording. it doesn’t really have to be more magical… even if it’s just equal, it’s good and it’s still the best feeling. and there is always the possibility that it could be better than the original. and that’s the kind of hope that fuels the excitement.

of course that’s a pretty rare occurrence, but when it does happen it’s worth much more than its weight in all the discarded vinyl and tears of disappointment in the search. which is not to say that i believe it to be an impossible task or that it requires extreme talent. on the contrary it could be quite simple. i think a great cover song can be recorded with a toy piano and no microphone. or less. but it does require something rare. it requires that the artist take ownership of the material. marry it, so to speak. love it, honor it, and obey it and it will pay you back tenfold. perform it the way it sounds uniquely to you and with everything you love about it and it will translate.

i have a cover album in the can as they say in the biz. it’s actually a double album. it’s all somewhat obscure songs that i love and have loved for a long time. i recorded this album by myself in a very macgyver sort of way. it was all patch cords and nine volt batteries and effects pedals and bells… there weren’t enough bells in the world for me when i recorded it and also they weren’t up front enough in the mix.  it’s a combination of organic sounding guitars and electronic accents and stuff…. it even has a brilliant title, a nod to roxy music, it’s called Last Year’s Fab Rave… unfortunately when it was  finished, i set out to record the vocals, my favorite part of course. everytime i tried to sing i had a frog in my throat. every day. so i kept waiting for the right day. as luck would have it the everyday frog hung around for about six months. when it finally took its leave, circumstances in my life interfered with my desire to record the vocals. and so it sits, on the virtual shelf, sans vocals. it’s so finished, it’s even sequenced. the first song is sometimes, by the flamin’ groovies which is not coincidentally the first song i ever played on a guitar.

the last song is reconnez cherie by wreckless eric which was the hardest because deciphering the lyrics required a series of transatlantic phone calls and tutoring by high school french students. it didn’t help so i settled on lyrics i could live with even though they were so not right. who knew he was talking about sodium glare and bedsitland…. i thought they were places. i sat around for hours, days studying maps of the british isles for these imaginary places. i swear this is true. in retrospect, the everyday frog was a blessing in disguise that kept me from trashing my most beloved song.