There are some songs that are so closely associated with their original performers that they just sound foreign coming from the mouths of even the best singers. Covers albums can be a blessing or a curse for this reason. And in my opinion, some get it right and some don’t. Some artists make a covers album that stays very true to the original recordings of the songs and others take the tracks, change the arrangement and make them their own.
Two that come to mind are Alan Jackson’s Under The Influence and Wynonna’s recent release Sing: Chapter One. While both Alan and Wynonna mostly culled their songs from the songbooks of 1970s country music, the arrangements the two put on their respective albums are vastly different. Alan Jackson elected to record a selection of country classics and didn’t variate from the sound of the originals much. For instance, the music track on ‘Once You’ve Had the Best’ from Under the Influence is virtually interchangeable with George Jones’ original recording of the song. Jackson still gives the lyric a worthy reading and the entire album is still a favorite of mine. To the contrary, Wynonna – whose picks on her own covers album were about half country songs and half R&B, blues, and rock and roll chestnuts – took country standards like ‘Are The Good Times Really Over’ and ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ and put a very contemporary spin on them. I am not saying one way is correct, or that one is even better than the other. It’s really a matter of personal taste on the part of the artist and the listener.
Martina McBride and Patty Loveless have recently released covers albums with very traditional material and production, but one of them seem to be much better-suited for singing hard-core country than the other. So should the singer’s actual catalog be taken into account when they’re recording an album of material previously done by others? Case in point: Timeless was by far more of a stretch from the albums Martina McBride had been making than Sleepless Nights was from Patty Loveless’s recent records. So were Martina’s fans unreceptive to the traditional sounds of her album? Would she have fared better with tracks from the likes of Reba, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, or even Alabama? Certainly her fans would have been more familiar with those names than Ray Price, Lynn Anderson, or Ernest Tubb. It’s my opinion that artists like Alan, Wynonna, Patty, and Martina have an obligation to their fans to stay true – and pay homage through their music – to the artists, songs, and sounds that came before them and defined the genre they call home. But that’s another post entirely …
My question to you is this: Who would you like to hear a covers album from? And what songs would you like them to include on it?
I will start: I would like to hear a covers album from George Strait. And just a few of the songs I’d like to hear Strait’s take on would be Conway Twitty’s ‘This Time I’ve Hurt Her More (Than She Loves Me)’, Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’, and maybe even the B.J. Thomas tune ‘(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song’.
Few songs illustrate the stark changes that have taken place at country radio over the past thirty-odd years better than “Blood Red and Goin’ Down.” Nowadays radio is programmed to appeal to the soccer moms and the subject matter is kept light and non-controversial (in other words, bland.) As such, a song such as this one, were it written and released in 2009, would never see the light of day at radio. Thankfully that was decidedly not the case in 1973 when “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” became Tanya Tucker’s second #1 hit.
