The Music Archives

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Archive 2: Cover Songs (audio)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. – Oscar Wilde

Like many singer-songwriters of original songs, I first cut my teeth on the songs of my musical heroes. This section of the Music Archives features some of my better performances of cover tunes, recorded in a variety of contexts…

In the weeks and months immediately following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, a range of people, organizations, and governments around the world were looking for ways to help the Americans deal with the tragedy; and the musicians of Newfoundland and Labrador were no different. The way the Newfoundlanders in Gander stepped up when all the planes were being grounded that day is well known, and they’ve even made a hit Broadway musical out of the story.

Less known was the benefit concert in the Holy Heart of Mary Auditorium, with performances from many of the province’s premier acts, titled “Let Them Hear You!”, with all proceeds going to help the people of New York City. It was my honour to contribute by playing and singing two appropriate covers solo on my guitar…

First, I played Neil Diamond’s moving ballad I Am, I Said. I thought the existential nature of the lyric, and the line “New York’s home, but it ain’t mine no more”, made it a good choice for this concert.

For the second song, I chose Bruce Springsteen’s haunting tune Racing in the Street from his Darkness on the Edge of Town album. Like the first tune, the spirit of the song made it strangely appropriate.

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Needing two more songs to fill out my Not To Be Denied cassette recorded at Echo Studios, I did two cover tunes…

First, I decided to do Elvis Costello’s breakneck version of Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down from the Almost Blue album. It was a lot of fun.

And second, Dobie Gray’s Drift Away has always been a favourite of mine.

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Back in the early 21st century, NTV and the Bella Vista night club in St. John’s hosted The Newfoundland Karaoke Idol Contest, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the celebrity judges. Each week’s episode was recorded on Thursday evening, and I would drop by in the afternoon to do a song to help them with the sound check.

Working the sound for the contest was Eastern Audio, and veteran guitarist Paul Monahan was on the board. I didn’t know it, but Paul was recording each sound check song through the board, and just before Christmas he surprised me with a thumb drive of my sound check recordings! It was a very special treat, and I paid it forward by passing it on with DVDs to my family and friends as a Christmas gift…

There is Elton John’s first number one hit, Your Song –

…a standard from Ol’ Blue Eyes, Lady is a Tramp –

…a Christmas song by Roy Orbison, Pretty Paper –

… a big country hit by Charlie Rich, Behind Closed Doors –

… Willie Nelson’s Always on My Mind –

… Neil Diamond’s Cracklin’ Rosie –

… and one of his I have always strongly identified with, I Am, I Said –

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Finally, I feature here a duet with my good friend, Jane Hynes, of Placentia, St. Mary’s Bay. Jane sings like a bird, and when she was running the Three Sisters Pub in Placentia, their Friday night karaoke contests were very popular. One night, Jane and I did the Neil Diamond/Barbara Streisand hit, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, and it brought the house down. We recorded it for a DVD of songs from those karaoke Fridays at The Three Sisters which they sold at the bar.