Welcome To The World, Imogen Claire

Imogen Claire Phillips was born at 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday June 20. She's small, perfect, and I fell in love with her the moment I met her.
I wanted to post some tunes about being a father, but I couldn't find anything that said what I wanted. Jon Anderson has a song called Animation about the birth of his daughter, but it's a little over done. I guess I could always use Creed's Arms Wide Open, but I just can't bring myself to post a Creed song. So, I'm posting a couple of love songs that can also express the love between a parent and child.

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?
The Waterboys - How Long Will I Love You?

Cover Version Challenge 5

Here are the answers to last week's challenge:
A - Starman by Culture Club, originally by David Bowie
B - Mr. Blue Sky by The Delgados, originally by Electric Light Orchestra
C - Reelin' In The Years by Joe Jackson, originally by Steely Dan
D - (Don't Fear) The Reaper by The Beautiful South, originally by Blue Oyster Cult
E - Baker Street by Foo Fighters, originally by Gerry Rafferty
F - The Weight by Travis, originally by The Band

For this week's challenge, I'm going with an 80's theme. All ofthe songs were originally released in the 80's. I'm posting six songs labelled A though F, the six covering artists, and the six original artists. It's up to you to figure out who did what. You can submit your guesses in th comments section, or email them to me at andthroughthewireblog@yahoo.ca. Unfortunately I have no prizes, this is just for the fun of it. I hope to have the answers posted next weekend, but I have a new baby coming very soon and might be a little distracted.

Songs:
A - B - C - D - E - F

Covering Artists:
The Arcade Fire
David Bowie
Ben Folds
Iron & Wine
Nouvelle Vague (how could I do 80's covers and not include them!)
Violent Femmes

Original Artists:
Culture Club
The Cure
Echo &The Bunnymen
New Order
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Talking Heads

Related Posts:
Cover Version Challenge 4
Cover Version Challenge 3
Cover Version Challenge 2
Cover Versions

Cover Version Challenge 4

Here are the answers to last week's challenge:
A - I'm Not Down by Thea Gilmore, originally by The Clash
B - Wild Wood by Eliza Carthy, originally by Paul Weller
C - For What Reason by Emm Gryner, originally by Death Cab For Cutie
D - Enjoy The Silence by Tori Amos, originally by Depeche Mode
E - All Apologies by Kathryn Williams, originally by Nirvana
F - After The Gold Rush by Natalie Merchant, originally by Neil Young
G - It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference by Alison Krauss, originally by Todd Rundgren
H - One by Cowboy Junkies, originally by U2
I - More Than This by 10,000 Maniacs (with Mary Ramsey on vocals), originally by Roxy Music
J - Yellow by Petra Haden & Bill Frisell, originally by Coldplay

And now on to this week's challenge, with a bit of a classic rock theme. I'm posting six songs labelled A though F, the six covering artists, and the six original artists. It's up to you to figure out who did what. You can submit your guesses in th comments section, or email them to me at andthroughthewireblog@yahoo.ca. Unfortunately I have no prizes, this is just for the fun of it.

Songs:
A - B - C - D - E - F

Covering Artists:
The Beautiful South
Culture Club
The Delgados
Foo Fighters
Joe Jackson
Travis

Original Artists:
The Band
Blue Oyster Cult
David Bowie
Electric Light Orchestra
Gerry Rafferty
Steely Dan

Related Posts:
Cover Version Challenge 3
Cover Version Challenge 2
Cover Versions

Emmylou Harris

Growing up I never listened to country music. It was simply not listened to in our house, for, what I see now, were prejudicial reasons. I never would have guessed that years later that I would not only be enjoying Emmylou Harris' music, but telling the world about it. The music I'm going to focus on is not her own music, but some collaborations she's done recently.

Daniel Lanois produced Emmylou's 1995 album, Wrecking Ball, and she has returned the favour by guesting on I Love You from his 2003 album Shine, and on a version of Stormy Sky with Lanois and Willie Nelson that was originally recorded for Nelson's album Teatro, but eventually released on Lanois' outtake compilation Rockets.
Download (right click, save)
Daniel Lanois with Emmylou Harris - I Love You
Daniel Lanois, Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris - Stormy Sky

Emmylou was recruited by Conor Oberst in 2004 to sing backing vocals on the Bright Eyes album I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. I'm not sure how the collaboration came about, but her vocals were perfectly suited to Oberst's songs, and they would be missing something without her contributions. Here are her contributions from that album.
Download (right click, save)
Bright Eyes - We Are Nowhere And It's Now
Bright Eyes - Another Travelin' Song
Bright Eyes - Land Locked Blues

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris recently released their collaboration, All The Roadrunning. They've been recording tracks for the album as time as permitted over the past seven years. I think it's a testament to her vocal ability the fact that she can bring out the best in a song, regardless of who she's singing with; whether it's Knopfler, Oberst, Lanois, or any of the other artists she's collaborated with over the years. Here are three tracks from All The Roadrunning.
Download (right click, save)
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - Beachcombing
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - All The Roadrunning
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - If This Is Goodbye

Cover Version Challenge 3

I haven't received any guesses for last week's challenge, so I'm not going to post the answers yet. Instead, I will add five new songs to the mix to make it even more challenging. So this week there will be ten songs, labelled A through J, a list of ten covering artists, and a list of ten original artists. Please submit your guesses in the comment section, or e-mail me directly at andthroughthewireblog@yahoo.ca .

Songs: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J

Covering Artists:
10,000 Maniacs
Tori Amos
Eliza Carthy
Cowboy Junkies
Thea Gilmore
Emm Gryner
Petra Haden
Alison Krauss
Natalie Merchant
Kathryn Williams

Original Artists:
The Clash
Coldplay
Death Cab For Cutie
Depeche Mode
Nirvana
Roxy Music
Todd Rundgren
U2
Paul Weller
Neil Young

Formatting Problems

I recently switched browsers from Internet Explorer to Firefox. Since then, this blog hasn't looked right when viewed with IE. I'll see if I can fix the formatting problems and get it looking right. In the meantime, bare with me or switch to Firefox.

Studio vs. Live Versions 2

I've always been a big fan of live recordings. Many artists take advantage of concerts to reinterpret a song, or often a song isn't fully realized by the band until it's performed in a live setting. Sometimes on a live album I'll hear a song that really jumps out at me, and I'll discover that I already have a studio version of that song, but that version never really caught my attention. Often times it's a solo or instrumental section that will hook me, or maybe an acoustic song performed electric. This is one of a series of posts comparing live versions with their original studio counterparts.

This time I have a couple of tunes from the nineties. Paul Weller's second solo album, Wild Wood, included a compelling acoustic number called Foot Of The Mountain. When he toured with that album, the song was performed by the full band and it rocked. The live version was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1993, and originally appeared as a b-side on the Hung Up single. I'm not sure that I prefer one version over the other, it's a great song either way.

Download (right click, save):
Paul Weller - Foot Of The Mountain
Paul Weller - Foot Of The Mountain (Live at Royal Albert Hall 23.11.93)

54-40's first album for Columbia was 1992's Dear Dear. It was their biggest album to date and included the hits Nice To Luv You and She-La. My favourite track from the album was a song called Music Man. It had a slow rhythm and a pulsing bass line, once you got into the groove of the song, you felt it could go on forever. 54-40 put out a live album in 1999, Heavy Mellow, taken from recordings made on the Since When tour of 1998. On that tour they were accompanied by jazz vocalist Coco Love Alcorn, who showcased her talents on a number of songs, including Music Man. I saw the tour when it came to Guelph, and this was definitely one of the highlights of the show.

Download (right click, save)
54-40 - Music Man
54-40 - Music Man (live autumn 1998)

Related Posts:
Studio Versions vs. Live Versions