The Levon Helm Band's "Electric Dirt"

(Note: due to someone who works for Levon Helm not wanting me to share mp3s, the two Levon Helm tracks are no longer available. Sorry about that.)

By singing many of their greatest songs, while also being a fantastic drummer, Levon Helm was an important part of what made The Band one of the greatest rock groups of all time. Here he is at his best, singing the classic "Up On Cripple Creek" on stage at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1970, followed by the original studio track.



The Band - Up On Cripple Creek

In the late 1990's, Levon lost his voice and was diagnosed with throat cancer. In this interview here, Levon recounts what it was like to survive this and eventually sing again at the Midnight Ramble shows at his home in Woodstock, NY. The continued strength of these shows and Levon's improving health and voice led to the release of his solo album Dirt Farmer in 2007.

The album was recorded with his Levon Helm Band which featured his daughter Amy Helm, along with Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Jimmy Vivino, Mike Merritt, Brian Mitchell, Erik Lawrence, Steven Bernstein and blues harmonica player Little Sammy Davis.

The highlight of this record for me was his cover of Steve Earle's "The Mountain." Levon's world weary voice added something special to this version. Here's a fan made video made up of some great old photographs.



The Levon Helm band engaged in successful touring along with continuing a run of Midnight Ramble shows in Woodstock that were more popular than ever and featured many great musicians joining in from night to night. This led to the recording of the excellent follow up Electric Dirt, which opened with a fun cover of Jerry Garcia's "Tennessee Jed." Here's the band's recent performance on The Late Show with David Letterman.



I got to see The Levon Helm Band open up for the Black Crowes in Atlantic City on July 29, 2009. While Levon had to rest his voice and could not sing, the rest of the band filled in admirably, taking some excellent turns on lead vocals for many new songs and classics from The Band. We also got a couple of fun surprise guests too.

Here's the Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson singing lead on "Tennesse Jed."



Chris and Rich Robinson joined in for the last song of The Levon Helm Band's opening set, "The Weight."



Look for plenty more on The Band, Levon Helm, and The Black Crowes here in the future. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy Levon Helm's Electric Dirt on amazon.com

Ten Live Covers From The Black Crowes

Chris and Rich Robinson formed the Black Crowes in 1984. There are have been a lot of highs and some lows on their records over the years, but they have always remained a hugely successful live act. One of the big reasons for this is their ability to mix in great covers into their sets. Here are some of the best that have been captured on video over the years.

A fun video (with some hilarious crowd shots) of the Crowes covering Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" at the 1991 Monsters of Rock Festival in Moscow.



A cover of Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright" on the first anniversary of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994.



The Crowes recorded the album Live at the Greek in October of 1999 (and later toured) with Jimmy Page. The album featured mostly Led Zeppelin songs and one of the better versions they did was for "What is and What Should Never Be."



After a three year hiatus, the band reunited in 2005 and recorded the live CD/DVD Freak and Roll... Into the Fog. The highlight was the closing song, a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Here's the video and the mp3.



The Black Crowes - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

In 2006, keyboard player Eddie Harsch and guitarist Marc Ford left the band. They were eventually replaced by Adam MacDougall and Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi Allstars). Joining original members Chris and Rich Robinson, bassist Sven Pippen, and drummer Steve Gorman, they've made two excellent studio albums and released most of their concerts on their website www.liveblackcrowes.com. Here is a sampling of ten great live covers that they've mixed into their shows in the last few years. Listen to these tracks and you will hear why this latest Crowes lineup is one of the great live rock bands around today.

The Black Crowes - Live Covers from 2008 & 2009

Torn and Frayed (Rolling Stones cover) - from Warpaint Live

Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones cover) San Francisco, CA - 12/19/08

Ohio (CSN&Y cover) Cleveland, OH - 7/30/08

He Was a Friend of Mine (Bob Dylan cover) New York, NY - 11/03/08

The Mighty Quinn (Bob Dylan & The Band cover) Philadelphia, PA - 7/01/08

Don't Do It (The Band cover) Hampton Beach, NH - 6/19/09

Oh Sweet Nuthin' (Velvet Underground cover) Alantic City, NJ - 8/29/09

Boomer's Story (Ry Cooder cover) Westbury, NY - 9/04/09

Hot Burrito #2 (Gram Parsons cover) Asbury Park, NJ 9/05/09

So Many Times (Stephen Stills cover) Woodstock, NY 2009

The last track was recorded live in front of an audience, along with the rest of the double album Before the Frost... Until the Freeze, during a series of five shows at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, NY. Like the cover above, the whole album is phenomenal and well worth checking out. To truly get the most out of the Black Crowes experience though, you have to see them live, since they've never been better.

Thanks for checking this out everyone.

Buy the Black Crowes' Before the Frost... Until the Freeze on amazon.com

John Prine and Iris Dement's duets on "In Spite of Ourselves"

In 1999, John Prine released In Spite of Ourselves, a brilliant album of duets with nine of his favorite female singers and an excellent group of musicians backing him up. The record was a collection of classic country covers that tells the story of the many ups and downs of a relationship. Mostly downs though since there are a ton of great cheating songs at the core of this album. John had some incredible duet partners for this, including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and Patty Loveless. The highlight of In Spite of Ourselves though, and his classic concert promoting the album on the late great cable show Sessions at West 54th, were the songs he sang with Iris Dement, one of the most talented singer/songwriters to come from the country genre in the past 20 years.

Here are three of their duets from the best episode of Sessions at West 54th, followed by the studio tracks from In Spite of Ourselves.



John Prine w/ Iris Dement -We're Not the Jet Set



John Prine w/ Iris Dement -
Let's Invite Them Over Again

The best song on the album was the title track, the only song on the record that was a John Prine original. It was originally written for what became the unreleased Billy Bob Thornton film Daddy and Them, as he explains in a funny bit at the beginning of the video. This is the rare song that somehow manages to be hilarious, poignant, and beautiful and it is one of my all time favorites.



John Prine w/ Iris Dement - In Spite of Ourselves

If you don't own it, you should definitely pick up the John Prine DVD Live from Sessions at West 54th here, but in the meantime, here is one big mp3 file of the five songs John and Iris sang together that night.

John Prine w/ Iris Dement - Five Live Songs from Sessions at West 54th

If you'd like to listen to more from Iris Dement, check out a previous post on this blog abour her first album Infamous Angel right here.

Look for plenty more posts about John Prine and Iris Dement on this blog in the future. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy John Prine's In Spite of Ourselves from amazon.com

Ten More Covers of Bruce Springsteen's Songs

Bruce Springsteen is turning 60 this week. In honor of him, let's put up ten more covers of his songs from some other great artists. If you missed it, there are ten more favorite Bruce covers from an earlier post on this blog here.

Ten more excellent covers of Bruce Springsteen's songs:

The Hollies - Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

David Bowie - It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

The Band - Atlantic City

Steve Earle - State Trooper (Live)

Johnny Cash - Highway Patrolman

Elvis Costello - Brilliant Disguise

Crooked Fingers - Mansion on the Hill

Damian Jurado & Rosie Thomas - Wages of Sin

Marah - Streets of Philadelphia

John Train Band (featuring Mike Brenner) - Independence Day

The last track was recorded to promote a concert celebrating Springsteen's birthday from Philadelphia's great public radio station WXPN at World Cafe Live on September 23rd. Many tracks were recorded at the XPN studios by local Philly artists who will all be performing these songs live on Wednesday night. The live show will be broadcast on www.xpn.org from 7-10, but in the meantime, check out a playlist of the recorded tracks here or below.



Buy the best Springsteen tribute album, Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska at amazon.com

The White Stripes covering Dolly Parton's "Jolene"

Our Dolly Parton weekend concludes with her biggest hit of the 1970's, her song "Jolene" from 1974. It is an emotional, powerful song and it is easy to see why it was so popular. This was her first #1 song and it solidified Dolly as a country star, launching her into much more mainstream and crossover success in the future.



Dolly Parton - Jolene

Very early on in their careers, the White Stripes took to covering the song in their live shows. Their version is phenomenal and it was the highlight of both their 2002 Glastonbuy Festival set, as well as their 2001 session for John Peel's BBC radio show, as you will see and hear below.



The White Stripes - Jolene (2001 John Peel Sessions)

For a link to the full John Peel Sessions, check out a previous post on this blog here.

The song was also an important part of The White Stripes' 2005 concert film Under Blackpool Lights.. Here's the video and audio of that performance.



The White Stripes - Jolene (from Under Blackpool Lights)

We're going to give Dolly a rest for a while, but there will be more on Jack White's other musical endeavors sometime soon. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy the White Stripes' DVD Under Blackpool Lights from amazon.com

Trio (Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda) covering Neil Young's "After the Goldrush"

Neil Young's third solo album, After the Goldrush was released in 1970. It featured more sparse and introspective songs than the heavier rock with Crazy Horse at the center of his second album, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. At the heart of this album was the title song, a brilliant, timeless classic that remains as powerful and relevant as ever. Here's live video from the concert film Rust Never Sleeps and the studio track (with a 17 year old Nils Lofgren on piano).



Neil Young - After the Golrush (1970)

Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt reunited for their second album together Trio II in 1998. Their first album together, Trio, in 1987was one of the greatest records from that time, where all three women supported each other on classic country songs. When they finally recorded a follow up, they broadened their horizons with some inspired song choices. Nowhere was this more evident than in their cover of "After the Goldrush." Dolly sings the lyrics, while their angelic voices blend together to sing the choruses. The results were amazing.

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Trio (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt) - After the Goldrush

Hopefully, these ladies will sing together again and there will be a Trio III someday.

Buy the album Trio II at amazon.com

Dolly Parton Covering Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"

Yes, this actually happened and amazingly, somehow, someway, it was awesome. Go figure. Everybody and their mother knows all about Zep's "Stairway to Heaven" so what's the sense of writing about it. Here are two live versions of the song. The somewhat lackluster performance from their MSG concert film The Song Remains the Same, followed by the tremendous version from their most recent live album, How the West Was Won.



Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (from How the West Was Won)

Not many artists have ever dared to cover "Stairway to Heaven." Dolly Parton had just the right mix of ignorance and brilliance to pull off a very different, yet fascinating take on the song. Working with some top notch bluegrass musicians, Dolly pulled off the unimaginable and the results were surprisingly good. It was good enough for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to approve of it, even letting Dolly add some of her own lyrics of her own at the end of it, as explained in this Entertainment Weekly article here. Here's Dolly describing why she covered the song on her 2002 album Halos & Horns.



Here's a live performance of the song, followed by an mp3 of the studio track:



Dolly Parton - Stairway to Heaven

Look for a post on The White Stripes covering one of Dolly's best songs very soon.

Download Dolly Parton's Halos & Horns from amazon.com

Emmylou Harris Covering Donna Summer's "On the Radio" (Link Fixed)

Giorgio Moroder composed many of Donna Summer's huge disco hits in the late 1970's and early 1980's. One of the best tracks they made together was the song "On the Radio." Here's the music video for the song, followed by the studio track.



Donna Summer - On the Radio

On her underrated 1983 album White Shoes, Emmylou Harris covered "On the Radio." No, Emmylou did not go all disco on us. Instead, she chose to keep the slower tempo used at the beginning of Donna Summer's version throughout her take on the song. I've always thought that this was some of Emmylou's very best singing on this track, with the result being haunting and beautiful and in a way that only Emmylou could pull off.

Emmylou Harris - On the Radio

I don't know if I can promise you much more Donna Summer, though she is pretty great, but there will be plenty more from Emmylou here in the future, so keep checking back for that. Thanks for reading.

Download Emmylou Harris' album White Shoes from amazon.com

Gillian Welch covering Radiohead's "Black Star"

Radiohead released their classic second album The Bends in 1995. Though it wasn't one of the singles, one of the better songs on the record was "Black Star." Here's a live performance from London in 1994, followed by the studio track.



Radiohead - Black Star

"Black Star" became the basis for one of the best cover songs I have ever heard when Gillian Welch put her own spin on the song and then released it as a live download in 2005. Here's her performance of it with her frequent collaborator David Rawlings at the Bonnaroo Festival in 2007, followed by the originally released track.



Gillian Welch - Black Star

Check back here for a few more interesting covers this week and look for plenty more posts on Gillian Welch and Radiohead in the future. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy Gillian Welch's excellent debut album from 1996, Revival, at amazon.com