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

Merry Clayton - "Gimme Shelter" and Three More Amazing Covers

We've all heard those amazing backing vocals on the Rolling Stones' song "Gimme Shelter." Those backing vocals were from the great Merry Clayton. Merry has a long and storied career in pop music though. In the early 60's, she was one of Ray Charles' Raelettes. She recorded tracks with Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, and the Superemes, among many others. She has made a handful of her own albums and appeared on many soundtracks, but her best work was from her own records in the early 70's.

Mary's best moment of her career would come a year after she recorded "Gimme Shetler" for the Stones, when she laid down a cover of the song herself. There are no words to describe how good this is so just give it a listen. From the 1970 album of the same name, here's a fan made video and an mp3 of Merry Clayton's version of "Gimme Shelter."



Merry Clayton - "Gimme Shelter" (Rolling Stones cover)

One more classic cover that appeared on the Gimme Shelter album:

Merry Clayton- "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

In 1971, she made a great self titled record. Two more covers from Merry Clayton.

Merry Clayton - "Southern Man" (Neil Young cover)
Merry Clayton - "Grandma's Hands" (Bill Withers cover)

Much of Merry's recorded work is difficult to track down. For example, Gimme Shelter and Merry Clayton are both available from amazon.com as Japanese imports only for $63 each. However, she has contined playing shows nearly 40 years after these classic recordings and that phenomenal voice is still there.

Here's Merry on June 21, 2008 at the Toronto Jazz Festival still going strong.



Browse through Merry Clayton's music at amazon.com

Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit (1993)

When Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart released the Alfie soundtrack in 2004, I read a lot of paint by numbers reviews that mostly repeated what seemed like common knowledge for most music critics then, Mick Jagger's solo albums blow. With the bad taste of Mick's awful work with Rob Thomas still fresh/rotten in their minds, who can blame them.

But when Jagger released a solo best of compilation in 2007, I read a lot of positive things about the songs on the one Mick Jagger album that I know did not suck, 1993's Wandering Spirit. Produced by Rick Rubin and featuring an excellent backing band, Mick experimented with a number of different genres and included interesting covers. By tackling different musical styles from different eras, this is the one Mick Jagger solo album that didn't ape whatever was hot on the pop charts right that second, thus making something horribly dated and lame in the process. Wandering Spirit is one of those special records that I loved listening to when I was a teenager, but still go back to and listen to quite often because for me, it has held up over time as a really good album that belongs on the shelf next to the Rolling Stones records and Keith Richards' own great solo albums.

Here's a couple songs from the record release show for Wandering Spirit at Webster Hall in New York City on February 9, 1993, followed by some mp3s of album tracks.




Mick Jagger - "Wandering Spirit"





Mick Jagger - "Evening Gown"

The other great country song on the record was "Hang on to Me Tonight"

Mick Jagger - "Hang on to Me Tonight"

Look for a post on Keith Richards' solo albums from around this time coming soon.

Buy Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit at amazon.com.