Celebrating the birthday (albeit one day late) of a great artist in many senses of the word: Joni Mitchell. Here’s what’s on the show tonight:
Title (with link to iTunes, if available) | Artist (with link to the artists’ website, if available) | Album (with link to Amazon.com, if available) | Original Artist |
Big Yellow Taxi | Pinhead Gunpowder | Fahizah | Joni Mitchell |
This Flight Tonight | Zimmer’s Hole | Legion of Flames | Joni Mitchell |
Car On A Hill | Lionheart | Unearthed – Raiders of the Lost Archives | Joni Mitchell |
Both Sides Now | Dengue Fever | City of Ghosts | Joni Mitchell |
A Strange Boy | Sisterboy | A Wish To You | Joni Mitchell |
Court and Spark | Gaffers | Rotor Slow Rotor Fast | Joni Mitchell |
Eastern Rain | The Lazy Eyes | tokyo could not be opened because tokyo could not be found | Joni Mitchell |
Sex Kills | Roine Stolt | Wall Street Voodoo | Joni Mitchell |
River | Allison Crowe | Tidings | Joni Mitchell |
Special thanks to Bob from the covers section of the Joni Mitchell Website!
I usually love Coverville, but three four five songs into the Joni Mitchell show I’m ready to gouge out my eardrums with a blunt instrument.
OK, it was saved (just) by the absolutely lovely Allison Crowe track. But still … not one for the Coverville Hall of Fame.
I agree that that wasn’t the best unfortunately. Tori Amos does a good version of the cirle game. What version of the river were you going to use? I know travis and sarah mclachlan both do good covers of it, oh well there’s always the xmas show.
I actually do appreciate the candid feedback – please feel free to let me know when an ep isn’t up to snuff…
But help me out a little for future shows: What came up short this episode? Was it the song selections?
(I was actually going to play the Aimee Mann cover of River – but I will save that for later in the season.)
Gee Brian, looks like we have a real HIT on our hands! LOL
I appreciate you picking these “left field” covers to adorn this show…if it’s *pretty* your listeners want, next year we’ll give ’em pretty.
Tori does a superb version of Joni’s “A Case Of You” too, she adores Joni as do most musicians & songwriters.
Thanks for including the Allison Crowe track – check out Allison’s new release ‘This Little Bird’ which features HER lovely cover of “A Case Of You” along with a KILLER cover of the Aretha Franklin hit “I Never Loved A Man…”
Thanks again for the show and for acknowledging one of the best composers and biggest musical influences of our times. Last note…Joni has announced that she’s coming out of retirement to write and record a NEW album, look for it in Spring of ’07.
Bob
Happy Birthday, Joni ( :
(I did salute her on the actual day.)
And, thank you Tuppy, and Bob for your warm words for Allison Crowe, and, sincere thanks, Brian, for your very kind appreciation. Cheers to all!
Anytime you wish to connect with Allison, it’ll happen. She’ll welcome the opportunity to talk covers ( :
That foreign version of Both Sides Now was beautiful. I didn’t think the show was that bad, maybe some of the versions were a little out there, but that just goes to show how Joni’s music can be interpreted so widely.
re: Allison Crowe, thanks for playing that, just in time for Halleluja featuring right up there in the countdown I hope! Brian, you now know the man (Adrian) who can make that interview with Allison happen…it don’t get much easier than that.
She’ll remember all of us Covervillians who love her music when she is a big star…:-)
I donno, I didn’t think it was that bad. Didn’t like the first song much, but it got better as it went along. And as a long time Flower Kings fan, any ep with Roine Stolt in it is by definition a pretty decent ep.
Too fast on the trigger. Just heard the Allison Crowe song, it’s pretty damned good. Maybe even better than Roine’s, although you’ll never hear me admit it 🙂
Sorry, wandered away for a couple of days.
I think what I found so jarring in this Coverville was that so many of the first few tracks failed to capture the complexity and subtlety of Joni’s work. Her songs often sound quite simple, but there’s an extraordinary harmonic structure underneath most of her work — and these just seemed to steamroller it.
Other versions? Two words: Richard Thompson. His performances of both Black Crow and Woodstock at the JM tribute show were astonishing. A select few of us have known for years that RT is a genius, but that night he made it clear to a much wider public.
Brian: Thanks for including Allison’s cover of River. The entire album, Tidings, will be on high rotation in my music now that it’s coming on Christmas. Not so sure about the other covers….
I will go back to listen to them later, might appreciate them more on a second listen.
I have been huge Joni fan ever since I saw her at a coffee house in Ottawa in 1966/67, so I get a bit stuck in a rut of how Joni did the song…..
Tuppy: I have been a fan of Richard Thompson’s work since Fairport Convention. 52 Vincent, among others, has been on my flash player since the day I got it. And Richard has been a Joni fan from the beginning as well. Heck, he recorded songs she wrote but never released herself.
Brian,
In contrast to the comments above, I really liked this show. This just illustrates what makes Coverville such a great show. No matter what your musical tastes are, at some point Coverville will play something you absolutely love and something you absolutely hate. The cover song theme just leads to such a variety of styles.
I personally LOVED the first song. I generally tend to favor the faster songs with more of a beat over the slower, more melodic ones. But hey, that’s just me. 🙂
Re: Dengue Fever. If they pronounce it like the disease it is two syllables with a soft g. I usually say it rhyming with Ben-Gay, but I believe the more common pronounciation is to rhyme with Ben-Knee. dĕng’gē, -gā
~Sharon
Official Coverville Historian
When I catch a cold at me on lips there and then the fever pours out how to prevent its occurrence? WBR LeoP