Some Strange Music Draws Me In

Cover albums are always a shaky proposition, especially when artist try to go outside their comfort zone or genre. Just because you like a song doesn’t necessarily means you can do as good a version yourself (anyone remember the Duran Duran version of White Lines). And it I typically a rule of thumb to stay away from iconic songs as no one what to her a piano version of Smells Like Teen Sprit. Yes I’m talking to you Tori Amos.

For Allison Moorer, she mostly stays away from the most recognizable songs on her album of covers, Mockingbird, with two exceptions. Most notably is Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire where Moore takes the song back for women (the song was written by Johnny’s future wife June Carter), but it still takes some time getting used to a slowed burning version sans a mariachi band instead replaced by an organ. The other song being Dancing Barefoot, the Patti Smith classic, a song that Moorer can’t quite do justice to a song that mentions heroin.

Moorer does much better with the lesser known songs on the album. Nina Simone’s I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl is right up her wheelhouse and really lets loose at the end. Same goes for the bluesy Daddy Goodbye Blues (which is extra haunting considering her family history) and the folksy Orphan Train. But she really excels at songs that are closest to her own like the title track and her take on Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now.

Song to Download - Mockingbird

Mockingbird gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.