AV: Bluegrass Covers...Good Ones.

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the Carolina Chocolate Drops perform last year, opening for Old School Freight Train and completely stealing the show.  A trio of multi-talented and easy-going musicians, CCD is built for success.  Their shows are fun, interactive, inspirational, and full of energy.  I would wholeheartedly recommend grabbing tickets if you see them coming to your area anytime soon.

The highlight of their set was a funky-as-all-get-out cover of Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style" - an amazing example of a band taking a song and truly transforming it by playing it in their own style.  I would kill for an album version of this song, but for now, this video will have to suffice.  Whooo, I love this cover.

And since this morning was full of some covers, might as well make this a full-day of cover tracks.  We'll stick with the bluegrass stylings laid down by the Carolina Chocolate drops in that video with the next couple covers.  

First we have a cover from the Bluegrass Tribute to Radiohead.  I'm not usually a fan of tribute albums, but this cut turned out pretty well - I think the key is that the instrumentation is far enough away from the original that they're not tempted to just recreate it note for note.  The artistic expression that shows through is what makes the track worth it.  

Bluegrass Tribute to Radiohead - 2+2=5 (Radiohead Cover) (YSI) (filesavr)

The second cover of the afternoon comes from Deer Tick, a bluesy folk band out of Providence (PVD!).  It's a great cover of Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years", a song which Simon once performed on SNL wearing a chicken suit (another Afternoon Video contender).  Love this song, like this version.  Enjoy.

Deer Tick - Still Crazy After All These Years (Paul Simon Cover) (YSI) (filesavr)