...to the Sublime

Under the Covers: "I'll Be Back"

My favorite cover of a Beatles song has always been Stevie Wonder's "We Can Work It Out," with Al Jarreau's "She's Leaving Home" a close second. But then I came across this 2010 version of "I'll Be Back" by the gospel/blues trio The Holmes Brothers. Only two of them, Sherman (left) and Wendell (middle) are brothers. The third longtime member is drummer Popsy Dixon, and that's his lead vocal on this track. Produced by Joan Osborne(!), the arrangement is simple, which keeps the focus on That Voice. Good move.

Download 11 I'll Be Back

From the Offspring Files: Teddy Thompson

Despite his pedigree—he's the son of Richard and Linda Thompson—I didn't listen to Teddy Thompson until I came across his excellent 2011 album, "Bella." That caused me to check out his catalogue where I discovered "Upfront & Down Low," a country album he released in 2007. His voice reminds me a little of Dwight Yoakum on this very nice collection, which includes the standard, "She Thinks I Still Care." (Not sure if it was an outtake, or if he's considering another country album, but this year, for Record Store Day, he released a 45 of another C&W classic, "Window Up Above.")

Download 11 She Thinks I Still Care

NOLA: Another Mexican Connection

In my continuing quest to find Mexican connections to New Orleans (see here and here and here), I came across this gem. And now I'm obsessed with how the Mexican standard "Cielito Lindo" got to the jazz trombonist Wilbur De Paris. Here's my first theory: the Indiana-born De Paris moved to New York in the late 1920s, just before the exhibition "Mexican Arts" was installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The show and its related activities, including concerts, reportedly took New York by storm, and so it's possible that De Paris heard it then. But he didn't record it until the 1950s. This version was recorded live at Boston's Symphony Hall in 1956, produced for Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun and engineered by the legendary Tom Dowd. The plot thickens...

Download 04 Cielito Lindo (Live At Symphony Hall, Boston)

NOLA: Where the Streets Definitely Have Names

My longtime compañero, the poet John Phillip Santos, once wrote: the streets of heaven are convoluted and friendly / like the meat of the brain. (No, he's not a zombie; he was referring to barbacoa.) Sounds like the streets of New Orleans too. And few writers have explored those conflicted streets as thoroughly and sensitively as the author and songwriter Ned Sublette. He's written two absolutely essential books about the Crescent City: "The World That Made New Orleans" and "The Year Before the Flood." And now he has a new CD, "Kiss You Down South" (available on iTunes), which includes the song "Between Piety and Desire" (video above). Yes, those are New Orleans street names.