PLEDGE TO THANATOS' "COVERED COUNTRY" HERE....

Years ago I had this notion that I would do shows that were identical to me sitting on my couch playing in my living room. I wanted to actually bring the beat up love seat in my living room to the show and put it on stage.

I really thought about doing this at a show here in Chicago at a place that is now an optometrist office. It was a "venue" I personally hated but one where people allegedly went to listen to music. When I played there I realized it was one of those places where people pretend to come to listen to music...but just talk and ignore the poor sap on stage. It is harder for a band to know this because they have some volume. Me? With a guitar solo? It was painful. One of the most hateful shows I ever played (and that is saying something).

So the whole "bring my couch to the show" thing died before it could ever happen!

Until now anyway.

When I sit at home I either look for music online or try to figure out how to play songs I love and I play them on my couch. In truth the vast majority are not "country" ...this being country is coincidence really.  As often as not I am playing Bowie or Lou Reed or other bands I love. There are always singer songwriters involved and many of the people you'd expect me to want to play.  I try to play Father John Misty and Angel Olsen. I take a stab at playing things by T Rex and Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)...Sometimes I take a swing at Nick Cave and Alphaville.

It is an eclectic thing.

This release is me doing country but if this does ok I will do more !

• I posted about this on the actual KICKSTARTER too.....but thought Id mention it here as well.

 The "Covered Country" project is the first in a series of cover releases. Anyone who pledges to the current crowdfund will get a download of the acoustic versions of the next one. Right NOW, it looks like that will be "Covered 70s"...although that could change. I have no current plan to do a physical copy of these songs. This might

I will post the recording or send a compressed file. This next one might be an EP but it could be full length. Who knows how it turns out at this point. I suspect this will be sometime in early 2022.

If you have suggestions for covers, feel free to tell me (you can leave them in comments here if you like....). I cannot promise that I will do every suggested cover. Sometimes people overestimate my vocal range!

Pancho and Lefty-

Like many people, my first exposure to this song was via the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard version that was a hit in the 1980s. At the time I didn't really think much of it. There is nothing wrong with that version of course but it wasn't the sort of thing that was going to reach out to a 16 year old punk rocker who listened to The Great Rock n Roll Swindle LP over and over and over. Many years later I was introduced to the version by the songwriter, Townes Van Zant. Van Zant quickly  became one of my favorite songwriters. He was a unique songwriter and I highly recommend watching the documentary Be Here To Love Me. I wanted to do another song by Van Zant called The Silver Ships of Andilar but didn't get a version done in time. 

Sunday Morning Coming Down-

Kris Kristofferson is retired these days but he was a songwriter, musician, actor and writer. He was also a pilot who famously landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash's lawn to sell him this song. He also told off Toby Keith, well up in his 70s in front of a number of witnesses in what is one of my favorite "show biz" stories. You can read it HERE. Kristofferson isn't just a great writer but a fascinating human being. His work and politics also stand the notion of the right wing flag waving country musician on its head. Unlike most of those people he actually wore a uniform. He was a captain in the U.S. Army Rangers.

2 Kool 2 Be 4-gotten-

I regret this is the only woman songwriter here. This isn't due to misogyny but rather that the songs I tried to do by artists like Jessie Coulter and Dolly Parton? Let's just say they did not work well with my voice. You may think this one doesn't either! Lucinda Williams is, of course, a critical darling and justly so. I tried to think of which of her records were "best" but I just couldn't narrow it down that way because Ramblin and her eponymous record are great but so are three recordings that came out between 1992 and 2001 (Sweet Old World, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Essence). These last three are special to me personally. They were records that bring me right back to that time every time I hear them. I am sure you have records where you had a favorite song when you first listened to them. Then, a day or a week later, you had a new favorite. A month after that a new one. Ultimately you realize every song is great. All three of these records are that to me.

LA Freeway-
Magdalene-

Both these songs are by the great Guy Clark.  I cannot think of an American songwriter as consistently brilliant as Clark. He has multiple records that are absolute perfection (notably Old No. 1, which features L.A. Freeway). I didn't intend to do two songs by any individual but I could not help myself. A number of years ago, while working for a now defunct music gear website I went to Guy Clark's house in Nashville and interviewed him. He was a really interesting guy (most of those videos are up on Youtube, I thought about having most of that stuff taken down but I didn't want the Clark stuff to vanish).

Bucking Horse Moon-

Speaking of artists I got to interview (none of these wound up on Youtube I don't think), there is Tom Russell. Russell, if I recall correctly was discovered by a member of the Grateful Dead when he was a cab driver in NYC. He apparently sang some of his songs. Russell is also an excellent painter. He is one of those lesser known but nonetheless fantastic songwriters.

 Seminole Wind-

For a lover of the Florida Everglades this song is both heart wrenching and prophetic (it came out in the 80s ). I could have easily opted for another great song on this same record, Straight Tequila Night. I do not know LOT about John Anderson but I do love this record and other singles Ive heard from him over the years.

Starting Over -

I wanted to have someone NEW on this recording too. I asked around and several people suggested Chris Stapleton. I admit I'd never heard of him. After listening to his music I thought "Hey, I'd like to see this guy play"....I didn't realize he was playing at Wrigley Field and the cheap seats were like $180. I'm sure he is worth it and one of the openers was Mavis Staples but I just didn't have the cash. I thought this was a lovely song and I encourage you to go check out his version below.

Highwayman-

Highwayman is a song written for THE Highwaymen by  songwriter, Jimmy Webb. Webb has written a ton of great songs including Up, Up and Away. The Highwaymen were, of course, a country super group featuring Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Kind of like a Rock super group with Elton John, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney.  

FIRST OFF...GO HERE TO BACK THE PROJECT

The last thing, well maybe second to last, that folks who listen to Thanatos would expect is a record solely dedicated to covers of country music.

But if you all think a second you might understand that Thanatos is a hop, skip and a jump from country music. Not the fucking Confederate flag waving douchebag version. Not the Toby Keith's or other flag waving pricks but the old school country AND the new folks whose focus isn't on yammering about the South rising again but but on writing good songs.

Growing up in South Florida country wasn't a thing. It really wasn't. It was pretty much the least cool thing you could listen to. It was what toothless Florida crackers putting together rides at the county fair listened to. Frankly, that time period was a painful period for country. Even country greats were putting out super shitty music in the 1980s (not all of them but many).  I heard records by Waylon Jennings from that period and thought "why do people think this fucker is good". I regret didn't think to go back just a handful of years to when he really WAS good.

Even so, there were country music performers that reached out to young punk rockers like me. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson (although I missed the good Waylon stuff...I did hear "Red Headed Stranger"). There were also songs that just leapt out by Glen Campbell and Marty Robbins. These didn't sound like what we associated with "country", at least not to me.  They sounded like pop music or like the big band music my mom listened to.

So, even back then, my teenage, and tweenage, brain understood that "country" wasn't one thing. Hell, now I even look back at the hilarious youngsters who embraced the urban cowboy thing. They were usually from NYC and I knew one guy whose parents were from ENGLAND but they dressed like they were heading out to rope a "dogie". I thought they were idiots at the time but , really, was it any different from my having my hair stand on end and wearing a garbage bag to school?

Genres are just marketing tools. What is good is good and most genres have good and bad in them. This record is my homage to country and my belief is that these songwriters are among the best.

NEXT, A SONG BY SONG BREAKDOWN OF THE RECORD.