Put A Record On: Country Artists on Non-Country Songs
A not-so-little playlist of familiar and unexpected gems
By Natalie
We give artists who do bad covers a fair amount of grief, and of late I’ve seen so many that are either overly faithful to the point of dullness or just plain terrible. But when a cover is good — surprising, thoughtful, well-executed but not redundant — there’s not much better. Hearing a familiar song recast in a bold, exciting new light is a specific kind of thrill, one that I am certainly not immune to.
So! Here’s a collection of ~60 country takes on non-country songs. The lines are blurred like they always are, and I omitted some well-known recordings that fit in this category because of the aforementioned over-faithfulness and/or because I just didn’t like them (*cough* “Life Is A Highway” *cough*). Even considering intentional omissions, this is far from complete — what are your favorites that we missed?? Again, we’re thinking about songs originated by artists not generally considered country that were recorded by artists who are generally considered country (and, for the most part, with some degree of country flair rather than a note-for-note recreation of the original). Lots of room for interpretation!
Here are a few of my favorites:
“Enjoy The Silence,” Wild Earp: I wrote about this song twice last year. It still has like five streams. I’m begging you to listen, because it’s so freaking good! The rare cover that sounds like the way the song was always meant to be in the first place — meant for enjoying the silence of the wide open spaces of the American west! — NW
“Purple Rain,” Dwight Yoakam: There could be like a dozen Dwight songs on this playlist, because the man is the master of a smart cover. None, to me, match the heights of his Prince tribute, released not long after Prince passed. Reverent in tone and approach and not in style, exactly as it should be. I have had this in heavy rotation for almost a decade now. — NW
“Don’t Think Twice,” Dolly Parton: Bobby D is always on the border of any kind of genre talk, and you could argue “Don’t Think Twice” is already a country song — but no matter how you slice it, Dolly doing a bluegrass version is more country than the original. It is wonderful, and actually my favorite recording of the song. She sounds blasé, not pathos-ridden, which is a more accurate reflection of the lyrics to me than that of many of her fellow coverers. (there are a lot of Dolly songs on the playlist, it is what it is!) — NW
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