(What's so Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

“This song puts into words a lot of the things I'm feeling in a way that I have a hard time verbalizing clearly. It's been covered a lot. There's the Elvis Costello version which to me has a defiant protest like quality to it (as well as a kind of unique coolness that only Elvis can do in his own way) and the original which is deeply felt and how Nick Lowe sings it today is almost pleading. It really says so much. I hope to fall somewhere in the middle.”

 
Recorded by Allison Crowe for "Cover Me" blog's 10th Anniversary! Celebrate @ http://www.covermesongs.com/2017/10/cover-me-turns-ten.html  Mixed by Larry "Turtle" Anschell.

"Cover Me" Turns 10: Allison Crowe Brings Peace Note to Celebratory Album

“Ray Padgett founded the blog Cover Me in 2007 and has run it ever since, growing it into the largest blog devoted to cover songs on the web, with 80,000 individual readers a month. His music writing has appeared in SPIN, MTV, Vice, Consequence of Sound, and more, and he’s been interviewed as an expert on cover songs by the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. He lives in New York City and also works as a senior music publicist for Shore Fire Media, where his clients have included Ben Harper, Lana Del Rey, and Maxwell.” Today, Cover Me’s 10th birthday, Ray releases a present to music-lovers that’s been six-months-in-the-making:

“We wanted to do something special to celebrate our tenth birthday. And we wanted to celebrate not just ourselves, but celebrate the cover song itself. So we put together this little album Cover Me Turns 10: A Covers Tribute to Covers as a gift to our readers. We contacted several dozen of our musician friends and asked them to cover a cover. That is, to honor the many great songs we might not even know without an iconic cover – Aretha Franklin reinventing Otis Redding’s ‘Respect,’ Quiet Riot amplifying Slade’s call to feel the noize, Prince learning that nothing compares 2 Sinéad O’Connor.

We’re honored that so many of our favorite musicians contributed, and frankly speechless at how great a job they did. So speechless, in fact, that we asked them all to introduce their own work with a few sentences...” Celebrate @ http://www.covermesongs.com/2017/10/cover-me-turns-ten.html

Allison Crowe’s cover of “(What’s so Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”, closes this special tribute album.

Album cover art design by Sean Balkwill

Spotlight on... November 16

Today - November 16 - marks the birthday of the great musical artist, Allison Crowe. Celebrated as an original songwriter and performer in popular music genres, Allison's song interpretations are also globally loved. "Cover Me" tweets in appreciation, reprising this Spotlight from the blog’s founding editor, Ray Padgett @ http://www.covermesongs.com/2010/07/in-the-spotlight-allison-crowe.html

"Happy birthday to Canadian singer-songwriter @Allison_Crowe. Hear her covers of Stones, Pearl Jam, Cyndi Lauper +more" https://twitter.com/covermesongs/status/798977733803921408

“There are some voices that speak (or sing) for themselves. You know the ones. Voices where it doesn’t matter what they sing. Voices where it doesn’t really matter what instruments support them. Solomon Burke has such a voice. Jeff Buckley had it. Allison Crowe has it too...”

Allison Crowe in Dublin - foto by Billie Woods

Cover Me Covers Crowe

Cover Me, the covers blog penned New York-based music writer, Ray Padgett, (SPIN, Consequence of Sound, Mashable and others) features In the Spotlight: Allison Crowe

"There are some voices that speak (or sing) for themselves. You know the ones. Voices where it doesn’t matter what they sing. Voices where it doesn’t really matter what instruments support them. Solomon Burke has such a voice. Jeff Buckley had it. Allison Crowe has it too."

So begins a posting which well showcases a cross-section of Allison's cover work - Rolling Stones, Cyndi Lauper, Pearl Jam, The Beatles and, says Padgett, "the best version of Leonard Cohen’s oft-covered 'Hallelujah' ".



Check out Cover Me for this Allison installment, and, for lots more on the art and fun of interpretation.