Cover Thursdays: Lover of the Bayou

A pretty good cover on one of my favorite days of the week, this is Lover of the Bayou (originally done by the Byrds) as performed by Mudcrutch the side band of Tom Petty. The only things I may prefer in this cover is the prominence of the piano, the clarity of its recording and the vocal styling of one Tom Petty. The guitar seems lacking in pep and energy, I would like to see a little more strain and passion in the playing, but the bluesy sound really comes through well. The drumming could also be more inspired but it gets the job done. I guess the true value of this cover to me is that it passes on a great Bryds song that might otherwise go largely unnoticed. Hopefully this inspires younger, more intense bands, to go ahead and try to play this one and see what other underplayed gems they can find from the sixties and seventies to reinterpret and revive. Enjoy!!!!


Cover Here

New Release: Elzhi - The Elmatic

Elzhi - The Elmatic

This album has gotten a lot of press recently and it is absolutely deserved. If there's one thing i hate it's jumping on a bandwagon and just bumping up what other people have said without any original thought. That being said, believe what you hear, this is special.

The Elmatic, is not just a tribute, it's an update, a reworking, and a cover. It takes every track off of the Illmatic, a classic album for any genre, and rerecords them with a live band, and Elzhi rapping over them in a similar style, rhythm, or beat pattern to the original. No one is here to say that Elzhi is a better rapper than nas, or that this album is better than the original, but this album is great in its own way! Performing these songs with a live band gives it a much fresher feel, and Elzhi does a wonderful job emulating Nas while still telling his own story and leaving his own mark on the aalbum.

Halftime, one of my absolute favorites off the original, gets a spectacular rendition by Elzhi and his backing band, but also represents the two albums well. It sounds different in the best way possible. I just love both of them so much. Nas rapping, it's better, and more memorable ("You couldn't catch me in the streets without a ton of reefer//That's like Malcolm X, catchin the Jungle Fever"), but I LOVE Elzhi's smooth quick agile delivery. See and compare for yourself. The Original. The Update.

I don't think I even mentioned the best part. It's Free. All of it. It's not a pay as much as you want, its just free. I'm trying to find someway to buy it, because I want to support Elzhi now, but so far as i can tell this is free mp3 download only.

If you didn't click on any of the download links here it is.