The Pine Hill Cover Album According to Jutze

Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky announced a new album of cover songs. One of the crowd-funding options is a cover version of your choice. The current price (3,000 US$) is off my limits, so I could just stop there. Or I could fantasize about which songs would make a good choice. After a couple of days of rumination I’ve begun to see a silver lining: It’s terribly difficult to pick just one song. Of course, I still hope they lower the price – but well, here is my current list of potential covers with some remarks.

  1. The Hooters: “May You Always Fit the Shoe” – an unreleased song that was played live in 1992. I only have a noisy live version, so I’d love to get a better recording. The original has some nice vocals by the late Mindy Jostyn, so this would be a great duet for Richard and Lucy. Fun fact: Co-writer Rob Hyman has collaborated with Dar Williams on all of her newer albums.
  2. Dave Carter: “Calvary’s Hill” – another unreleased song that I only heard played by Ron Greitzer and Tracy Grammer (in a lo-fi mp3). A hauntingly beautiful song with great harmonies.
  3. The Brandos: “Hallowed Ground” – my favourite Band with one of their folk-influenced songs.
  4. David Kincaid: “Paddy’s Lamentation” – an Irish traditional with lyrics from the Civil War. This one would suit Richard perfectly, in my opinion.
  5. The Coalminers’ Beat: “Take Me High Above” – a song about violence in Northern Ireland. The combination of male and female vocals makes this a very good contender; also, I’m still not over the fact that the band broke up.
  6. The Del-Lords: “Poem of the River” – it is very tempting to simply list my favourite songs. Still, Richard and Lucy should be able to contribute something unique to the compositions.
  7. Bruce Springsteen: “My Hometown” or “Dancing in the Dark” – Richard already tackled a couple of Springsteen’s songs. I’d love to hear more!
  8. Bon Jovi: “Last Man Standing” – the slower version from “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” already hints at the potential of this song as a folk number.
  9. Chris de Burgh: “Last Night” – possibly an odd choice. Yet, it’s a tale told in a song and could possibly be turned from pop to folk.
  10. Iron Maiden: “Alexander the Great” – certainly an odd choice. This one would need a thorough transformation. Not sure how the outcome would sound. Quite a gamble for 3,000 bucks.
  11. Traveling Wilburys: “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” – Richard already did a Dylan cover. This one has more narrative elements and also a group feel to it that maybe could be translated in the duo setting.
  12. Per Gessle: “Elvis in Deutschland” – this is the demo from the re-release of the album “The World According to Gessle”. Another experiment in terms of turning pop into folk.
  13. Genesis: “Smalltalk” – I’m embarrassed that I listed so many songs from major label releases. Anyhow, Richard could make this one even more intense, I guess.
  14. Pat Algar: “Once in a Very Blue Moon” – Richard’s take on this one is stunning to say the least.

I’m tempted to add more songs, say, CCR‘s “Someday Never Comes” and “Brothers in Arms” (Dire Straits); but I think these songs are already perfect. Any cover version would be bound to disappoint on some level. And the list above would already be 42,000 dollars, no need to increase the costs further.

PS: Naturally, I’d love it if they were to include some of their unreleased songs, for example, “Walden Well” (Richard) and “If You Love Someone That’s What You Do” (Lucy).