Cover Magazine

Albums of cover songs have become part of the basic grammar of popular music. Specifically, they’re the punctuation, serving as a break between original recordings and offering a fascinating glimpse into an artist’s origins and influences.

Giant Sand’s approach is as distinctive as you might expect. Their version of ‘Wayfaring Stranger/Fly Me To The Moon’, for instance, features backing vocals from Neko Case and Kelly Hogan as well as Jon Rauhause on pedal steel over the rhythms of long-time collaborators John Convertino and Joey Burns on drums and bass respectively. It works extremely well, in that cracked desert, dry wind way that Giant Sand often bring to their work. Suffice it to say that, as with the best covers, it is Giant Sand you think of rather than the original version.

Equally enthralling are versions of widely varied source material such as ‘El Paso’ and X’s ‘Johnny Hit And Run Pauline’, which has a second vocal from Polly Harvey. There’s also a cover of her ‘Plants And Rags’ here and Roger Miller’s ‘King Of The Road’ next to Goldfrapp’s ‘Human/Lovely Head’. Then there’s Sonny Bono’s ‘The Beat Goes On’ which features twice, once as a studio version and once live.

Another winner is the live version of Howe Gelb’s own ‘Blue Marble Girl’ with some diverting guitar interjections from Jim Fairchild. ‘The Inner Flame’, written by the late Rainer Ptacek, is another live rendition that shows how striking Howe and his

various Giants are at what they do. The final track, the piano-led live take of ‘The Beat Goes On’ closes the show in their own unique way.