Fiona Creek
Fiona Apple has been one of my favorite singers for a long time, but I'll admit she has her flaws. One thing I've never thought, however, is, "She needs more bluegrass noodling backing her up." In fact, if you had asked me five minutes ago, I would have told you that was a recipe for trouble. Then I saw this video of her singing with Nickel Creek (a band I never got into, for reasons having almost nothing to do with their music).
It totally works.
Although, I think the reason this works it that it's a cover. You (or, I, at least) have the ghost of the original in the memory banks, which lets you think, "What a cool take on that song." 'Cause there's nothing really "Americana" about Apple's voice or intent with this song (Or this one, for that matter, although I think this adaptation stands up better than "Fast As You Can"; it seems more an actual song than a cover). So I'm curious how their collaborative concert this Tuesday will turn out. Lemme know, if you go.
eh, www.amNY.com
On the subject of doing a clever cover (that, despite its quality, will still never be nothing more than a cover) vs. making someone else's song your own in a different genre than it was originally written — yes, this is cumbersome, but I'm on deadline and I can't think of a way to say this more concisely — I always thought Dynamite Hack's "Boyz in the Hood" did a good job of the latter.
White-boys-folking-up-gangsta-rap is a genre (unfortunately it's come to that; there is a glut of these little ditties that never achieve anything more than novelty status) that is fraught with class/racial dynamics that I'm just not going to touch here (see above re: deadline).
Maybe because this was one of the first of its kind, I always liked it as a joke and as a song. And, if I want to get out of here tonight, I'm just going to have to leave it at that ...
