Kimmie Rhodes - Covers

Kimmie Rhodes ordinarily writes her own material, but on her latest 'Covers' she interprets fifteen songs written by some pretty famous folk including: two by Bob Dylan, two by Lennon/McCartney and others by Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, Leon Russell, Tom Petty, Jagger/Richards and Mark Knopfler. Rhodes primarily does lead vocals, but she also sings duets with Delbert McClinton on 'Shame Shame Shame', on 'Cannibals' with Marcia Ball and with Rodney Crowell on his own thoughtful 'Adam's Song'. The research was well-done; there's a nice mix of very popularized standards and lesser-known ballads, yet it's hard to discern exactly why she has strung together these particular tracks as she honours so many writers and so many contrastive styles that sometimes the sentiment gets lost in the shuffle. Yet, that point aside, she has certainly celebrated a lot of the greats. The line-up also includes some very seasoned instrumentalists: Marcia Ball and Gabriel Rhodes (accordion), Bill Carter and Delbert McClinton (harmonica), Avery Gardner and Glenn Fukunaga (bass) John Gardner and Dony Wynn (percussion), Colin Linden (slide guitar) and Tommy Spurlock (steel guitar). Although Rhodes doesn't always have the necessary ferocity to support some of the blues-hewn numbers, like 'Shame Shame Shame', she has an engaging style and excellent sense of melody and form. The backing musicians do a great job firing her up and adding some brilliant textures - from the spontaneous bursts of Carter and McClinton blues harp to David Holt's damn straight tonalities on 'Shame Shame Shame' and 'White Freight Liner' and Colin Linden's slide on 'Moonlight Mile'.

Track Listing:-

1 Bluebird
2 Yesterday
3 Moonlight Mile
4 White Freight Liner
5 Georgia Lee
6 Everything Is Broken
7 Birds
8 Stuck in a Moment
9 Adam's Song (feat. Rodney Crowel
10 Don't Think Twice
11 Southern Accents
12 Shame Shame Shame (feat. Delb
13 Cannibals (feat. Marcia Ball)
14 What a Wonderful World
15 Little Help from My Friends