Videos by American Songwriter
Various Artists
Cover Stories: Brandi Carlile Celebrates 10 Years of The Story — An Album to Benefit War Child
(Legacy)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
What do Pearl Jam, Dolly Parton, Old Crow Medicine Show and Adele have in common? Not much except they’re all in the music business and contribute to this benefit organized by Brandi Carlile to celebrate the decade anniversary of what many consider her signature release.
While you can’t help but be suspicious when an artist pays tribute to errr, herself, this is an impressive if somewhat schizophrenic compilation that replays, in track order, Carlile’s commercial breakthrough The Story album with respectful, occasionally radically rearranged covers true in spirit to, if often drastically dissimilar from, the introspective, alternately brooding and sweeping originals.
Since each of the 14 selections is tackled by a different act, and they generally use their own producers, mixers and backing bands, the final product can’t help but be a sonically and musically conceptually mixed bag. That loses the cohesive and emotional thread running through Carlile’s and producer T Bone Burnett’s 2007 creation, but also jolts the listener to hearing these tunes in a different light.
The concept was spurred by Adele who covered the closing, once hidden, The Story cut “Hiding My Heart” on a UK expanded version of 21. Interestingly, this was one of three on the album Carlile didn’t have a hand in writing. Rather it was composed by her guitarist Tim Hanseroth. The song appears here, also as the final entry, and it’s clear why Carlile was so stricken with Adele’s stripped down (acoustic guitar only) sensitive performance.
Elsewhere, longtime Carlile enthusiasts the Indigo Girls turn in a beefed up “Cannonball,” replacing the sparse, reflective take they initially supported her with on The Story, in a fuller, more robust sound featuring sax and violin. Carlile appears on banjo supporting The Secret Sisters’ “Losing Heart” in a starker approach than her own interpretation. Pearl Jam pounds out “Again Today” with their usual piss and vinegar, transforming the unadorned, slow ballad into a well, Pearl Jam rocker, given the seal of approval with Carlile’s backup vocals.
Parton’s glowing title track, immaculately produced by Dave Cobb and featuring the Hanseroth brothers’ instrumental assistance, captures that tune’s intensity with full-on “I Will Always Love You” drama while Old Crow twangs up a bluegrass “My Song” and the Avett Brothers get back porch intimate with banjo on a slowed down “Have You Ever.” Contributions from relatively obscure or newer acts such as Anderson East (bringing blue-eyed soul grit to “Josephine”), Ruby Amanfu (channeling Carlile’s dramatic vocals for “Shadow on the Wall”), TORRES (aka Mackenzie Scott, again with the Hanseroth twins and Carlile’s support, on a reverent “Until I Die”) and Margo Price (taking “Downpour” to the C&W saloon), also appear.
All told, it’s a worthy project for a good cause with each act turning in inspired work that should, at the very least, send newcomers back to Carlile’s still striking original to hear what motivated these versions.
