Cat sings Dylan. Johnny sings June.

Can you remember hearing a new song and feeling an instant connection? Or maybe it was a cover of a familiar song, but it felt new.

A handful of songs/artists spring to mind: Chuck E’s in Love (Rickie Lee Jones), Right in Time (Lucinda Williams), Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Reina del Cid).

Surprisingly, it was a recent tour poster — not a song or cover — that captivated me: a Facebook sponsored ad that hit the target.

Cat Power Sings Dylan With those simple bold words on an ad in my social feed, I was nearly ready to open my digital wallet and buy a ticket for an artist whose name I’d just learned and whose voice I hadn’t heard.

Who was she and why was she re-creating Dylan’s 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert? Part of me wanted to see her solely based on song choice.

A Bob Dylan/Cat Power playlist on my phone prepped me ahead of her Des Moines show.

That 1966 concert, I learned, was worth covering: Dylan went electric in the second set, upsetting many folk fans. It’s a misnamed bootleg and was not recorded at The Royal Albert Hall. And his backing band, the Hawks, would later become the Band.

I felt the need to be there when Cat Power and the band came through Des Moines. And for the first time I can remember in my concert-going history, I saw an artist play an entire show of another artist’s show.

At the start of the second set, next row up, I saw a familiar face from U of I college days.

As the band amped up for the rocking Tell Me, Momma, she danced in the aisle. It was electric. And fun. And many of the things that make seeing live music so moving. 

As they played through the 15-song setlist, I was struck by the body of work Dylan had amassed as a twenty-something-year-old: Just Like a Woman, Like a Rolling Stone, Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat, Mr. Tambourine Man …

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you

Other artists have indeed followed Dylan’s work.

Song Sung New

But the spotlight here isn’t on Bob or Cat but on covers and the artists who carefully curate and renew or reinvent them. While writing this I uncovered a Song Sung New (SSN) podcast by music critic Stevie Nix. Not a bad name for a critic or a show. Song sung new: Everybody knows one. Nix introduced me to “supper club music.“

SSN January 2021 episode features I Say a Little Prayer. I wonder if Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin ever heard English artist Lianne La Havas interpret the universally loved song and, if so, what they thought of her guitar playing. I'll bet they’d voice approval.

Nix describes the La Havas version as “gorgeously intimate.“ Agreed.

Great cover songs span generations. They flip gender: Sheryl Crow singing Rod Stewart’s The First Cut Is the Deepest. They cross genres: Blondie going countryish on Ring of Fire. And sometimes they do both: Luke Combs taking Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car for a ride.

Tina Turner’s Proud Mary: simply the best.

Ring of Fire

Both the June Carter Cash documentary on Paramount+ and her online biography credit her for writing Ring of Fire. Several sources also list Merle Kilgore as a co-writer.

A quick search turned up covers by Sheryl Crow and June Carter Cash. If you write a song but record it after your sister (Anita Carter) and husband (Johnny Cash), does that make you a cover artist? Who’s a fan of the Mexican horns in Johnny’s version?

Shoutout to songwriters June and Merle

In a perfect musical world, songs would be accompanied by “family” trees, beginning with the songwriters and all of the covers branching out by year and artist.

At least three on the Carter Cash family tree have covered Ring of Fire.

Were you of age in the mid-80s? If so you likely know Everybody Wants to Rule the World by English pop-rock band Tears for Fears. But a few years back a cover from two girls + two guitars in a cabin in the Pacific Northwest gave it a new spin.

There's a room where the light won't find you

Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down

When they do, I'll be right behind you

Based mostly on hearing that song and their ELO cover, I bought Reina del Cid’s 2022 Candy Apple Red. 

From their About section on YouTube: “Elle Cordova (formerly known as Reina del Cid) and Toni Lindgren are indie folk musicians and songwriters who write and cover americana, folk, traditional folk, and folk rock music. Their song-a-week video series, “Sunday Mornings HQ,” has amassed a devoted and diverse following made up of everyone from jamheads to college students to white-haired intelligentsia.”

Cool cover alert: Toni Lindgren and Elle Cordova

Late last year local jazz club Noce hosted WonderLove: Celebrating the Music and Magic of Stevie Wonder. Yes, there were familiar crowd-pleaser numbers, but the carefully curated setlist included less-familiar but equally wonderful songs. After the show, I dropped the needle on Stevie’s timeless 1976 Songs in the Key of Life. 

Stevie's As, anyone?

I recently caught one of Fever’s candlelight concerts with a friend: Queen on string quartet. Beautiful. Freddy and the band’s greatest hits thoughtfully interspersed with classical titles. Maybe not the traditional cover show but noteworthy.

Crazy

In one episode of Suits, the song Crazy (Gnarls Barkley — not Willie’s classic) gets a c-r-a-z-y cool do-over by Daniela Andrade.

I remember when

I remember, I remember when I lost my mind

There was something so pleasant about that place Even your emotions have an echo in so much space

Linda Ronstadt and Eva Cassidy might top my cover artist list. It took Eva’s acoustic rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time for me to fully appreciate Lauper’s lyrics.

The brilliant collaboration in the unlikely duo of former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and American bluegrass-country singer/fiddler Alison Krauss has produced two successful and critically acclaimed albums: 2007’s Raising Sand and 2021’s Raise the Roof. If you’re looking for a creative choice of cover material, trust me, it’s here. 

Produced by T Bone Burnett, Raise The Roof features new recordings of songs by Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, and more. And it includes the classic Can’t Let Go, written by Randy Weeks and first recorded by Lucinda Williams.

Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On) is credited to The Everly Brothers. 

I’ll be at Lauridsen Amphitheater this June to see Plant and Krauss a second time. This time I’ll join friends from our vinyl Zeppelin days.

I’m an old cover girl. Covers help me find new songs and bands and help me appreciate lyrics I overlooked the first time around. Boygenius won me over with their stunning rendition of Shania Twain’s You’re Still the One. 

Have you heard one of your favorite bands cover a song (or album) live? Is there a song you’d like to see covered? Please, please share your favorite cool cover songs/artists.

© 2024 by Catherine Broderick Medina

Edge of seventy

And the days go by, like a strand in the wind — Edge of Seventeen

In 1981 Stevie Nicks had a hit with Edge of Seventeen. This year, at 75, she’s playing arenas and could have a hit Barbie doll.

According to American Songwriter.com, leading up to the development of Edge of Seventeen, Nicks had planned to write a song for Tom Petty and his then-wife Jane Benyo, who were high school sweethearts. But the song’s meaning took a different turn after the deaths of her uncle and John Lennon.

When Nicks was working on the song title, Jane suggested At the Age of Seventeen. But through Jane’s southern accent, Nicks thought she heard Edge of Seventeen.

Age of Seventeen. Edge of Seventeen. Edge of Seventy. You heard right: 70 with a zero.

Nicks and other artists commanding big stages this year are edging toward their 70s, 80s, and even 90s. She’s been hitting the road, sometimes with 74-year-old Billy Joel.

But, first, back to that Stevie Barbie. From the Mattel website: Barbie honors the iconic “Queen of Rock and Roll,” Stevie Nicks, with a collectible doll that emulates her signature spellbinding style. Nicks achieved worldwide success with the band Fleetwood Mac before embarking on a critically acclaimed, chart-topping solo career.

That’s me at left on vacation with friends in NYC in 2014 when Fleetwood Mac

appeared on the Today Show Plaza.

How Stevie became a Barbie in 2023 may be explained in part by this year’s Barbie, an American fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig. Gerwig played the title character in 2013’s Frances Ha, a film I’d describe as equal parts odd — in a good way — and artsy.

Frances Ha, Gerwig’s character, sprints and dances down 22 Catherine Street in Chinatown, NYC, to Davie Bowie’s Modern Love.

The pink blockbuster fantasy-comedy has generated $1.36 billion at the global box office, according to Variety, making Gerwig, 40, the highest grossing female filmmaker at the domestic box office.

If you calculate Barbie's age from her manufacturing debut, the first Barbie doll is now over 64. When you consider that Barbie was created as a 19-year-old doll, she could technically be up to 83 years old.

It’s not just Stevie and Barbie having senior moments.

Since the iconic singer/songwriter Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, she pledged to put out a rock LP.

I haven’t listened to Rockstar yet. But I applaud Parton’s decision to make a rock album at 77. I’m a fan of her songwriting, authenticity, philanthropy, and Southern-style cake mix line. What a way to make a livin’.

I have purchased and heard Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, the 15th studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. In 2020 a tornado damaged her new home in Nashville. On top of that, she suffered a debilitating stroke.

On her 70th birthday in January, Williams performed at a sold-out show in Belfast, Ireland.

My husband and I were in the audience for Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways show in Kansas City recently. There was a little fan buzz because he was fresh off playing guitar — and three songs from 1965 — with the Heartbreakers at Farm Aid in Indiana.

All-ages show: Fans lined up outside The Midland to hear Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways.

Late in the set, he covered Buddy Holly and the Crickets Not Fade Away. Not surprisingly, Bob’s gonna tell us how it (the setlist) is gonna be. Bop-bop-bop-bop

The night before Dylan in KC we’d been in Chicago for Peter Gabriel’s show. The morning before that we had realized — in the nick of time — that we’d bought tickets for back-to-back shows in different states, one on September 30 and one October 1. After a brief exchange on logistics, my husband and I channeled our rock-and-roll spirit and decided we could and would drive from Iowa to Chicago and Chicago to KC to catch Saturday and Sunday shows.

The average age of performers I saw this year rounds out to 76.666: Willie Nelson, 90, Dionne Warwick, 82, Bob Dylan, 82, Robert Plant, 75, Peter Gabriel, 73, and Diana Krall, 58.

For good reason, rock-and-roll isn’t typically associated with longevity. You may be familiar with the 27 Club, an informal list of musicians and celebrities who died at 27. And you’ve probably seen the funny Keith Richards memes. Yet the Rolling Stones recently released Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original music in 18 years. I was three when the band formed. Mother’s Little Helper, released in 1966, opens with What a drag it is getting old.

Time appears to have been on the side of the Stones.

Kate Bush, 65, will be inducted into the Performer category at the Rock Hall 2023 Induction, on Nov. 3 on Disney+.

It was strangely satisfying for me, and I imagine Kate Bush, to hear her 1985 Running Up That Hill resurface in season four of Stranger Things on Netflix in 2022. I read that she was delighted to be “running up the charts” 37 years after the release of her track.

Stevie, at the age of 75

Not every project these artists touch is well received or a commercial, critical, or overnight success. They have suffered great personal and professional losses. In recent years, the Stones lost Charlie. Fleetwood Mac lost Christine.

And their personal and professional relationships, sometimes intertwined, have often failed.

Substance use disorders and health issues have plagued some. Williams, as mentioned earlier, had a stroke. Joni Mitchell has had polio and a brain aneurysm.

Their guitar playing, vocal range, and onstage presence may not match their zenith years.

Why, then, have I caught myself looking to these artists for cues on pro-aging?

Maybe it’s because these musicians, some from the '60s and '70s — now in their 60s and 70s — are still touring, recording, taking risks, writing new music, collaborating with each other and younger artists.

They’re demonstrating resiliency and longevity and showing that creativity and passion don’t necessarily age out. They adapt and play to their strengths. Most important to me, on the edge of 64, seeing them is a reminder that anything is possible.

Willie’s on the road again in 2024. The Stones are still rolling. Kate’s been running up the charts. Stevie, at the age of 75, has been concurrently playing solo shows and co-headlining with Billy Joel. To see these artists on stage at this stage of their careers feels like the ultimate encore.

© 2023 by Catherine Broderick Medina

Empire State of Mind

Ooh-ooh-ooh, New York, Ooh-ooh-ooh, New York

DSM International Airport → Newark, New Jersey Early morning flights sound good until you’re setting your alarm for 3:30 am. Our travel party arrived at the airport at 5 am for a 7 am flight to NYC via Newark.

Near our boarding, my husband couldn’t find his phone. He sprinted back to the airport restaurant, our last stop. Panicked, I re-searched his backpack and tried calling. The look on his face when he returned said it all: no phone.

He’s an e-ticket guy aka Digital Rick and Dr. Rick from Progressive commercials. I’m a paper-backup kind of girl. I had printed boarding passes and the Allegiant app. We had tickets to ride.

After settling in for our flight, his phone turned up — in his backpack.

Newark, New Jersey → Penn Station For me, some joy of big-city travel costs nothing. It’s watching people (the woman with a shoelace belt, the R & B subway singer), meeting people (the fashionable Asian woman from Australia in line with us), and overhearing conversations in foreign languages. At the airport, a child pretend-phone-talked on a banana.

Navigating public transportation sparks less joy, but sometimes the people you’re randomly assigned add entertainment value. On a packed train, one assertive passenger directed foot traffic. She also schooled us on her definition of a pickle (a person who acts in a way that rhymes with pick). Close-quarters small talk ensued. The young woman seated next to me had been silent and seemed uninterested until she noticed that the woman we were talking with had the same zodiac sign tattoo as her, and in the same spot on the neck. Ooh-ooh-ooh, New York

Digital Rick and Analog Rick riding the subway.

Penn Station → Arlo Midtown Ascending from the underground station to the streets and Madison Square Garden, pigeons and loud, impatient car horns greeted us. An unexpected joy washed over me. We had arrived.

And then, wheeling our suitcases toward our hotel, we joined the pedestrian masses, rolling with the rest of the city’s crazy melting-pot collective.

Arlo Midtown I picked the hotel. I read countless reviews. I knew rooms were small. I didn’t know it would be one of the most comfortable hotel beds I’d ever slept on or that to exit from my bedside next to the wall I’d have to either crawl across the bed or inch my way out, back literally against the wall.

Cramped quarters aside, the hotel staff were friendly and attentive, and we appreciated the room-key-required elevator. Their rooftop patio bar wasn’t open yet, but the roof was, and we drank in views from the 26th floor.

April rooftop views from Arlo Midtown.

Cue Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys, our unofficial trip song inspired by the big lights and a few lines sung on the roof by our friend aka Analog Rick.

Baby, I'm from New York Concrete jungle where dreams are made of There's nothin' you can't do Now you're in New York These streets will make you feel brand-new Big lights will inspire you Hear it for New York, New York, New York

By chance we met the hotel restaurant chef. He comped our dinner table an appetizer. We befriended Trevor, the young charismatic hotel bartender who commutes from Queens.

Iowa at the Irish Playwright Pub One quick Google search led us to a pub near our hotel to watch the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball championship game. Day 1 and we’re in the New York Metro Iowa Club.

Hand in the air for New York and Iowa Women's Basketball.

Coppelia A few trips back we stumbled upon this Chelsea neighborhood Latin-influenced restaurant. For many reasons, it’s become our go-to for any meal or a margarita Cubano.

Coppelia celebrated its 12th birthday in April.

Central Park This stay coincided with spring break, meaning more visitors than usual to the concrete jungle. Central Park brought a breath of fresh air and bike rentals — our own hop-on hop-off tour.

Central Park in bloom.

Our fourth trip to the city overflowed with firsts: first time in a hotel, first stay in Midtown, first visit in spring, first time bicycling, and first jazz show.

Birdland was close to our hotel, and we caught a jazz band CD release show.

Lounging before the 4 pm taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 30 Rock, another first.

Jessica Chastain in A Doll’s House I’m more concert- and movie-goer than theatergoer. But there’s something for everyone on Broadway. Chastain’s portrayal as country music legend Tammy Wynette in the 2022 miniseries George and Tammy had my attention. She was largely the draw for our show pick. One night you’re sitting on your sofa in Des Moines, Iowa, watching TV. Later, without any plan or intention, you find yourself casually chatting with the TV star after her Broadway performance. In between shows, Chastain stood outside in the gray day mist to meet fans. I was starstruck but comfortable sharing how much I enjoy her work.

Chastain, an American film, TV, and stage actress, met fans after A Doll’s House.

Grew up in a town that is famous as a place of movie scenes Noise is always loud There are sirens all around and the streets are mean If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, that's what they say Seein' my face in lights Or my name in marquees found down on Broadway

Even if it ain't all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams

The Hotel Chelsea On a past trip, we’d stopped for a look inside the historic hotel. Under construction at the time, it wasn’t open to the public. Long story short, we were asked to leave. This started our running joke about getting kicked out.

But this time around hotel staff welcomed us. After we’d had a drink in the Lobby Bar, they invited us to explore. That’s when we discovered El Quijote.

The Chelsea was my home and the El Quijote was my bar. Patti Smith

Nearly every street we turned down, something or someone of interest turned up — like the teddy bear atop a work truck and the giant inflatable rat. The guys thought they recognized an actor from The Sopranos.

Arlo Midtown → Penn Station → Newark, NJ → DSM International

All great vacations must end, and we had nearly four full days to explore the city streets and nightlife. Thankfully, our return trip home was smooth.

Friends who’ve traveled with me know this: I’m a planner. It’s a detailed plan but flexible. This trip checked off most on our list. But my Empire State of Mind already has a rough itinerary in mind for next time — hear more jazz, check out El Quijote, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, catch a comedy show, explore Little Island and Coney Island, and swing by Coppelia.

What's on your NYC must-do list? I’d love to hear.

© 2023 by Catherine Broderick Medina