While the 2001 Jonifest may be history, the JMDL "Covers" project is anything but! With a new month comes another announcement of more renditions of Joni's songs; the wonderful, the weird, the rare and all the rest. Here's what rests on this month's "edition": 1. John Otway - Woodstock: Why does Woodstock get the strangest treatments? This one was donated by the goofy Mr. Otway himself, and is a funny schizophrenic version. When he says "I don't know who I am"...he means it! 2. The Robert Miller Group - The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines: Very nice sultry slowed-down take, with vocals from Lisa Yves, who gave us a couple with her jazz kids a couple of CD's ago. 3. Green Lyte Sunday - Chelsea Morning: This is a rare and sought-after record. Green Lyte Sunday was most of The Cyrcle (Red Rubber Ball) + Susan Darby. Nice flute solo too...could it be Victor? :~) 4. Charlie Starr - For Free: A slowed-down country-rock sorta version, this one sounds a lot like the Crosby-Nash version. 5. Jimmie Rodgers - Both Sides Now: I've always been a sucker for Jimmie Rodgers, with his big hits like "Honeycomb" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". 6. Harry Belafonte - The Circle Game: While I was digging Jimmie, my MOM loved Harry. I bet if I heard his classic "Carnegie Hall" LP once, I heard it a million times. And that's cool, because his soft vocals always rest easy on the ear. Day-O!! Day-ay-ay-O! 7. Bridget St. John - Night In The City: I don't know much about her, this sounds like an early folk version, with an interesting rythym to it. 8. Hot Hits 3 - Woodstock: Not much to say about this one, they're one of those ripoff bands that just tried as hard as they could to sound like Matthews Southern Comfort. 9. The Don Costa Concept - Both Sides Now: What's the concept anyway? To bore me to tears? :~) 10. Noel Harrison - Nathan La Franeer: Here's a unique one...the ONLY cover of "Nathan" that I'm aware of, this one's a very sweet-sounding cover sung by Noel in a nice Brit accent. 11. Seanachie - Urge For Going: This one's also hard to find, and is a real knockout! A very genuine celtic band, with Annie Ross on bagpipes. This one's definitely a keeper...(and the pronounciation is "Shawn-a-key", not "C-natchie"! 12. Des & Dawn - The Circle Game: South Africa's answer to Ian & Sylvia, they pretty much patterned their version of CG after Ian & Sylvia's. 13. Heaven's Gate - This Flight Tonight: STAR BRIGHT!! These speed-metal boys do some viscious head-banging on this "heavy metal" classic. 14. Prince - A Case Of You: Prince's infatuation with Joni is no secret. He's done ACOY live a couple of times, here's a nice version from his '83 tour. Unfortunately, he doesn't do the entire song from start to finish, but this "excerpt" is pretty good! 15. Michael Chapdelaine - Both Sides Now: A very pretty acoustic version, this one makes me feel like a "Sunday-morning-cup-of-coffee" kinda feeling. Nice. 16. Lydia van Dam - Be Cool: Now that John van Tiel played HIS Lydia song for me, I've definitely seen Lydia from both sides now! Like all the other songs on her tribute CD, this version smokes. Just Lydia's great jazz vocal & an upright bass. 17. Terry Roberts - Got The Urge For Going: Terry is/was a Canadian country singer, his version of UFG is almost carbon-copy of George Hamilton IV's. But I love this song anyway, so I like it. 18. Foggy Dew-O - Born To Take The Highway: This one's a LOT of fun, because it's the only FORMAL recording of this song I know of. Seems that the Foggy Dew-O were given a demo tape that a record producer had, and told to pick some songs to do. They did this one as well as... 19. Foggy Dew-O - Both Sides Now: How could they resist? I just wish I had that demo tape! :~) 20. Karen Oberlin - Barangrill: Ending this volume with an excellent song from Karen's 2000 release titled "My Standards". Great stuff, glad to see this underappreciated song get brought back to the forefront. So that's it for #21...I guess now that we've reached 21, the project is old enough to drink & vote! As always, I couldn't have done it without helpers, so thanks to: John Otway Philip in Ireland Ron Greer Monica Jeff Hankins Stephen Elliott Coming up next...the contest madness continues... Bob NP: Karen Oberlin, "Barangrill"
