Marian I too love just playing the songs the way they are and while my ability restrains me from being able to do them on guitar or piano exactly the way I may want to, I do my best to be true to the arrangment. Vocally I tend to channel what I have heard the artists do from their various performances and so my annunciations may be very similar I still sing in my voice. Many people have told me when I "cover" a song I sound like that person. I recall playing in Kakki's living room and having Dulson remark as such that I "sound" like Nash or Croz or whoever and to me it is very flattering to have someone appreciate that. If I ever had to play for Joni I would be a little uncomfortable due to my lack of originality in my attempts to play the songs (not to mention being nervous as a whore in church), but it is the only way that I know how to do it at this point and the only way I really wanna do it. It is one of the reasons that the fests have become so important to me because the people seem to really enjoy it no matter what I do. I truly wish I could write good songs but i feel like the ones I have written are for me or whoever I wrote them for and they are always centered around love or a lack of or whatever. Last night I sang When The Stars go Blue by Ryan Adams and of course I think i sound like Michael Paz trying to sound like Ryan Adams trying to sound like Roy Orbison, but i LOVE it. Thanks Fred and Marian for opening this can of worms and look forward to hearing more on the topic.
Love Paz NP-Paper Moon-Whiskeytown (just cam in the mail and I still love this guy for whatever reason. Thanks Les and all who posted on Ryan Adams. OH MY GAWD it just switched to What The Devil Wanted and this is SO different and kinda Beatley. on 12/4/01 1:15 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I really liked what Fred wrote because it made me feel a little better about > something that I have been feeling sensitive about for awhile now. > > "Cover" was not in my musical vocabulary until a couple of years after > joining JMDL. Since learning what this term means, I have become aware of > what seems to be an element of disdain among some (many?) JMDLers for anyone > who doesn't "cover" Joni's music "creatively" and this awareness has led to > a sense of discomfort about performing Joni's music anymore anywhere. > > In all the years that I played guitar and sang Joni's songs, it never > occurred to me to try to elaborate on or make changes to her beautiful (and > IMO, perfect) music. I was never trying to "be" or "become" Joni by singing > her songs (I don't have her vocal chords and I would never dream of dressing > up in a blonde wig and wearing a beret! :^D). For me, it has always been > just a great pleasure to try to recreate her beautiful guitar sounds and > sing along in my own voice. For me, singing/performing is a meditative > process - an opportunity to get beyond myself to convey the message/meaning > of whatever song as best I can - and I have always felt a sense of peace and > healing in that process, especially with Joni's music. Each time I sing a > song is a new chance to do it better than ever before. It is not a > competitive thing or an imitative thing, but a process - a personal process > that I sometimes share if I perform for someone. > > Something that really bugs me here is all the comparison that goes on. This > artist is better than that one, that artist is trying to be like so and so, > and on and on. I think it is true that all of us cannot avoid being > influenced by all of the events/things/people/songs that we grow up with, > but we each have our own unique interpretation and expression, and I think > that we all deserve to be respected and valued if we are trying to bring > beauty into the world in however limited a fashion. Rickie Lee Jones has a > solid base of people who think she is the best musician who ever walked the > face of the earth, just as most people here feel that way about Joni, and > other people I know feel that way about Natalie Merchant, Jewel, Brittany > Spears, Madonna, Bob Dylan, etc. > > Marian > Vienna > > On Mon, 3 Dec 2001 23:58:31 EST Fred <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>> 17. Keith Jarrett - All I Want: Surprisingly, nothing very creative here >>> from piano virtuouso Jarrett. One of his earlier recordings, it's pretty >>> enough and gets the job done and that's about it. > >> There's much more here than meets the ear. Creativity, in covers, >> can be a highly overrated commodity; too many covers are too damn >> "creative," by which I mean that the "creativity" supersedes the song. >> Yeah, a radical reworking can sometimes work, but often all a song >> needs is the firm stamp of the cover artist's own voice. With Jarrett it's > >> the latter; the thing is, that stamp is somewhat masked by the fact that >> the song itself lays squarely on the broad intersection of Joni's and >> Jarrett's melodic/harmonic language. I think that's a big part of why >> he played it: to demonstrate the hipness of Joni's music, just as it is, >> with no further "hipping it up." He recognized a kinship in her music and >> celebrates by just "singing" her song in his voice, which shares so many >> characteristics with hers. Also, few jazz musicians at that time were >> investigating the current popular songs as alternative jazz vehicles to >> decades of Gershwin, Porter, etc. > > - -Fred
