Muireann Bradley recently shared her cover of ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’, so we spoke to her about the art of covering songs.
The sign of a great songwriter is whenever someone else covers their song and can make it sound like their own. The sign of a great song is when you can listen to 20 versions of it in a row and not grow tired of it, or go stir crazy, and actually enjoy almost every iteration. Bob Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’ is one of these songs, and Muireann Bradley’s version is the latest addition, and a welcomed new member to the Bob Dylan Cover Club.
Like most covers, Muireann keeps it close to the original with the simplicity of her voice and, technical term here, very pretty guitar-picking, yet she still makes it sound like it’s her own. Usually, whenever I reach for Dylan’s 1963 original, I’m also reaching for all my corduroy clothing because the first autumn leaf has fallen, the days are getting shorter and winds colder. The sweetness in Bradley’s voice, however, makes her version feel like spring. The warmth in her vocals evoke sunny days, when the mornings are finally light and you can feel the sun on your skin, while the haunting guitar ensures there’s still a chill in the air; it isn’t quite warm enough for Elvis or Waylon Jennings’ covers just yet. It’s a version that’s best enjoyed in the morning, with the window open so the spring air can clear out the old, a nice candle or incense burning, and a cup of tea.
It seems currently that we are somewhat losing the art and appreciation of cover songs. This could be down to it being an industry norm and audience expectation that singers write their own songs, because of a standard arguably set by the likes of Bob Dylan and The Beatles. It could also be down to the record industry’s checkered past of stolen song ownership and royalties, especially in genres like the blues. It could even be down to that a lot of cover songs that hit the mainstream airwaves now are for adverts and the gym, and have become soulless and commercialised.
But cover songs are important for many reasons. First being they’re fun – I love knowing that with every hit song in the sixties, there’ll be a pop, easy listening, R&B, country and maybe even a psychedelic version of it, guaranteed. Sometimes these covers work and might even surpass the original (hello Joe Cocker), and other times they’re tat (hello Pat Boone, Rock&Roll’s nemesis…), either way there’s joy in discovering how different genres took on the same song. Then for roots genres like blues and folk, its historically important for these to be passed down, to be remembered, to be covered. How else does a song like ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, which is believed to be from the 17th Century, still be played and sung in pubs to this day? Because it has been covered countless times. This is how songs survive.
Muireann Bradley honours this tradition. As well as her take on Bob Dylan, her debut album I Kept These Old Blues, is a collection of old country blues songs, some of which are around a 100 years old. To further go with tradition, these songs are just recorded with her guitar, her voice and her love for the songs. You can hear that the stories these songs tell mean something to her, and that’s where the magic lies, because it’s not just a cover, it’s a retelling and passing of a story from one generation to the next.
I listened to 20 versions, including the original, of ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’ in a row, without wishing Bob never wrote it, instead enjoying the different routes people took it. Johnny Cash makes it sounds like he wrote it, Cher does sixties Baroque-Pop, Dolly Parton takes it to the Great Smoky Mountains, Odetta adds the Blues, Elvis evokes the rhythms of a road-trip, Waylon Jennings’ has a dark sixties Country quality, Bobby Darin is surprisingly groovy, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ rendition has a fantastically bizarre high falsetto throughout. For the most part though, these singers stick to the folky rhythm of the original, and all, except for maybe Frankie Valli, convey the feelings of the song. Something which Muireann Bradley’s cover sparkles at. She takes on the story and layers it, like those who have done before her, with her own emotions and experiences, and like every good cover song, keeps it alive.
Listen to ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’ by Muireann Bradley here.
