A Musical Journey – Part 2 – I’m Not A Country Fan…But

Welcome back to the ongoing journey through a long sleepless night on YouTube.  In Part 1 we had a look at some of the best & worst, well worst & not-too-bad amateur YouTube cover versions.  Tonight we wade into some more professional cover versions.

I don’t remember how I got from Kelly to this guy but I got to a cheesy bloke singing songs by The Beatles (She’s Leaving Home) & Johnny Cash (I can’t remember, something early) but I can’t find him either.  He had lots of videos and seemed quite popular.  Sometimes he even held (didn’t play) a guitar & took requests.

Now, I’m not a country music fan, but Cash’s music has managed to have a massive influence on almost every genre of music since the 50s.  Then I came across a truly great Johnny Cash cover.  Shortly after his death in 2003, a concert was held as a tribute to him.  There are many great clips from that night (and some less great ones too), but Kris Kristofferson & Norah Jones played “I Guess Things Happen That Way”, and I guess they do.

Johnny Cash’s songs have been sung by many musicians (and me), but he also enjoyed singing other people’s songs.  Bob Dylan, U2, Tom Waits, Vera Lynn (well Ross Parker & Hughie Charles) and Nine Inch Nails amongst others.  He also liked to play songs by Kris Kristofferson, who famously stalked Cash to the point of landing on his property in a National Guard helicopter to get him to listen to his tapes.  My favourite song that Cash played of Kristofferson’s was Sunday Morning Coming Down.

I’ve got a soft spot for Kris Kristofferson (& here is his third appearance).  He is one of those people I’d like to meet, just shake his hand and thank him for making a difference for people.  I like “Me & Bobby McGee”, ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose’.  Think about it.  This is Kris’ cover version of his own song (just so it fits with this collection).

Now after a bit of ‘here & there’, I came across Mark Seymour & Felicity Urquart singing Bobby McGee on Rockwiz.  It isn’t great (Mark Seymour is), & sort of feels like they are singing it because it is about as mainstream as Felicity Urquart gets.  Then another Rockwiz duet, Tex Perkins & Debra Conway singing ‘Love Hurts’.  From there I saw something bizarre.  Another tribute show with Norah Jones, for Gram Parsons, with Keith Richards doing ‘Love Hurts’.

Backing back to Rockwiz I found one of my all-time favourite artists a) trying to brain Katy Steel & b) sing a rather nice duet with Katy Steel.  Paul Kelly & Katy Steel with ‘The Mess We’re In’ (it works better than their ‘Taught By Experts’ duet).

That is it for this second installment.  Coming up next, we have some new Australian musical talent, some old Australian musical talent, and later, some old Australian musical talent, although he has a different name, so I guess he is kind of new too.