Deeper Under The Covers (DUTC)

Stay tuned. First installment January 2023!

Welcome to this new page! The idea for this is directly related to a “musing” post from September of this year “Under the Covers: Can You Dig it?” (https://quadzillabynorth.com/2022/09/05/under-the-covers-can-you-dig-it/) that presented three unique covers of the song “No Diggity” by Blackstreet.

After posting this, I began thinking about the music of my youth and early adulthood, and beyond, which is not without its irony, as I have said and even written on this blog how I have “moved on” from the music of my past. Well, yeah, about that…However, in my defense, I must say that now I am only listening to it when I am looking for recent examples of how different musicians are interpreting and repurposing this wonderful music to perhaps a different (spelled “younger”) audience! The “covers” that I look for all have one thing in common: They are not simply “copying” a song that was popular in the past; they are making it their own in a variety of unique ways, either vocally, harmonically, instrumentally, by tempo, and by genre/style, or any combination of the above. By doing this they are, in a kind of tip-of-the-hat way, paying heartfelt respect to the music and musicians they are emulating in these covers, not to mention showcasing their own incredible talent(s), with beautifully staged presentations. The result is music that reflects these artists’ profound love of this music and lyrics. This is, of course, my humble opinion based on my own criteria for discerning whether or not certain performances of these covers are worthy of such high praise as stated above!

So, once a week (there will be exceptions to this schedule!), I will either post one or two “featured” artists that have covered songs from the past, one artist covering several different songs, or one particular song covered by different artists. I will include the original version and then one or more covers, along with some commentary as to why I feel these are worth listening to. Then, you can make up your own minds! These videos are of duos, ensembles, collectives, among others, but rarely solo, which is exactly why I am going to kick this off with the first installment of “Deeper Under the Covers” with a solo guitar act.

I hope you enjoy the music and all it has to offer!