Six months of anticipation! (Photo courtesy of stormbringer.at)
Earlier this week, I went to iTunes only to find out my latest update didn’t go through correctly. I had to uninstall all the Apple programs from my computer and reinstall them. Four hours later, I finally had access again! However, it was late by the time I finished, so I just shut down and went to bed.
Yesterday I actually went on to browse iTunes like I do incessantly, looking for new music. I went to the rock page and nearly cried.
Over the summer, I found out about a collection of acoustic cover songs that Brent Smith and Zach Myers from my favorite band, Shinedown, were going to put together. I was so excited, but I didn’t know the release date. When I got onto iTunes, TAH-DAH!!! There it was! Probably the happiest I’d been all week, and so totally worth the four hours of torture I underwent the other day.
The EP, titled Smith & Myers Acoustic Sessions, came out on January 28th (and I didn’t even know :,( ). Basically, they asked fans on Facebook, “Hey, what songs do you want us to cover?” People replied, they chose ten to work on, and recorded them… in two days. It took me two days to finish this post! I feel so incompetent…
Six of the songs (“London Calling” by the Clash, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding, “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica, “She Talks to Angels” by The Black Crowes, “Runaway Train” by Soul Asylum, and “Blue on Black” by Kenny Wayne Shepherd) made it onto the EP. The other four were recorded, but not included in the EP. They include “Black” by Pearl Jam, “Someone Like You” by Adele, “In the Air” by Phil Collins, and “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi. I’ve heard that the original artists did not want the covers on the EP, but some allowed them to be posted online.
I’ve included the songs that stood out to me the most. To see the official video of any of the other filmed songs mentioned above, click on the link on the name of the song.
“Black”
A great song originally by Pearl Jam… The covers demonstrate the extreme talent these guys have. Unfortunately this one is not of the EP, but you can still watch it on YouTube.
“Nothing Else Matters”
Yeah, you read it right. And man, do they do justice to this song. Everyone knows this song. Even your grandmother, probably. Sometimes people get mad when bands try to cover the greats (like Metallica), but I don’t know how anyone could for this one. Their rendition is seamless.
“Blue on Black”
I’ve mentioned that this was a song I grew up with. My mom introduced me to Kenny Wayne Shepherd at a very young age, possibly at birth. Then, later in my tween years, she got me hooked on Shinedown. So this makes me very emotional. Not to mention that it’s awesome.
And look! There’s Kenny Wayne himself!
Shepherd shreds on that solo and looks up like, “Yep. Another day in the office.”
“Sitting on the Dock of a Bay”
This is one of the songs that I always knew the chorus and nothing else (Other verses? Umm… Cue humming!). Likewise, I still appreciated it. 🙂
Wish I could whistle like that…
“She Talks to Angels”
This is a good song to start with. Not necessarily a song I love but it’s a staple, you know?
During my research, I came across several articles about a possible film about the band. I almost can’t handle all this.
The Saturday Morning List 