52 Albums a Year: Covers

10 Cross-Genre Covers That Sound Different Than The Originals

10:06 AM

Passionate Kisses, Country Music & Covers

9:35 AM

I think it would surprise some people to learn that my first concert was to see Mary Chapin Carpenter, a country artist. I've never self-identified as a fan of the genre, which is interesting considering so much of what I enjoy now has deep roots in it: namely folk, bluegrass and the blues. To be fair, it was 1992: a time before I understood things like genres, judging people or how to take a dump without supervision. My age aside, I still have some vivid memories of seeing her perform, which are as follows:

It was a seated venue
I got to take flowers up to the stage
There were no snacks allowed (Don’t worry, I smuggled in a blunt and some Dunkaroos in the cuffs of my Osh-Kosh overalls)
I pooped my pants and was escorted out of the theater

Could I name a song from the set list? Nope. Do I remember how I got there? Not a clue, but a car seat was involved. Honestly, the experience doesn’t differ all that much from when I got to see Tame Impala last year, except I didn't spill a $10 beer on myself.

'92 was my year

I was really surprised in High School when I finally realized that Mary was considered a country artist and wasn't just my mom's "stress-cleaning music." Instead of triggering the usual feelings of disgust I got from dialing past Achy-Breaky heart on the radio, it mainly served as a warning siren to retreat into hiding until the scent of bleach had dissipated.

Similar to a child that realizes that their hamster did not live to be 13, and was in fact 6 separate hamsters, one day when I was listening to the Dixie Chicks’ cover of Landslide, it finally dawned on me that I had been unknowingly listening to country music my entire life. I was terrified that someone would realize I was a hypocrite, and my carefully curated aesthetic of “cool” would be destroyed.

Calm. Cool. Collected. Even Hufflepuff didn't want me.

To this day, whenever Passionate Kisses comes on in public I get all Pavlov’s dogs-y, and have been known to impulsively deep-clean the nearest bathroom. I have since come to terms with my love for Mary’s music, but I’m still working on how I feel about country music in general. It's complicated.

If you ask any person why they don't like a whole genre of music, you'll get a variety of answers:

“It’s too depressing”
“I can’t dance to it,”
“There’s too much harmonica.”
“I’m not racist but [insert something racist]”
“I just don’t.”

Personally, I can't get on board with an entire genre that promotes fishing (boring) and wearing cut-offs (unflattering).

Even if that's the case, I'm not too proud to recognize a song that has good bones. Passionate Kisses is one of those songs.

Interestingly enough, I later learned that it was actually not written by Mary Chapin Carpenter, but by the great Lucinda Williams. Lucinda may have written it, but I would argue that Mary saw its potential and made it popular.

The reason I wanted to write about this song at all is because I recently came across a cross-genre cover by Saintseneca and it really sealed the deal for me. Their version is easily my favorite because it invokes a lot of the same emotion as its predecessors, but completely skyrockets with energy. Mary and Lucinda each set a conversational tone, imploring that they deserve all the simple creature comforts that life has to offer. Saintseneca manages to take the same lyrics and sound positively joyful as they demand it. Also, you can pretty much get me on board with any song that has people singing loudly in unison. Even when it's kitschy, all I think about is how they sound like they're having a lot more fun than I am.

Saintseneca performing as part of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series in 2014

By the end, Zac Little, Maryn Jones and the whole gang are shouting, and I'm in my car and I'm shouting too: "Shouldn't I have all of this?!"

You don't have to like any of this, but you should be able to appreciate a song's integrity if it can sound different when performed by two wildly different country artists, and then be completely renewed again when covered by a modern folk-rock group from Ohio. It feels like fate that a song that is so integral to my childhood has been reborn by a band that reflects my current tastes.

I will always despise the Confederate flag, the second amendment, and that one time I accidentally rode in a pickup truck, but I am all about country music if its songs have the potential to be this versatile.

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