The days are getting shorter and cooler and on Friday I saw my first flock of birds heading south to play shuffleboard for the winter. In honor of our feathered friends I present these songs by and about birds.

Love Battery “White Bird” (It’s A Beautiful Day)
No sappy hippie violins here. It’s all aggressive guitars and it sounds real good.

Tindersticks “Mockin’ Bird” (Tom Waits)
This is one of the breeziest Tom Waits covers you’ll ever hear. Even though the singer is complaining about a bird mocking him with its song, the tune sounds almost chipper. I found this song when I went to my favorite used record store and left with two different Tom Waits tribute CDs.

Andrew Bird “The Giant Of Illinois” (The Handsome Family)
It’s hard to begrudge Andrew Bird his popularity with the Pitchfork crowd. He’s an immense talent and deserves all the success he’s enjoying these days. But it’s sure messed things up for me. I used to see Andrew Bird play for free at street fairs and for cheap at dive bars around Chicago in the late 90s. Now it’s an expensive ticket to see him play in big venues if you can get in at all. But I’m not bitter.

Here Mr. Bird covers a song from one of my favorite songwriting duos, the husband-and-wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks. They apparently wrote this song after reading some tourist brochures for the Lincoln memorial sites in Springfield, IL.

The Neville Brothers “Bird On A Wire” (Leonard Cohen)
I love the Neville Brothers but Aaron Neville gets on my nerves. He seems incapable of figuring out what songs best suit his singing style. Not every song cries out for a trembling falsetto, Aaron. Even with Aaron’s contribution this version is a winner thanks to his brothers’ smoking rhythm section.

Tex Perkins & Megan Washington “This Little Bird” (J.D. Loudermilk)
This song comes from the soundtrack of the recently released movie Beautiful Kate. I haven’t seen the movie but I like the idea of a story about growing up in Idaho being reset in Australia. Bonus points to Mr. Perkins and Ms. Washington for covering a J.D. Loudermilk song that’s not “Tobacco Road.”

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary died last week. She was a fine singer and a big reason for the folk revival movement in the 60s.

Doing a Cover Freak tribute to Peter, Paul, and Mary presents a bit of a challenge because most of their hits were covers themselves. PP&M had hits with all these songs even though most of them are credited to other performers.

Chantal Kreviazuk “Leaving On A Jet Plane” (John Denver)
For better or worse PP&M’s version of this song introduced John Denver to a wide audience. Ms. Kreviazuk does a wonderful job here, seamlessly blending dreamy keyboard washes, syncopated rhythms, and a harmonica.

Update: Alert Reader tells me that this wonderful recording is actually by Chantal Kreviazuk, not Dido.

Earth Wind and Fire “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” (Marlene Dietrich)
I knew that Pete Seeger wrote this song but I was a little surprised to learn that it was first recorded by Marlene Dietrich. In French, no less. Earth Wind and Fire takes this one far from its origins, turning it into an epic slow jam.

Trini Lopez “Lemon Tree” (Peter, Paul, and Mary)
The Wikipedia entry for “Lemon Tree” is uncharacteristically vague on who recorded this song first. It mentions that it was written by Will Holt and that it’s based on a Brazilian folk song. Wikipedia then lists some of the people and groups that have recorded the song but never says who the original artist was. So I’m just going to credit PP&M as the original artist until somebody gives me better information.

At any rate, Trini Lopez rocks. And I’ll fight anybody who says different.

Harry Belafonte “If I Had A Hammer” (The Weavers)
Another Pete Seeger song. While she was still in high school, Mary Travers provided backing vocals on five albums Pete Seeger recorded for Folkways Records in the mid 50s. This wonderful song just makes me realize all over again that I will never be as cool as Harry Belafonte.

Spike Jones “Puff The Magic Dragon” (Peter, Paul, and Mary)
Spike Jones is your go-to guy if you’re looking for a weird arrangement of a song. This one starts out as a straightforward acoustic number and then takes a hard left turn into Dixieland jazz. The genius of Mr. Jones as a bandleader is that this song works.

Last week Barack Obama gave an address to a joint session of Congress on the subject of health insurance reform. The speech was notable for many things, among them the congressional douchebag who had such little respect for the Office of the President that he heckled Mr. Obama while he was addressing Congress. So much for even the pretense of civility in the current political environment.

Health insurance is something that hits me close to home. For reasons that are only interesting or important to me and my family, if I didn’t have excellent insurance through my wife’s employer I would be bankrupt and giving hand jobs down on Division Street to pay my medical bills. There aren’t really any good covers about giving hand jobs, but there are a few that deal with sickness and healing.

Neil Finn “Sexual Healing” (Marvn Gaye)
Whether or not the government will mandate that insurance companies pay for sexual healing is a hotly debated issue. I’m all for it, it would make going to the doctor a whole lot more fun.

Scums “Heal The World” (Michael Jackson)
With a band name like Scums I was expecting hardcore punk. Instead I got earnest acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. Normally I get annoyed when this happens but this song it so chipper I can’t get too upset.

Blackstrap “St. James Infirmary Blues” (Traditional)
The blues standard sounds pretty good played on an accordion.

John Scofield “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (Ray Charles)
The cover by Humble Pie became a payola-fueled nine-minute-long classic rock radio staple, but the song started out as a hit for Brother Ray. John Scofield delivers a version that is funky and cool at the same time. That’s a feat of musical gymnastics that carries a high degree of difficulty.

Richard Cheese “Down With The Sickness” (Disturbed)
Leave it to the legendary Mr. Cheese to cuss like a teamster with a cocktail in his hand and a smile in his voice. Be careful with this one at work.

The New Kids
I’ve been made aware of two new cover blogs on the block. Same Old Tune posts cover videos on an almost daily basis. The Animals Run The Farm features mostly acoustic covers recorded in the author’s home studio. Check ’em out, there’s good stuff in both places.

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Tomorrow marks Labor Day, the official end of summer. Time to salute those among us that are still working. And so I present this tribute to work in all its forms and to the Labor Day holiday itself.

Rotary Connection “I Got My Mojo Working” (Muddy Waters)
All honest work is honorable. The best work is something you believe in that gives your life purpose and meaning. And I can’t think of anything more honorable or meaningful than working your mojo.

Stevie Wonder “We Can Work It Out” (The Beatles)
Every song Stevie Wonder sings sounds like a Stevie Wonder song regardless of who wrote it. Somebody needs to decode his secret formula so we can continue to have new Stevie Wonder songs after he passes on.

John Williamson “Why Don’t You Get A Job” (Offspring)
Jobs can be hard to find in the current economy but that’s no excuse for sloth.

Jeremy Kay “Overkill” (Men At Work)
A reggae song two weeks in a row. That’s gotta be a record for Cover Freak. I was looking around for a good Men At Work cover to celebrate the workingman’s holiday. I came across this one and I really liked it. I hope you do too.

Die Toten Hosen “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (comp. Rodgers and Hammerstein)
What Labor Day would be complete without Jerry Lewis, strung out on sleep deprivation and percodan, weeping as he sings this song? I don’t know what it’s like for kids today with their digital cable and their xboxes, but when I was growing up the Jerry Lewis telethon was a great excuse to stay up late. Of course you had to sit through lots of heavy guilt trips to get to the cool wacky unscripted stuff, but it was worth it.

But seriously folks, whatever you may think of Jerry Lewis (and I know that many people think that his telethon demeans the disabled), please consider contributing to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It’s a very worthwhile cause.