I’ve been on vacation this past week in southwestern Michigan. I haven’t been fishing, I’ve been taking my daughter down to the beach, riding my bicycle, and watching the sun set over Lake Michigan. At any rate, I haven’t had a lot of time to work up a theme this week. So it’s another random selection, with special thanks to Uncle Flakey for several of these tunes.

SST “I’m A Believer” (The Monkees)
It’s a bossa nova cover of the Monkees hit. What’s not to like?

Laramie “Crimson And Clover” (Tommy James and the Shondells)
Bluegrass covers always run the risk of being a little too gimmicky. This version doesn’t have that problem, it works very nicely and sounds like the song was always intended to sound like this.

Tina Louise Barr “Under The Boardwalk” (The Drifters)
Tina Louise Barr is quite the virtuoso on the autoharp. Uncle Flakey sent me a cover album that she did a few years back. It’s good to have friends like Uncle Flakey.

Update: For the first time in the history of this blog, an artist has requested that I remove a song. And so I have.

Sentient Machine “Disco Inferno” (The Trammps)
Sentient Machine is an indie band who sent me this song back in March. It’s a very muscular, guitar-driven version of the disco classic.

Hellsongs “Paranoid” (Black Sabbath)
Early Black Sabbath was a big part of the soundtrack of my adolescent days. Something about a young Ozzy resonated with the pissed off alienated teen that I was. And strangely, this mellow version resonates with the middle-aged suburban guy that I’ve become.