Another Year Come And Gone: In two weeks I’ll be celebrating Cover Freak’s fourth anniversary. As usual I’ll be featuring a special Best Of 2009-10 edition. Let me know if there are any songs that I’ve posted in the last year (October 2009-September 2010) that you’d like me to repost. You can just leave a comment at the bottom of this post or use the contact form to drop me a line.

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One of the things I look forward to around Cover Freak HQ are the emails I get from bands, record labels, and publicists letting me know about new covers from independent artists. I try to weave those songs into my normal posts but inevitably they pile up faster than I can shoehorn them into various themes. So rather than let these songs languish and deny these talented individuals the well-deserved fame that only Cover Freak can provide, I’m posting a bunch of them this week. If you like their music be sure to follow the links and give them money.

Model M “Diamonds And Rust” (Joan Baez)
I was introduced to this song by the Judas Priest cover. It was years before I found out that they didn’t write it. Model M does a version that falls somewhere between the mournful folk of the original and the aggressive anger of Judas Priest. I love how the singer rolls every mean-spirited word around in his mouth like fine wine before delivering it. He sounds strikingly like the guy from Crash Test Dummies.

Kay Pettigrew “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air” (DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince)
I was reading an article recently that was complaining that modern televisions shows don’t have good theme songs. This one’s a throwback to the days of Gilligan’s Island, when the theme song set up the concept for the whole series. And the comic rap song made perfect sense in this case because Will Smith was just a novelty rapper at the time. My, how times have changed.

Kay Pettigrew is a Canadian singer who turns this epic saga into a nice coffee house number. It reminds me of Nina Gordon’s cover of “Straight Out Of Compton,” and that’s a good thing.

Ernie Halter “Black Coffee In Bed” (Squeeze)
I always thought that the music of the original version was way too cheerful for the melancholy of the lyrics. Fortunately Ernie Halter has come along with a wistful acoustic version that perfectly captures the spirit of the lyrics.

Maria McAteer “Baby” (Justin Bieber)
Prefabricated pop stars often have talented songwriters working for them. Sometimes it’s hard to realize that what with the bad haircuts, hackneyed musical arrangements and auto-tuned vocals. Maria McAteer‘s piano ballad really focuses on the heartbreak in this song.

Elmorell “Tell The World About You” (Ray Charles)
Elmorell is an acoustic duo out of Boston. I love the singer’s soulful voice, and it’s put to good use on this semi-obscure song from Brother Ray.