Cover albums of Tom Waits songs are not new, but what makes an upcoming collection different is that the people who are being honored are Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Brennan, if you didn't know, is someone just hanging out in the background of Waits' career; she has co-written many of his best songs.
That is what music lovers will get to hear when an album called Where the Willow and the Dogwood Grow, featuring 19 tunes by some of your other favorite artists. The list includes Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band covering, of course, "Jersey Girl," which was recorded live.
The Blind Boys of Alabama do a version of "Way Down in the Hole," a cover previously heard as the theme song to a season of the elite crime series, The Wire. For those who have heard the version, one will know the tune pays great homage to Waits and Brennan.
Cover compilation of Tom Wats and Kathleen Brennan songs promises to be epic
Others involved in the tracklist include Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and the late Johnny Cash. The latter's inclusion is one of the reasons the new album should be so great. These aren't all new covers, but they are excellent ones.
The compilation will be released on May 29. Many of the songs below you can already check out on your favorite streamer, though.
Where the Willow and the Dogwood Grow tracklist:
- 1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - “Jersey Girl (Live at Meadowlands Arena, NJ - July 1981)”
- 2. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - “16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six”
- 3. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - “Gin-Soaked Boy”
- 4. Los Lobos - “Jockey Full of Bourbon”
- 5. Lucinda Williams - “Hang Down Your Head”
- 6. Diana Krall - “Temptation”
- 7. Bettye LaVette - “Yesterday Is Here”
- 8. The Blind Boys of Alabama - “Way Down in the Hole”
- 9. Marianne Faithfull - “Strange Weather”
- 10. Ramones - “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”
- 11. Johnny Cash - “Down There by the Train”
- 12. King Ernest - “House Where Nobody Lives”
- 13. Willie Nelson - “Picture in a Frame”
- 14. Madison Cunningham - “Hold On”
- 15. Norah Jones - “The Long Way Home”
- 16. John Hammond - “2:19”
- 17. Solomon Burke - “Diamond in Your Mind”
- 18. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant - “Trampled Rose”
- 19. Joan Baez - “Day After Tomorrow”