I’ve been enjoying Alice Di Micele’s music for years. She has 16 albums out over the years and her soft contralto voice sits very well in the folk/Americana genre that she normally inhabits.
This album is her first of covers and it features 9 songs that have influenced her and driven her music over the years. The artists are not the first that might come to mind. Two songs by Neil Young, 1 by the Grateful Dead, one by Reverend Gary Davis, one from Kate Wolf, one from Christine McVie, one from Tom Petty, one from Abbey Lincoln and one from Sting (Gordon Sumner).
To kick off, these are definitely her interpretations of these classic songs. She doesn’t tear them apart and present something unimaginably different from the original, rather she represents them in her style and with subtly different emphases.
Take her version of ‘Old Man’ by Neil Young. It sticks closely to Young’s script, but her voice seems to move the focus closer to her needs than the Old Man’s. ‘Give Yourself to Love’ (Kate Wolf) comes through as a mother might instruct her child, gentle and chiding rather than instructing. She covers Reverend Gary Davis’s (Blind Gary Davis) ‘Death Don’t Have No Mercy’ with power and heart, very different to the covers by the likes of Dylan and the Grateful Dead. Stunning organ and a fine guitar solo back up her powerful vocals and the whole song gives you the chills. Christine McVie’s ‘Over My Head’ is lighter and almost poppy, happy and with a sweet bounce. One of my favourite numbers is her version of Tom Petty’s ‘Square One’, one of his lesser known songs, she gives the song rhythm an almost Stone’s like cycle back and forth and her vocal carries some great passion. ‘Throw It Away’ was a revelation to me. Just vocal and acoustic guitar, it is jazzy and drags you in to the lyric perfectly. I have been a Dead Head for many years, and this is one of the better versions I have heard of Garcia/Hunter’s ‘Sugaree’. Her voice immediately changes the focus and stunning guitar from Joe Diehl compliments the original. Sting’s ‘The Hounds Of Winter’ is not commonly covered but this version is chilling and stark. Her vocal is superb and Rob Kholer’s bass is very much the musical strength.
She finishes with Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’ and her version is an absolute delight. She makes you hear the words more clearly than Young’s original and it is impossible to hear this without thinking of loves lost and made.
