GRETCHEN WILSON – Under The Covers – CD review

GRETCHEN WILSON
Under The Covers
Redneck Records

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t it only a fortnight or so since the last Gretchen Wilson record? Well, yes it is. That one was “Right On Time”, and you can read a review of it over here. But whereas that one was all new songs, this one sees Ms Wilson going back to her rock chick roots for an album of covers. “Under The Covers”! Geddit. It’s like listening to a transistor radio in bed when you’re a kid, and you’re supposed to be asleep. And they’re covers!

Now, as you know Ms Wilson is one of my favourite country singers. And you should also know that my youth was spent metal thrashing mad to the sound of seventies and eighties guitar rawk. So this is a bit of a no-brainer for me. But there are some surprises, some hits and some misses.

The misses. Well, no-one should ever cover ‘Hot Blooded’ by Foreigner. No-one. Not even the new Foreigner. And I would much rather that ‘The Song That Killed Billy Squiers Career’, had remained just that. I reckon Mr Squier would happily forego his thruppence in royalties if he never had to hear ‘Everybody Wants You’ ever again.

However, the surprises are, well, surprising. Bearing in mind what I said about ‘Hot Blooded’, you would have thought that ‘Lights’ by Journey would have fallen into the same category, but blow me down, if it isn’t an absolute cracker. Seriously, Ms Wilson actually makes you feel like you’re hearing it for the first time. The same applies to ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’, albeit for different reasons. She actually makes me want to listen to a Led Zeppelin song more than once.

Some of the material falls into bar band territory, even if it’s a very good bar band, so ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Bell Bottom Blues’ bring nothing to the table, but for every one of those, there is a ‘Bad Company’ and a ‘Funk No 49’, so it still ends up being a winner.

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