V.A. Sincerely, L. Cohen Volume One

This one volume series (so far...) features artists covering Leonard Cohen songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.

As a Canadian in good standing, I'm a staunch Leonard Cohen supporter, though I've never felt compelled to own much beyond a few different collections. That said, my first distinct encounter with a Cohen song was Concrete Blonde's devastating take on "Everybody Knows" famously used in "Pump up the Volume:"




So this series takes on the admirable goal of showing the breadth of Cohen's influence without resorting to 17 versions of "Hallelujah" (While many are finished with that track, I still believe that it has a power that no onslaught of hacks can destroy). Instead the compiler has chosen to choose strong Cohen covers by a wide array of artists, like The Waterboys, Ron Sexsmith, John Wesley Harding, Tom Russel and, brilliantly, Johnny Cash:





01 Hallelujah - The Waterboys (version 1) (Jul 19, 2008, Burg Herzberg Festival, Breitenbach, Germany)
02 Avalanche - Chris and Carla (Aug 12, 2006, Heilig Kreuz Kirche, Berlin, Germany)
03 Bird on the Wire - Johnny Cash ( 1994, University of Texas, Austin, TX)
04 Dance Me to the End of Love - Madeleine Peyroux (Mar 29, 2007, Estudios de Música de RNE, Madrid)
05 The Guests - Antony and the Johnsons (May 26, 2005, Festival Territorios Sonoros, Sevilla)
06 Heart with No Companion - Ron Sexsmith (Sep 30, 1997, TT the Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA)
07 Sisters of Mercy - Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt (Sep 30, 1999, Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA)
08 Chelsea Hotel #2 - Josh Ritter (Feb 15, 2007, Horseshoe Tavern)
09 Suzanne - James Taylor (Fe 2, 2009, BBC2, London)
10 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong - The Dresden Dolls (May 18, 2008 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA)
11 Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde (Mar 17, 1991, The Vic, Chicago, IL)
12 Famous Blue Raincoat - Richard Shindell (Nov 11, 2004, The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI)
13 The Smokey Life - Anjani (Apr 27, 2007,
14 Tonight Will Be Fine - David Blue and Jackson Browne (8-22-72 WBCN Studios Boston MA)
15 Joan of Arc - John Wesley Harding (Jan 29, 2005, Schubas, chicago, IL)
16 Tower of Song - Tom Russell (Apr 20, 2001, Columbus Music Hall, Columbus, OH)
17 Hallelujah - Brandi Carlisle and the Seattle (Version 2) (Nov 29, 2008, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA)



Please add a comment about this collection or L.C. in general.


Speaking of COMMENTS, that is the section wherein you will the Sincerely, L. Cohen link

Update Compiler jeffs98119 adds:

1) The cover painting is by Joni Mitchell, who was involved with Cohen for a brief time.

2) Cohen has released two versions of Hallelujah with different verses (one on Various Positions, the other on Cohen Live). On this compilation, the Waterboys do one version, Brandi Carlisle the other.

Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling this and to stewART for the images.

• Thanks to Karl Erik @ Expecting Rain for tagging the songs for iTunes
  

• For the related series, Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan go here