Album: Various Artists, Be Yourself: a Tribute to Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners (Grass Roots)

Andy Gill
Thursday 17 June 2010 19:00 EDT
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On Be Yourself, the Woodchuck Nation pays homage to the Woodstock Nation, as a younger generation of folk-rockers offer their own takes on Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners.

Some are straightforward enough, like Brendan Benson's "Better Days", while others opt for a more idiosyncratic route: step forward Bonnie "Prince" Billy, with a Spanish-language, norteño-style "Simple Man". Vetiver are old hands at refurbishing classic country-rock, so their "I Used to Be a King" is sleek but somewhat lifeless, while Sleepy Sun deliver an impassioned but slightly disjointed "Chicago", four decades adrift from its original political origins. The anthemic lilt and falsetto vocals of Port O Brien and Papercuts' opener "Military Madness" provide the most compelling update here.

DOWNLOAD THIS Military Madness; Be Yourself; Chicago

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