What makes a good cover song? Ben Howard knows...

Ben Howard is one lucky guy.  He grew up with parents cool enough and smart enough to expose him to music of the 50's and 60's, most notably Joni and Dylan.  His new album, Every Kingdom, is a nice one and I'm diggin' the song we're playing called The Wolves.

Anyway, while stumbling around the internet the other night, I found this article from spinner.com about Ben Howard and his cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's hugely popular song "Call Me Maybe."  The article's a good read and the video is worth watching, especially if you are familiar with the hit song.

But it's not the cover that struck me.  It's his comments about cover songs in general that caused me to write this.

To me, you can't just cover any song, it has to be one you have some kind of attachment to.  And some songs should just not be covered.  To me, a good cover song is one that is similar enough to remind you of the original but different enough that it brings something new to the table.  Ben Howard might agree.

For more about Ben Howard, check out the archives or just click here.