Learning other people's songs can be a tricky endeavor. Nearly every musician who works has to play cover music for at least a portion of their career, if not exclusively. This is no knock to those musicians, especially if those who challenge themselves to keep the essence of the song intact and whole while re-imagineering it apart and reassembling it onto a new audio canvas. "Stairway to Heaven" as a polka? Alright, but even if you're doing it as a goof, you really have to mean it.
The Empty Pockets are often called upon to play other people's songs, whether rocking the day away at a street-festival in Chicago or opening up for George Lopez at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Every cover song we perform requires that we invest ourselves wholly into it, to love it and nourish it from the inside out. We identify the important parts of the melody, chord structure, rhythm - the parts that make the song sound like the song - and we keep those parts alive and breathing. All of this special attention means that when we DO play this song live, it sparkles like a new gem hoisted from a polisher's cloth. Even when our own particular flavor is added, we invest every bit of ourselves into it because that's what makes it real... what makes it shine.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
-Nate Bellon(bass)
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