Eric Church has some fantastic covers out there.
From “Chevy Van”, to “OD’d In Denver”, to “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”, and plenty more, Chief just knows how to do a song justice regardless of the genre he’s pulling from.
A couple years ago, he released a massive live album called 61 Days in Church that included songs and covers from tour stops all over the country. It was pretty kickass, and I find myself going back to different songs from it all the time because they’re all so good.
But today, I want to talk about his cover of “Jolene.”
No, not Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”.
This is another song called “Jolene” by singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne that was included on his 2004 album Trouble.
Eric covered it at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington (and it’s on Volume 2 of the live album) as a nod to the city he was playing in, much like he did in cities across America with different songs on the “Holdin’ My Own” tour that year.
It’s relatively similar to the original version in terms of the music and tempo, but hearing it live takes the song to a whole other level. It’s actually a pretty dark and moody track, but leave it to Eric to make me like it even more after hearing him sing it.
Plus, you can tell he’s feeding off the crowd’s energy and they’re loving every second of it, too.
Here’s a snippet of the first verse:
“Cocaine flame in my bloodstream
Sold my coat when I hit Spokane
Bought myself a hard pack of cigarettes
In the early morning rain
Lately, my hands they don’t feel like mine
My eyes been stung with dust, I’m blind
Held you in my arms one time
Lost you just the same
Jolene”
Yeah, it’s pretty sad, but you’re not going to be able to stop listening to it.
Here’s a video of the performance:
And here’s the album version:
And of course, Ray LaMontagne’s original:
