Mister D: And thanks to Allison and Darrell for turning me on to Ms Arden’s music! The songs on this CD that will interest Bette Midler fans are…You Don’t Own Me, Glory of Love, and Is That All There Is?
The Windsor Star
Jann Arden uncovers pop standards
September 20, 2012
Jann Arden has only just started working on her personal songbook.
The 50-year-old singer, who performs Friday at Caesars Windsor’s Colosseum, has released a second collection of covers, Uncover Me 2, and if she has her way there will be many more.
“If I can, I have every intention of doing Uncover Me 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. As many as I can.”
It’s not merely a stopgap between albums of original material, she insists. It’s a passion.
“Growing up I copied everybody I listened to, I copied every nuance of Carly Simon, Janis Ian, James Taylor, Bette Midler, you name it. Doing covers is a humbling experience, in a way, to be able to do such great songs by great artists.”
Uncover Me 2 contains popular music from the last six decades, from Peggy Lee to SheDaisy. An alternative rock song by The Smiths, Last Night I Dreamed That Somebody Loved Me, is alongside Doris Day’s Que Sera Sera. Stevie Nicks’ Dreams shares time with The Motels’ Only the Lonely (Can Play).
“I know I’m taking a chance doing songs by the likes of Peggy Lee and Stevie Nicks,” said Arden. “Their voices are so entwined with the songs. I’m setting myself up to be massacred by the fans and the media. But people for the most part have been kind.”
The first Uncover Me in 2007 contained songs by Janis Ian, Cat Stevens and Carly Simon.
“I grew up listening to these songs, and I love recording them. It has turned out fantastic for me.”
As soon as it became known in her inner circle she was planning another Uncover Me, Arden started getting suggestions from family and friends.
“People were coming out of the woodwork, my producer, my mom,” she said.
Her manager Bruce Allen came up with Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is? “I thought he was nuts,” Arden said. “Out of his mind. But it worked out great.”
Love Hurts, the Everly Brothers song, actually was inspired by the Nazareth cover version, a blast from her own past and her brother’s record collection.
The one recent song, Mr. McLennen, which Arden co-wrote with SheDaisy’s Kristyn Osborn, grew out of a visit to Alberta by the American country trio.
“I took them out to Bragg Creek and introduced them to some of my friends,” Arden said.
The people in the song are real, she said. True to the facts, the title subject actually dropped dead in the post office after buying a newspaper.
“The other people mentioned in the song are all real, too,” she said.
Having penned several Canadian popular hits herself, including Could I Be Your Girl?, Good Mother, and The Sound Of, Arden knows a good thing when she hears it.
The songs she covers, like the ones she writes, must possess a grain of truth. She acts as narrator of the stories in the songs.
“I don’t make crap up,” said Arden, describing her own songs. “I could sit in front of a piece of paper for 10 years and not come up with something fictional.”
Tickets for Arden’s concert Friday at 9 p.m. at Caesars Windsor are $31.86 to $82.71, including taxes and surcharges. They can be purchased at the Caesars box office or ordered online at ticketmaster.ca.
