KW-13-2019: new CD out this week: HALLELUJAH The Songs of Leonard Cohen by Various Artists – “I’ve never gotten over the pleasure of someone covering one of my songs. I don’t have a sense of proprietorship, which probably stems from coming up as a folksinger where it was understood that songs develop a patina through interpretation. I feel that’s the mark of excellence,” Cohen once said.

HALLELUJAH

The Songs of Leonard Cohen
by Various Artists

Tracks:

 

01 Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley
02 Bird On A Wire – k.d. lang
03 Chelsea Hotel No.2 – Rufus Wainwright
04 Tower Of Song – Marianne Faithfull
05 Dance Me To The End Of Love – Madeleine Peyroux
06 Preview Sisters Of Mercy – Dion
07 Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye – Judy Collins
08 Everybody Knows – Barb Jungr
09 Heart With No Companion – Ron Sexsmith
10 I Came So Far For Beauty – Stina Nordenstam
11 Famous Blue Raincoat – Marissa Nadler
12 True Love Leaves No Traces – Tom Northcott
13 Suzanne – Nina Simone
14 Come Spend The Morning – Lee Hazlewood
15 Lover, Lover, Lover – David Blue
16 God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot – Buffy Sainte-Marie
17 First We Take Manhattan – Joe Cocker
18 Avalanche – Nick Cave Featuring The Bad Seeds

Released on March 29, 2019 by Ace Records, CDTOP 1544, Songwriter Series
The  24-page booklet includes a Cohen biography by Ian Johnston Songs # 14 and 16 were never recorded by Cohen himself. This new release in Ace Records’ long-running and highly regarded Songwriters series comprises hand-picked recordings of works by Canada’s much-missed poet laureate Leonard Cohen, including two songs the great man himself never recorded.

“I’ve never gotten over the pleasure of someone covering one of my songs. I don’t have a sense of proprietorship, which probably stems from coming up as a folksinger where it was understood that songs develop a patina through interpretation. I feel that’s the mark of excellence,” Cohen once said.

Here’s your chance to experience that excellence via 18 eclectic recordings of Cohen compositions by a diverse array of performers from a five-decade time span. ‘Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ is heard in a 1967 version by folk queen Judy Collins, the first-ever artist to record a Cohen song, while Marissa Nadler’s spellbinding interpretation of ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ dates from 2007.

The collection opens with the full-length album version of ‘Hallelujah’ by Jeff Buckley, one of the most sublime pieces of recorded music one could wish to hear, and closes with Cohen disciple Nick Cave’s radical reworking of ‘Avalanche’. Other highlights include k.d. lang’s reading of ‘Bird On A Wire’, Ron Sexsmith’s ‘Heart With No Companion’, Nina Simone’s personalised arrangement of ‘Suzanne’, and a live version of ‘Chelsea Hotel No.2’ by Rufus Wainwright.