Tribute albums are a strange undertaking, funny to love something so well then want to change it, to interpret it for yourself. Anyone who has ever performed or recorded someone else’s song understands that to cover a song is to find some way in, deeper than you could from just listening; it’s a way of knowing a song intimately, to make it your own and to love it.
Jason Molina’s songs seem so passionately torn from his very heart in such a way as to make us smell the fleshy vitality. They are small and personal, as though a tiny secret whispered in our ears, yet speak to such enormous truths and overarching perceptions. They revealed an author in ways we might not even come to know ourselves. To hear Jason’s albums is to understand and fully believe his authenticity.
No one is under the impression they’re going to improve on the genuine article but with these songs we say, “Thanks for showing us what you saw, what you felt. We see it and we feel it and we fucking agree. With the whole of our hearts. Thank you, Jason, for the beauty you brought to this world.”
LP1 side A
1. Peter Hess & Eoin Russell Tenskawatawa (3:07)
2. Guy Capecelatro III Soul (5:53)
3. Annie Fleming & Viking Moses Farewell Transmission (7:30)
4. Bob Corn & Matteo Uggeri Lioness (4:23)
5. Paul Watson North Star Blues (4:05)
LP1 side B
6. Tiger Saw Being in Love (3:15)
7. The Black Hare Ocean’s Nerve (4:50)
8. Jesse Poe, Peter Hess & Joel Hamburger Just be Simple (4:06)
9. Marissa Nadler It’s Easier Now (3:48)
10. Stephen Bartolomei Long Desert Train (7:28)
LP2 side A
1. Nad Navillus Be Your Own Guide (4:23)
2. The Verms Impulse (Declarer) (2:47)
3. Mara Flynn Calling Bird (3:30)
4. Jesse Rifkin The Body Burned Away (4:13)
5. Brendan Quinn There Will Be Distance (6:41)
LP2 side B
6. Sharron Kraus Ring the Bell (5:58)
7. Thalia Zedek Band Hold On Magnolia (7:33)
8. Jason Anderson The Dark Don’t Hide It (2:38)
9 . Small Sur Two Blue Lights (2:58)
10. Jesse Poe, Thalia Zedek and The Static & Distance Band I Can Not Have Seen the Light (3:43)