Gotcha covered …
I spent a pleasant morning this week listening to the latest of what seems to be a spate of covers albums.

This one, forthrightly titled “Covers,” came out this week and features James Taylor and his band doing live-in-the-studio renditions of other folks’ songs. Taylor, of course, has a successful track record with covers such as “Handy Man,” “Up on the Roof” and “How Sweet It Is.” The project originally started out as a collection of r&b covers but eventually morphed into something more general, though r&b and country are the dominant flavors in the set, with a little rock ’n’ roll thrown in.

The album works extremely well, not just because Taylor still has one of pop music’s most ingratiating voices, but because he’s taken material ranging from the Temptations to the Dixie Chicks to Leonard Cohen to Eddie Cochran and made it stylistically his own, with some tracks almost indistinguishable from JT originals.

The album opens in an r&b groove with a laid-back reading of “It’s Growing,” a Smokey Robinson tune originally done by the Temptations, followed by a soulful version of the Jr. Walker and the All-Stars tune “(I’m a) Road Runner.”

Then Taylor switches gears and tackles the great Jimmy Webb classic that was a smash for Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman.” Doing a song so closely associated with another artist isn’t easy, but Taylor pulls it off by giving it a folky arrangement using understated violin and piano.

Veering into country, Taylor comes up with a fiddle-backed version of George Jones’ “Why Baby Why.” That leads into a mildy funky, horn-backed rendition of the Dixie Chicks’ upbeat “Some Days You Gotta Dance,” followed by the track that for me is the album’s high point, a lovely country-folk version of John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind” backed by a mournful fiddle. Drop this into any of JT’s albums of originals and it would fit just fine. I found myself hitting repeat over and over on this track.

Next up is the Leonard Cohen poem-song “Suzanne,” a favorite from when it was done by Noel Harrison back in the ’60s. Arranged with violin and piano, JT’s slowed-down version is gorgeous.

Then comes a slightly tongue-in-cheek r&b workout on the Lieber-Stoller Elvis tune “Hound Dog,” featuring soulful backing vocalists, horns and organ. After a spoken dedication to mothers as an opening, Taylor takes a smooth dip further into soul with the Spinners tune “Sadie.” That’s followed by a very relaxed, understated horn-backed treatment of “On Broadway.”

The tempo picks up with an r&b arrangement of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” before the album winds up with a chugging Bo Diddley-style reading of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.”

My sole complaint about the album is that it’s only about 40 minutes long and leaves you wanting more. But maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Another cover album I’ve enjoyed recently, though I probably won’t play it all that often, is the Smithereens’ “B-Sides The Beatles,” the follow-up to their “Meet the Smithereens” tribute to “Meet The Beatles!” Here, the New Jersey band focuses for the most part on the flip side of singles from the early years of The Beatles’ recording career, staying away from the more stylistically diverse later tracks. And as with their earlier Beatles tribute album, this isn’t strictly a sound-alike performance — the Smithereens do follow the original arrangements, including backing vocals, and pretty well nail the instrumental backing, but they make no attempt to “do” The Beatles vocally.

My favorites are “Thank You Girl,” “There’s a Place” and “Ask Me Why,” the latter featuring a superb job with the backing vocals. The other B-sides are fun listening too, including “I’ll Get You” (love the middle eight!), “You Can’t Do That,” “Cry for a Shadow” (the Hamburg instrumental done complete with background shouts), “P.S. I Love You” (on which session player Andy White handles drums, as he did on the Beatles original), “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You,” “If I Fell” (nice harmonies), “Slow Down” (the lead vocal isn’t as raucous as John Lennon’s) and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.” The only false note to me is the inclusion of album closer “Some Other Guy,” a tune that The Beatles did live but never recorded. Hey, if you’re going to do an album of B-sides, is it too much to ask that you stick to B-sides? I’d much rather have had “I Should Have Known Better,” “She’s a Woman” or “I’m Down,” though I can understand why they shied away from “Yes It Is.” Still, an enjoyable trip to the musical past.

QUICKIES: Reading about original Kingston Trio member Nick Reynolds’ death this week at age 75 reminded me of the days of “Hootenanny” on TV and the album by the Trio that my Dad bought along with the family’s first stereo (the portable suitcase model for my Mom that later became mine). The Kingston Trio may have presented a more commercialized, mainstream version of folk music, but they kicked off the folk music craze with their smash hit of “Tom Dooley” in the late ’50s and made it possible for more challenging folk artists such as Joan Baez and even Bob Dylan to reach a mass audience. …

The trailer for the upcoming Tom Cruise WWII thriller “Valkyrie” looks pretty good, though I found Cruise’s American accent in the role of the German officer who tried to off Hitler a bit disconcerting. You can watch the trailer here:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/valkyrie.html?showVideo=1

I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for Russell Crowe to be playing both the Sheriff of Nottingham AND Robin Hood in the new Ridley Scott reworking of the Sherwood Forest legend, in which the sheriff is the good guy. Sounds gimmicky and ego-driven. …

If Guy Ritchie plays it straight, his more action-oriented rethinking of Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson, could be a lot of fun. But with a comedy version featuring Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell also in the pipeline, we don’t need another campy treatment of the Great Detective. …

Thank God for Turner Classic Movies, one of the few cable/satellite channels that hasn’t veered away from its original concept. The Atlanta-based channel has put together a 24-hour marathon on Oct. 12 of films starring the late, lamented Paul Newman, one of the classiest stars and most generous humanitarians Hollywood has ever produced. Included are: “The Rack,” “Until They Sail,” “Torn Curtain,” “Exodus,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” “Hud,” “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Rachel, Rachel” and “The Outrage.” My own favorite Newman flicks: “The Long Hot Summer,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “Slap Shot,” “Absence of Malice” and “The Verdict.” Meanwhile, one of the most heartfelt tributes to Newman came from his pal and fellow racing enthusiast, Dave Letterman, whose rambling reminiscence was both funny and fond. You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbBMrz1DmXc

Warner Bros. and DC Comics never would allow the “Smallville” producers to let their young Clark Kent encounter the young Bruce Wayne because they didn’t want to overlap at all with the Batman movie series, but the CW now is working on a sort-of spinoff called “The Graysons,” which features the adventures of young Dick Grayson before he met the Caped Crusader and became Robin. Which is kinda weird, since the current Christian Bale Batman movie series apparently has no intention of introducing a Robin (thankfully). As one of those who always believed the highest purpose Robin could serve was as a target to draw bullets away from Batman, I would much rather see DC devote its TV emphasis on a more worthy comic book character. …

I’m not much of a Rosie O’Donnell fan and never have been (going back to her “Star Search” and VH1 days), but I’m rooting for her upcoming Thanksgiving special that’s serving as a pilot for a prospective live variety hour on NBC. That’s a genre I’d love to see return to prime-time network TV. …

A live-action version of Hanna-Barbera’s “Yogi Bear” with CGI versions of Yogi and Boo Boo interacting with real actors? Sounds like the worst idea for a feature film since the “Scooby Doo” movies. …

Probably the most distinctive soap opera theme of all time is that of “Days of Our Lives,” which surprisingly was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, better known for their Monkees tunes and their own hit “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight.” Anyway, SongVest.com is offering fans a chance to own a piece of the soap theme in an auction running through Oct. 14. The winning bidder will receive a plaque declaring them co-owner of the song. …

The latter years of “My Three Sons” were pretty clunky, as Chip or Ernie Douglas would put it, but the first few years of the 1960s sitcom with the great Fred MacMurray as widower Steve Douglas and William Frawley as granddad/housekeeper Bub (plus the original three sons, including Disney vet Tim Considine), weren’t bad at all. Volume 1 of the first season finally made it out on DVD this past week. …

Tarzan hasn’t fared too well at the movies in recent decades, with the exception of 1984’s “Greystoke” with Christopher Lambert as the ape man, but Edgar Rice Burroughs fans are probably cautiously optimistic that the director who revived the “Mummy” franchise, Stephen Sommers, is negotiating with Warner Bros. to do a new Tarzan flick. I’m sure they would have preferred Guillermo del Toro, who was originally attached to the project, but he’s got a four-year commitment in New Zeland with the two “Hobbit” pictures. ...

Good news for those of us who count ourselves as fans of the delectable Diane Kruger (“Troy,” the “National Treasure” movies). The German-born actress has joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Brad Pitt WWII adventure, “Inglorious Bastards.” Meanwhile, Disney does plan a third “National Treasure,” though no date is set yet.

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