June 6, 2008

Cover and Original: Nothing But The Water


It's raining out here today, so this song seems somewhat appropriate, given the title. As regular readers probably know, I'm a huge fan of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. She's a native Vermonter, the best group to come out of VT since Phish, and is just an amazing presence on stage.

Her last album, This Is Somewhere, was fantastic, but she's also got two other albums, independently released, which are also just as good. One of her concert favorites, Nothing But The Water, parts 1 and 2, are concert favorites, and typically include a great drum solo. When searching through Archive.org, I found that this one group,
Chinese Fingertrap, has performed the song before as well.

This is one of the covers that I'm not a big fan of. Where Grace's song is full of energy, this one just doesn't. Their female vocalist sounds similar to Grace, but she doesn't come close. Listen to this live track of Grace in New York last month, you'll see the difference.

Nothing But The Water 2 (Grace Potter & The Nocturnals) - Chinese Fingertrap
Nothing But The Water 2 (Live) - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals