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2020, acoustic, Arthur Russell, artist, Canada, EP, EP Review, folk, indie, Judee Justin Arthur Mary, Judee Sill, Justin Haynes, Luka Kuplowsky, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Me For Real, Music, Music Video, Musician, pop, Review, Rock, singer, Single, Spotify, There's a Rugged Road, Toronto, Youtube
Luka Kuplowsky ’s Judee Justin Arthur Mary EP is out today via Mama Bird Recordings (USA) and Next Door Records (Canada).
A collection of re-imagined covers from four of Kuplowsky’s deepest influences.
From Judee Sill’s “There’s a Rugged Road” with a soulful stripped-back homage to the treasured songwriter.
To the dreamy and elegant cover of Arthur Russell’s “Me for Real” and the jazz-inflected Mary Margaret O’Hara cover of “Anew Day” (feat. Bahamas’ Felicity Williams).
For the new EP, Luka Kuplowsky (voice, guitar, harmonica) brought together a collection of his most familiar Toronto players including U.S. Girls and Andy Shauf collaborator Evan Cartwright on drums, Thom Gill (Sam Amidon, Bernice) on electric guitar and organ, the incredible jazz player Josh Cole (Sandro Perri, Martha Wainwright) on bass, and Bahamas’ Felicity Williams for backing vocals.
Together, they’ve taken these songs and re-imagined what they could look like in a truly collaborative process to extract something new from each composition.
Although it may seem like an EP of covers on first blush, this collection is a reverent take with the distinct fingerprints of each of the collaborators throughout.
Taking Arthur Russell’s funky deconstructed pop song “Me for Real” and rendering it into a skipping, syncopated folk song; Judee Sill’s country-gospel anthem is opened up into a grooving, pastoral jam (think Bill Frisell’s “Gone, Just Like a Train”); Justin Haynes’ sincere and sardonic “Child Support” is imagined as ramshackle tropicalia; and Mary Margret O’Hara’s “Anew Day” is paired down to a minimalist gospel-blues for guitar, bass and hand clap.
Judee Justin Arthur Mary EP gets:
/10.