If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you may have remembered a fellow named Brady Harris being featured on a Mixtape Monday with a great cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”. Humble too, after stumbling across my blog Brady got in contact with me and sent me a couple of his albums. In terms of talent he deserves to be just as well known as top level act like Spoon, but the music industry isn’t fair to all and he’s seemed to slip through the cracks. However, his ability to cover and interpret others works is top-notch, and not just limited to Blondie songs. Here’s a few of my faves from his album Cover Charge. If you like these you should check out the rest, and to buy it just look for him on cdbaby.com. The covers after the jump.
Girl (The Beatles)- Brady Harris
Of course I’m a sucker for The Beatles, though rarely do I find a cover that I find worthy of the original. Fantastic as The Beatles harmonies are, the tight harmonies are of equal comparison and albeit through different instrumentation, Brady doesn’t lose the feel of the song, even going into a Neil Young-esque falsetto, but keeping the sardonic delivery of Lennon’s original, a great cover.
Girl (The Beatles)- Brady Harris
Spanish Bombs (The Clash)- Brady Harris
Harris tends to lean towards a country type instrumentation and sparse arrangement (original country that is, not the new CMT type stuff) so when I first saw he covered Spanish Bombs I thought to myself The Clash would turn in their graves if they heard this. Yet although not as upbeat as the original, the moving lyrics, delivered clearly and at a slower tempo in Brady’s hands take on greater meaning and as is Brady’s trademark, he works in the melody beautifully through his warm and soft vocals. Best use of a pedal steel in a Clash song, even if its a cover.
Spanish Bombs (The Clash)- Brady Harris
I Want You To Want Me/Surrender/Do You Really Want To Hurt Me- Brady Harris
In the Cheap Trick original, the meaning of the lyrics is kind of misinterpreted through the pumped up energy of the rhythm section, here though it comes across as a much more powerful plea, great harmony work on this one and perfect instrumentation to match the mood. This is one of those songs that would fit the sunset on a summer day perfectly, warm and slow, and yet you can feel a slight darkness setting in, knowing that something is about to end, and thats before he works in the old forgotten “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” by Culture Club before tying it back in with Cheap Tricks “Surrender”.
Like A Virgin(Madonna Cover)- Brady Harris
Imagine Nirvana with a less whiny and gritty Kurt Cobain and you’ve got an idea of how this cover sounds, which is surprisingly delightful.
Like A Virgin (Madonna)-Brady Harris
If you dig these songs, I implore you to check him out, support his great taste and his tastefully great covers.
The Art of the Mixtape 
Thanks so much for the shoutouts on these tunes! I’d wanted to do a covers record for years and finally had the opportunity to do so. Thanks for helping spread the word. I love all these songs – I only cover songs I really dig. I don’t really believe in the “ironic-cover”, at least not for me.
btw: The full record called “Cover Charge” can be found here:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bradyharris5
or on iTunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/brady-harris/id4271875#
Thanks for listening (& writing).
Cheers!
Brady
http://www.facebook.com/bradyharrismusic
http://www.bradyharris.blogspot.com/