Cover Man Witmer

I recently had the chance to interview Denison Witmer for a spotlight in the November issue of Athens Blur.  He is one of the most down-to-earth musicians I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with (and I think he may be one of the nicest guys out there, too).

His latest collection of well-penned, 70s-inspired folk tunes, entitled Carry the Weight (via The Militia Group), hits stores on November 11th. Being a total cover-song geek (and a big Witmer fan), I was ecstatic to find that Witmer had launched into a covers project with the aim of recording and releasing one cover song each week leading up to the new album's release. Cool, no? Songs can be downloaded on a per-week basis--for FREE--via Witmer's MySpace and for any weeks you may have missed (or if your computer hates the new MySpace music player like many others do), the entire project can be found at the Cover Lay Down blog on an ongoing basis. So far he's covered songs by Bonnie Raitt ("I Can't Make You Love Me"), Oasis ("Champagne Supernova"), Red House Painters ("Have You Forgotten"- which is one of my all-time favorite songs), Van Morrison ("Comfort You") and Band of Horses ("Is There a Ghost").

The neatest thing about Witmer's current covers project is that they aren't overdone. Recorded live in different rooms of his house featuring just vocals and guitar, the tracks have an incredible sense of intimacy and spontenaiety, working songs like "Champagne Supernova" and "Is There a Ghost" into entirely new forms. If they don't sound overly complicated, it's because they're not. Witmer explains: 

 "I just go from my record collection and whatever strikes me. If I find myself walking around the house humming something, I’ll go, “Oh, well I’ll see if I can figure that out.” That’s what I’ve been doing and it seems to be working."

Unlike Recovered, Witmer's  2003 influence-heavy covers album, the tunesmith says he chooses these songs just for fun, regardless of how well they turn out, more as an exercise to get him out of his own recording ruts and issues with semi-perfectionism.

 "I’m just trying to pick really random songs that I like and play them and see if they actually work. And I don’t really know if they do. I’m just putting them out there and if people like them, great. It’s just as well if they don’t. I don’t really mind, but it’s really fun for me to play other people’s melodies and think about why people make those different choices."

So, check out the covers and pick up Carry the Weight when it hits stores in November. For anyone out there unfamiliar with Witmer's previous work, get your paws on a copy of 2002's Philadelphia Songs as well. Not only was it the subject of the first CD review I ever had published, it's also an incredibly beautiful and heartfelt collection of songs. Get on it!