Music Review: While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years Of Bloodshot Records

By Melissa Bratcher

Compilation albums are usually hit or miss. While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years Of Bloodshot Records is for the most part, quite a pack of hits. This collection of covers of songs by Bloodshot artists, including Neko Case, Ryan Adams, The Old 97’s, Alejandro Escovedo, and Justin Townes Earle, as well as many others, was recorded by non-label artists. Strong songwriting always helps, and these artists’ takes on the Bloodshot songs vary from straightforward, faithful covers to madly inventive versions. Some songs are epically beardy. Some songs sound as if they’ve come down from a mountain in a basket.

Blitzen Trapper delivers a chugging version of Ryan Adams’s “To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)” that shambles to an end. Heartbreaker casts a long shadow here. Superchunk gives a buzzy, giddy interpretation of Adams’s “Come Pick Me Up” with endearing vocals that change the mood of the album entirely. Nicki Bluhm And The Gramblers’ melancholy rendition of “Oh My Sweet Carolina” is simply gorgeous. Her voice is lovely, pure, and clear, and the harmonies are a delight over piano and a muted trumpet.

Into It. Over It’s cover of Neko Case’s “Deep Red Bells” full on ratchets up the eeriness. They transform the song into a deceptively placid murder ballad that leaves no question about its meaning. “St. Nick In The Fourth In A Fervor” (originally done by Ha Ha Tonka) becomes a brilliant jowly-Elvis-at-a-tent-revival sing along in the hands of The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. The Bottle Rockets’ “1000 Dollar Car” turns into a dark, truthful lamentation with accordion by The Handsome Family.

James Leg (of the Black Diamond Heavies) takes “Is That You In The Blue?” (from The Dex Romwebber Duo) and changes it into a soulful, Tom Waits tune. It’s a whole movie condensed into a song: massive yet tightly controlled. Neko Case’s “I Wish I Was The Moon” is rough around the edges in William Elliott Whitmore’s take, but you really do believe him when he sings, “I’m so tired.” He sells it so well. The Two Gallants’ “Truck Driver” is a blistering translation of the Scott H. Biram song with fiery bass that drives it along and vocals that sound more than a bit like Bob Forrest.

There’s a back porch, folk music, edge of country feel on most of the songs on While No One Was Looking. It’s a delicious slice of Americana. The final track, “Liked It A Lot” is a complete departure, though. Samuel Fogarino’s (of Interpol) take on the Charlie Pickett song is industrial and echoey, and cold. It’s not bad . . . it’s just an interesting choice. But that’s the thing that makes covers work so well when they do. When a song is deconstructed or made the covering artist’s own, rather than just being a rote version of the predecessor, that’s memorable. No one expected Johnny Cash to cover Depeche Mode, you know.

If While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years Of Bloodshot Records was the only record in your collection, you’d still have a pretty good record collection. Released on double CD with a 12-page booklet, digitally or on limited edition (of 500) red vinyl, it’s eminently relistenable. The artists clearly dig the songs they’ve covered and bring new energy to their versions. It’s a fitting tribute to an iconoclastic label. I can’t wait to hear what they do for the next 20 years.

While No One Was Looking was released by Bloodshot Records on November 18.