Every now and then, someone asks me “What did you old band sound like?”  I often answer this by listing a few of the bands we covered rather than trying to explain the music in words.

So, here’s a personal trip into musical nostalgia purgatory.  I think these are all the songs we covered, with a few situational notes tossed in:

• Man in Need—Richard and Linda Thompson (we butchered it at our first show, never played it again)
• Temptation—New Order (when sung with a twang, the chorus almost sounds like a Gene Autry cowboy number)
• Sweet Revenge—John Prine (played at Social Distortion speed/sound)
• Gun Sale at the Church—The Beat Farmers
• I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry—Hank Williams (Note: we killed this, >3,000 mph)
• Little Red Riding Hood—Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
• Never Even Called Me by My Name—Steve Goodman/David Allan Coe (Done fairly regularly until we realized everybody covers it)
• Cold Water—Tom Waits (a Mule Variations classic)
• Johnny Bye Bye—Bruce Springsteen (a favorite B-side)
• Cadillac Ranch—Bruce Springsteen
• Miracle Man—Elvis Costello
• Suspicious Minds—Elvis Presley
• Maybe Baby, Tell Me How, & Not Fade Away—Buddy Holly (at our annual “Buddy Holly Tribute” show, we’d play these, then let anyone who wanted to play a Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper, or Buddy cover take the stage)
• Take Me Down to the Hospital—The Replacements (played while opening for the Scaries at El Torreon Ballroom, mostly so Matt Tomich would sing along)
• Dignified and Old—The Modern Lovers (at EP release at Recycled Sounds)
• Gun—Uncle Tupelo (sung at the end of a show with the Down Trunks, with me imitating Robert Pollard)

Now, we never played a show where we did all of these in one night.  Our shows were 80%-90% original material, but these were the songs I vividly remember doing onstage.