Michael Rudolph Cummings of Boozewa Covers Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer”
It’s a pretty common experience for an artist or a band to record a cover for a tribute album in progress and then not have that release actually happen. Happened to me, anyway. Happened apparently to Mike Cummings, then of Backwoods Payback, now of Boozewa (think ‘bourgeois’ but with the demon alcohol) circa 2012 for a Neil Young tribute for which he took on no less than “Cortez the Killer” from 1975’s Zuma, self-recording for a bedroom-folk intimacy and carrying the sweetly infectious melody of the original over to his own expressive modus. I’ll cop to not being nearly the Neil Young fan that Cummings or any number of other people are, up to and including Pearl Jam, of whom Cummings might just also have a cover or two laying around, but it’s a cool take, raw of course but the song suits that.
Giving ear won’t take but a few minutes — the player is at the bottom where the players go in hopes that you’ll read the words between here and there — and as always, I hope you enjoy.
From Bandcamp:
mRc – Cortez the Killer
Roughly a decade ago I was asked to be a part of a cassette only Neil Young tribute record. It was a small label based out of Virginia or DC from what I recall and I was excited to contribute to it. The band I was in at the time was of course in a state of flux and we were not able to get our shit together to make what I wanted to happen happen.
Instead, I decided to do this on my own, live with two mics taped to my Tascam 4 track tape machine.
The label never responded once the song was sent (in the mail mind you!) and honestly I don’t think the record ever ended up coming out.
This has sat on the shelf for a long time…and it felt like the right time to set it free.
mRc – vocal/guitar/harmonica
words/music – Neil Young
photograph – Jared Castaldi
https://michaelrudolphcummings.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/boozewa
https://boozewa.bandcamp.com
https://www.BOOZEWA.com
