Sometimes you can find a real gem just by doing a little digging on YouTube. Here’s a clip I found from the mid-nineties:
Even when Pam Tillis was at the height of her career, she would use her television time creatively, rather than just plugging a track from her current album. One song in the rotation back then was “Two Dollar Hat”, a touching tribute to Minnie Pearl. The big starts of the nineties treated the legends that came before them with reverence by understanding their continued relevance. There aren’t that many of today’s A-listers who do the same, though significant credit is due on that front to Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.
*Update: Speaking of Underwood, vp has shared in the comments this jaw-droppingly good acoustic performance of Heart’s “Alone” at Underwood’s Fan Club Party. Killer stuff.
What great YouTube find have you discovered lately? Why do you think it’s of significance?
Carrie Underwood performing Heart’s Alone at her 2007 fan club party. I had this emailed to me a I was floored. I know alot of people don’t think much of her but this performance to me is just perfection of the song, IMO better than the original by far. She should consider cover this.
Wow, what Carrie could do with better material…
Personal bias, but I feel that Linda Ronstadt’s performance of “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You”, from Dolly Parton’s syndicated TV variety show of 1976 is a gem. This is because of her obvious love of the song and her deep respect for country music, even though she never considered herself a country artist in the strictest sense of the term.
“Wow, what Carrie could do with better material…”
My thoughts exactly.
That Carrie video is amazing!! I watch that like once a day and I’m still blow away by her vocal!! It’s amazing!
A video I enjoy a lot is Trisha Yearwood and Bonnie Raitt singing “I Feel Like Going Home” on the Jools Holland Show. It’s pretty low key, but a great performance by both ladies.
I know I’ve already shared it at some point, but this clip of Roger Miller on The Muppet Show always makes me smile:
I’m also a big fan of this one, which features a pretty high quality live recording of Keith Urban covering “Galveston.” Proof positive that he could make one heck of a great semi-traditional album someday if he ever chose to (and I do wish he would, as much as I love most of his pop stuff):
Yeah, gotta say I love that Underwood clip too. Damn.
But I gotta plug my boy Keith on some more classic country!
I went to see the Trisha & Bonnie clip that someone above mentioned, and I found a young trisha singing on a talent show.
While Neil obviously isn’t country, since this video is of him on Johnny Cash’s show, I figured it’s relevant. I love their easy, natural banter — what chemistry these two legendary storytellers had!
Oh, and I forgot to comment on Carrie. I think she’s the finest technical singer in music today. Her range, power and control are second to none. And here and there, when the song is right, her interpretation and emotion is on par with her vocal talent.
Sorry about the triple post — I should have been more organized.
This version is a favorite of mine because of the subtle changes in the arrangement and the spoken sections. Also, it’s very intimate with the close camera work and single instrumentation.
This great song is just pure cotton candy and yet paints such an intimate portrait of the singer’s childhood.
I love Coat of Many Colors. If you happened to see Dolly and Shania on Oprah it was an amazing interview, very emotional. It was Shania’s fav song Cause she came from such a poor family and some winter’s didn’t even have a coat to wear to school. In this one Dolly is so attentive to Shania’s emotions and Allison Krauss in the back makes it all that much better:
Sorry about the subtitles but this one shows how emotional Shania is talking about Dolly and again the great Allison Krauss in the back:
Here’s the link to Linda’s performance that I mentioned in my last post:
Thanks Dan for posting those Keith Urban clips! Loved both of them! There’s a neat clip on Youtube of Keith and Carrie singing Stevie Nicks song “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”. They sound really good together.
speaking of carrie and brad…
amazing!
Love the Brad and Carrie one to they sound so good together and so good when they sing traditional music. Brad plays the guitar like no other and Carrie compliments it with her clean vocals. definte good one.
“Wow, what Carrie could do with better material…”
From you keyboard to God’s ears!
I suppose we still have a few Carrie albums to go (incl. the obligatory “greatest hits”) before she’ll do any kind of “classics” collection.
She truly is unique in the biz today as you get the sense that she will only get better and as long as Music Row doesn’t smother her, will continue to put out listenable material.
Would also love to hear Keith Urban hit some of the classics, ie. Glen Campbell, etc.
heart’s “alone” was really just begging on its knees to be covered, particularly acoustically. my jaw dropped and i threw up. great voice – crap choice.
There is a very similar discussion to this going on over at the9513’s forum. Some notable videos on there include Miranda Lambert, Garth Brooks, Reba, Dixie Chicks, Shelby Lynne, Charley Pride, and k.d. lang.
http://www.the9513.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=409
Carrie could sing the alphabet and i would think it was amazing!
That Carrie Alone performance is incredible. I think Carrie does best when she goes acoustic and dumps all the production. She is SO talented that she doesn’t need all the props and hoopla like some, to hide their bad vocals (coughtaylorswiftcough). lol
One more rarity from Linda, circa 1974 and very Unplugged:
I agree about Carrie. I wish someone would give her better, soul searching material more on the traditional vein. Now I know Allison, Martina, Trish, etc have some of the best voices out there but for current top numbers, female wise, it’s Carrie. She has a power voice, soul voice, soft voice..she can sing it all. She does her best singing on songs like “I Told You So”, “I Know You Won’t”, “Just a Dream”, “Jesus Take the Wheel”, “Don’t Forget to Remember Me” and the Opry specials “Stand By Your Man” and especially, “How Great Thou Art”.
Speaking of Carrie singing it all…check out this YouTube video of her time in Iraq:
Or this one from her first concert tours.