Collective Concerts and Indie 88 presented the second annual Cover Me Impressed show at Lee's Palace on Boxing Day. It's a charity show for SKETCH Working Arts and the Daily Bread Food Bank. I'm writing a post for each of the two sets performed that night. The second set featured the host band
Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs, SATE, members of The Elwins, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Andrew Cash, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley. In case you missed it, check out my
post on the first set.
Sam Cash and The Romantic Dogs started off with Carol King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and Tom Petty's "The Waiting".
Sate came out on stage next to unleash her powerful performance on the crowd. For this show she covered Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits", Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and a tune I knew was going to be incredible, a powerhouse rendition of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". Both Sate and the band put out such an incredible performance. Amazing. Sate is playing The Horseshoe on Friday, January 22. Do yourself a favour and go to that show.
Three members of
The Elwins joined Sam Cash and the band next for renditions of "Keep Fishin'" by Weezer, "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" by Rooney and "22" by Taylor Swift. These guys are always fun and everyone seems to love a Taylor Swift cover.
Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene and many other bands was up next. He performed Wilco's "Passenger Side" followed by a great rendition of the Gordon Lighfoot classic "Sundown". For his intro of his third tune, Brendan paraphrased Bono from
The Unforgettable Fire, "The Barenaked Ladies stole this song from Bruce Cockburn. I'm stealing it back." Unfortunately, the reference was lost on most of the audience so he just launched into Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time".
The next part of the show saw the biggest names on the bill take to the stage, and it was extra-special because of the father-son duos. Sam Cash was joined by his father
Andrew Cash and Blue Rodeo's
Jim Cuddy brought along his sons
Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley.
They started off with Andrew Cash leading the well-covered "Eve of Destruction" and Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding".
Devin took lead vocal duties for "It's Money That I Love" by Randy Newman. The setlist has The Flying Burrito Brothers' "My Uncle" up next but my memory is failing me on whether they actually played that tune. There was an awful lot of music going on.
They then played Hank Williams III's "Crazed Country Rebel" with Sam Polley on lead vocals, "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello with Jim Cuddy on lead vocals, who continued with Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" and they invited everyone who had played through the evening up to the stage for the finale of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone".
The second annual Cover Me Impressed was such a great night with so much amazing talent, all for a good cause. I'm looking forward to next year already.
