Covers 1: Bill Janovitz, Part time Man of Rock

I've never devoted a whole post to someone else's blog, but Bill Janovitz's part of our digital world has often had a stranglehold on my attention. Janovitz may be mainly known as the frontman of Buffalo Tom. Few people seem to know that he has continued to make great records; for example, his first solo cd, Lonesome Billy, should be hailed as an American classic. And Buffalo Tom has put out some good music fairly recently too.

But Janovitz's blog, Bill Janovitz - Part Time Man of Rock, is a mixture of good blogging, great art, fine writing, occasional history lessons (always relevant), and personal experiences, and it always comes back to the music. Well-chosen covers for his Cover of the Week (The Replacements, Radiohead, Big Star, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, and so on) acoustic versions of Buffalo Tom tunes, some requests, it's all good, all free mp3s. I wanted to post this quite a while ago, but Janovitz suffered a personal tragedy recently, and it didn't seem right for me to be pointing at him or pointing you towards him.

But now you should do yourself a favour and check his blog out. You can also buy his music or his book here, you might even be able to buy the t-shirt pictured above and support his blog (try the link on the right side).

I Ain't that Lonely Yet- Dwight Yoakam Cover (download here)



American Girl - Tom Petty cover (download here)



Hardly Getting Over It - Husker du cover (download here)





Shoulder (from Lonesome Billy)



Gaslight (from Lonesome Billy)



Girl's Club (from Lonesome Billy)



Red Balloon (from Lonesome Billy)





Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces (download here)