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The Coolest Cover Yet of ‘Angel from Montgomery’–by WPC

In this blog post  is  a song.

Play it.

Christopher M. Viner. and Sasha G. Alcott  PHOTO CREDIT: Cait Bourgault

Push the sideways triangle.

It’s a cover by When Particles Collide  of ‘Angel from Montgomery’ and it may be a challenger for  the best  cover yet of that song or at least puts it  in that conversation.

And believe me that’s saying a lot considering who has covered this John Prine classic:

  • Bonnie Raitt (she has done duets of this song with Prine, Tracy Chapman, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and more.)
  • Susan Tedeschi
  • John Denver
  • Cameo
  • John Mayer
  • Dave Matthews
  • Ben Harper
  • These are just a few who have covered it. The list goes on and on.

See what you think.

You, audience, are the first to hear this outside the inner circle. It’s a little different than Raitt’s famous version(s). It hits you with a little more force, urgency. It replaces melancholy and hopelessness with the beginnings of raw pain, and anger. For me the flies take on a  bigger buzz.

There’s flies in the kitchen
I can hear all their buzzin’
And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today
How the hell can a person
Go to work in the morning
Come home in the evening
And have nothing to say

When Sasha sings the above, she spits out the last four lines and we suddenly wonder what the woman has done. The ambiguity in Prine’s  poetry starts to melt  away.

Give a little listen  w headphones.

Back ground here: Earlier in these bloggies, I wrote about this great  group When Particles Collide. I saw them  several months ago, a husband-wife band, performing on the back porch of my  basketball buddy Eric Stockman’s home here in the Birmingham area.

These 40-somethings from Maine had quit their day jobs and took WPC out on a 14-month U.S. tour. I picked up a record of theirs and loved their hard rocking style.

I wrote that I’d like to also hear some softer stuff, such as “Angel from Montgomery” cover of John Prine, which they had  played in the back porch concert.

I requested the song from this band and  like all good bands they played it. Not only played it, but recorded it and sent it to me. (I can’t swear to these time sequences, they may have already had this song recorded or plans to record it before I made the request about a month or so ago. But I like to think they fulfilled my request in the  rock and roll tradition.  And, as I have announced, they are coming out with an acoustic album , Eric tells me.

Learn more by going to WPC’s website.

www.whenparticlescollide.com/

To comment  or weigh in on the best ‘Angel’ cover, click the blog title and scroll to the end.

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When Particles Collide — 601

When Particles Collide signed album. I saw them play on Eric’s back porch.

ALBUM : Ecotone/This Town (2016)

I am once again interrupting the order of MVC to play a new album by an up and coming band.

The band is called When Particles Collide and it has an unusual story.

This is a wife and husband duo:  Sasha G. Alcott and Christopher M. Viner.

That’s not what is so unusual, though.  Remember Sonny and Cher,  Captain and Tennille? Well, Sonny, this is no Captain and Tennille,  (just thought I’d Cher.)

What’s unusual is that the couple — although playing locally and touring occasionally off and on from their home state of Maine — decided at the ripe young ages of 40-something to quit their day jobs to tour the country for 14 months. Doing that rock‘n roll thing. When I say country, I mean country. Their Unstoppable Tour, after dozens of dates in the great Midwest and beyond,  WPC still has plenty more dates planned, ranging from West Virginia to Florida.

My ‘old man’s league’ basketball buddy Eric Stockman is a friend of the band and I listened to them play live on his porch here in the Birmingham metro area a few months back. I initially plannedto put my autographed record into my pile and do a post when the W’s rolled around on MVC.  But  given the fact that they are currently on tour, I just decided I’d go ahead and do this post.

Photo Credit: David Faynor

They were great in their porch concert. A good friend bought me their album which Sasha and Chris graciously signed.

It’s a scorcher with stinging guitars and strong vocals from  Sasha reminiscent of Heart’s Ann Wilson or Pat Benatar  to reach back a ways for a reference. Way more Joan Jett and not at all Captain and Tennille. There’s also a Talking Heads, Suburbs artsy funky thing about them. (Suburbs, wow, pulled that one from some ninja brain cell that’s fighting  off rogue proteins.)

I  like the album a lot but I did miss one thing from the porch concert and that was a little softer sound such as when they did a gorgeous cover of John Prine’s  ‘Angel From Montgomery.’

Coincidentally, I am also pleased to announce that they will be releasing, according to Stockman, an acoustic album. Can’t wait. And while I still have the mic, I’d request ‘Angel.’ And if the duo would consider a suggestion for  a cool funky song befitting Sasha’s vocal abilities, I’d love to hear her tackle Sly Stone’s ‘If You Want Me  to Stay.’

Meanwhile, listen to this rocker: