jay tausig

I’m certain we’ve said it before, cover versions of Nick Drake tracks are hurdles best left avoided, the perfectionist he was his completed studio recordings oft take the song as far as it can go. Oh sure, there have been those that we’ve loved who’ve brought a little something to the table – Beautify Junkyards, Rhys Marsh and does my fading memory recall hearing a version of Psychic TV covering ‘I was made for magic’ way back many years ago when we were oh so much younger. ‘northern sky’ has always stuck with me, elegant, eloquent and ethereal, there’s a kind of beautified grace surrendered in mystery and yearn rising from its grooves, its lushly hushed tones revealing an at peace with everything trembling tenderness and a first person intimacy rarely heard on any other Drake track that makes it unique and special. Left in the hands of Jay Tausig, incidentally hitting up something of a creative purple patch what with two releases in as many days – his frankly astonishing re-appraisal of the Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ and ‘incantations’ – reviews of both visiting these pages next missive – ‘northern sky’ is somewhat opened up and given an airy spring cleaning which sound wise finds it relocated into the kind of terrains more readily associated with Dennis Wilson, and while arguably, it may well lack that essential magical ingredient breezing through the original, what Tausig returns to the party is a crisp lilting and lazy eyed contently drifting warmth. https://soundcloud.com/jaytausig/northern-sky