photo by Cameron Bruegger
words by Michael Todd
It's Sunday, and you can almost smell the chicken-fried steak and eggs, mixed with a little desperation.
Daniel has just thrown the plate of food together, served it up for the waitress at a truck stop just south of town. His wage doesn't cover his rent, but that's because much of his paycheck goes toward a sweet release, the pain he crushes and shoves straight up his nose.
Across town, a woman goes to church to get her own fix. Her life is boring, but the songs, they fill her with hope. This gospel song in which she and Daniel live, it's a Nebraska-made narrative turned all the more soulful by Becky Lowry's voice.
Last Saturday, Lowry covered "Sweet Release," written by Jon Dell of the band Bonehart Flannigan. In her own preview of the Take Cover Omaha concert at which she and 14 other Nebraskans covered other Nebraskans, Lowry said the song tells her that "there's life, there's purpose, there's hope just around the corner if you wait it out long enough."
"The song, simply put, is about how people fill up that big emptiness that I'd like to think most people understand they feel — whatever it is that people understand it to be," says Lowry, whose Omaha band goes by the name All Young Girls Are Machine Guns.
Dell will cover a song himself this Saturday at Take Cover Lincoln, which will start at 9 p.m. at Vega. Also, among a lineup of 19 acts, Lucas Kellison and Undisco Wood will cover All Young Girls' song "Before We Know." Watch Lowry's performance here, and listen to a live recording of Dell's original further below:
cameras:
Cameron Bruegger
Chris Dinan
Molly Misek
audio and video edit:
Michael Todd
original song as performed by Jon Dell (Bonehart Flannigan)
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. His voice might take some of the soul out of a cover song this Saturday at Vega, but maybe it'll add some sweetness to counter. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.