photo by Bridget McQuillan at Take Cover Omaha in 2013
[Editor's note: This Saturday, Hear Nebraska hosts Take Cover Omaha at The Waiting Room, starting at 9 p.m. Take Cover features Nebraska musicians covering songs by other Nebraskans. To preview, performers will share their takes on the songs they're covering.]
I will be covering a song by the band Howard.
I’m not even going to pretend; I have been a little bit obsessed with this song since I first heard it. Every time they had a show coming up I would kind of harass [Howard's] Anna [McClellan] about playing it. Anna’s songwriting in general encapsulates this really breathtaking vulnerability that I find very compelling and powerful, and this song in particular embodies that bravery.
Anna explained it as being about things you know rather than things you don’t. To me, it feels like it is about owning the whole spectrum of knowing/not knowing and finding your voice within that while moving forward into life. It kind of smacks of this hunger for living and a sense of being desirous for everything at once, but mostly for giving up your fear.
I feel that this song speaks to a lot of things that you experience growing up and into yourself, which, if we’re being honest, is this kind of constantly ongoing process that I really feel in the thick of at the moment. So all of that being said, this song really means a lot to me and I am incredibly honored to be covering it Saturday night.
When I am getting into the zone with a new song, I often like to write out the lyrics and draw a little piece of visual inspiration for it:
drawing by Rachel Tomlinson Dick
See if you can guess which song Tomlinson Dick will be covering. Listen to Howard's 2013 album, Howard-angel:
Take Cover Omaha at The Waiting Room
Saturday, Jan. 18 at 9 p.m. // $7 cover
Lineup includes:
Ted Stevens (Cursive, Ted Stevens Unknown Project)
Simon Joyner
Landon Hedges (Desaparecidos, Little Brazil)
Matt Whipkey (The Whipkey Three)
Darren Keen (Touch People)
Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching)
Sara Bertuldo (Millions of Boys, See Through Dresses)
Ian Aeillo (Eli Mardock, Ted Stevens Unknown Project)
Becky Lowry (All Young Girls Are Machine Guns)
Vic Padios (The Brigadiers)
John Klemmensen (John Klemmensen and the Party)
Rachel Tomlinson Dick (Hers, Manic Pixie Dream Girls)
Max Holmquist (Oquoa)
Dan Scheuerman (Deleted Scenes)
John Larsen