Rolling Stone Hear Margo Price Cover John Prine’s ‘Sam Stone’ With Swamp Dogg
Cult R&B singer Swamp Dogg previously recorded the song in 1972
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Both Margo Price and Swamp Dogg have been covering John Prine’s songs for years. So it was a natural fit when the duo teamed up for a virtually-recorded duet of “Sam Stone,” Prine’s signature 1970 tale of a Vietnam veteran who gets addicted to heroin.
Swamp Dogg, whose real name is Jerry Williams, first released his stunning R&B cover of the song in 1972, and in recent years had performed the song with Prine in concert. He and Price performed their collaborative cover during eTown Radio’s Quarantine Sessions, and it aired during an extensive eTown radio interview with the two artists that spanned Swamp Dogg’s career and Price’s most recent album,
Jay DeMarcus, “Music Man”
When Rascal Flatts’ bassist DeMarcus lost his father last year, his thoughts turned to how to memorialize him. “ The night he passed, I sat down at that piano, and the lyrics to this song just poured over and spilled out of me,” he says. Though the gentle ballad is a personal tribute to his father, like many songs about loss, the themes here are universal.
Jimmie Allen and Brad Paisley “Freedom Was a Highway”
A standout track from Allen’s Bettie James EP, “Highway” has the casual, nostalgic feel of a breezy summer day. In the best possible way, “Highway” is the kind of wistful song that Keith Urban has built a career on, so there’s no reason to think that Allen and Paisley won’t see similar success with this engaging mid-tempo track that, of course, includes a blazing guitar solo from Paisley.