Wilson Fifer Rose’s cover of Africa (Featuring Philhelmon and Alessandro Bertoni) is live on streaming services. This is a re-imagined version of our version of Toto’s classic song. We added so many harmonies and really over-hauled the rhythm section. It also has new Queen-like guitar harmonies. I’m quite proud of this mi!
Here is the music video as well.
Thanks for checking it out!
Wilson Fifer Rose’s cover of Wrecking Ball is live on streaming services. This is a cover of the Miley Cyrus song. We added a lot of harmonies. Not our usual, but we enjoyed making it.
Thanks for checking it out!
It's out and available. Get it here.
For those of you who aren't aware, one of my favorite bands is Jellyfish. I was invited to partake in an online festival celebrating the band - and I of course had to oblige! The festival includes contributions from other artists who perform, as well as the members of Jellyfish making appearances with interviews and live performances!!! Such an honor to pay homage to this fabulous band. Check out my version of their song "Sebrina, Paste, and Plato" complete with my interview immediately after where I talk with the festival's organizer, Paul aka "Pablo Melons".
I was invited to collaborate with a bunch of fabulous people to create a high quality compilation of one of my favorite band's music! Right now I am not 100% sure what will make it on the compilation album, but I have already contributed bass and drums to 2 covers (Mr. Me and Spiraling Shape), bass and guitar on a cover of Welcome To the Jungle (gym), will be contributing the music and vocals for a Latin version of Birdhouse in Your Soul, and also a 100% all me cover of Destination Moon. This will be available in limited supply for physical release as well as on streaming services!
The most important aspect of this is that it is a benefit compilation to help a young boy with cancer. All proceeds go to his family to cover healthcare costs. Here is the kiddo - Garett is on chemo and has been feeling pretty sick lately, but was still game to get this picture with
PreOrder to support Garrett here
And here is a preview of some of the more famous bands involved in the compilation:
I was invited to contribute to an extremely cool project! John Linnell of They Might Be Giants fame (you may or may not know that they are one of my favorite bands of all time) has released a four song EP - and all the songs are in LATIN. I know,... I heard an interview he gave and he said it was purely for fun. He basically didn't want to inadvertantly appropriate someone else's langauge, but wanted to stretch himself as a songwriter, so he chose to write in a dead language. Very funny and exactly what the kind of surprise that isn't surprising if you know what I mean.
As soon as we learned about it, we started recording the songs and they are done! I am very happy with how mine turned out. To change it up, I decided to sing mine in English. All of the covers turned out amazing.
TECVM CIRCVMABVLARE NOLO - Greg Simpson
NVNC AVT NVMQVAM - Ky Fifer
HAEC QVOQVE EST RES - Cari and Carli Hearn
CATENAS MEAS AMISI - Darrell Till
Cover art by Abi Bash
Here is a link to the full EP on youtube - my song is track 2, but all of them turned out great!
Here's John Linnell's original:
I got to be a guest on one of my favorite podcasts to talk with host Greg Simpson about our favorite band They Might Be Giants. We discuss the awesomely under-rated song Music Jail Part 1 & 2. You can listen to it on Spotify by going here.
Also, here is my cover of that song:
I did a sad cowboy version of this excellent They Might Be Giants Song.
A group of people I met on reddit have been doing cover songs to get us through the pandemic. Here is our latest:
The arrangement of this took some time. Those time and feel changes were tricky. Lots of Bad Religion influence in there. The harmony and backing vocals are a variation on the Simon and Garfunkel original. It turned out peachy.
Hey all! This is one of the songs I was asked to record for the THEY pay tribute album, a tribute to They Might Be Giants. The organizers actually chose my recording to open the album because they liked it so much!
I love this song. It's got so many great things going on! I am super happy with how my cover came out too! Enjoy!
Here is a lyric video I made for a cover song I recorded. This is another song by one of my favorite bands They Might Be Giants. I was asked to record this cover for a Podcast. Love the lyrics. Ever known somebody that just isn't a good match? They just kill all your fun?
I met some random strangers online and we decided to do this cover of Radiohead's Creep. OH THE ANGST. Great song - but watch out for F-bombs :)
An a capella one for you. Kind of old-timey, don't you think?
A live cover of the classic Bob Dylan and Buffalo Springfield song. Still appropriate given the times we live in. I’ve been pushing myself to post things that aren’t perfect. This is a live performance sweetened with a little reverb. The way I see it, even Freddie Mercury hit some bum notes. People can forgive a few of mine.
The Times They are a-Changin':
For What its Worth:
I have a confession to make... I actually started this recording in 2016! That’s when the footage is from. I’ve got a huge backlog LOL. Lots of great things started that I need to dig into and finish.
For those of you who don’t know, my progressive rock band is called Philhelmon. We have two albums out. The last one is called Perpetual Immobile and I think it’s my favorite thing I’ve ever put out. I’m very proud of it. It’s very much a collaboration with the gentleman in this video - Henk Bol. Henk lives in the Netherlands and we met online years ago. We then started collaborating. When he came to visit in 2016 we did quite a few video projects. This is the last one’s that hasn’t seen a release until now. We recorded the vocals and rhythm guitar parts to a really bad karaoke track in 2016. Then he and I finished out the instrumentation ourselves (really, the karaoke track was bad!). I added some guitars, harmony vocals, and played the drums. He played the bass guitar and that extremely cool keyboard solo. Then I mixed it and had it mastered and… I think it sounds really great!
I love that he used the living room footage where I was restringing my guitar as we played along to a karaoke track version! Too funny. A great visit. We are working on new original music currently. Hit me up if you’re interested in hearing our last album. Fair warning - it’s pretty deep stuff. Progressive Rock isn’t for everyone :) And what can be said about the song? It’s the Beatles. It’s John Lennon painting an abstract picture using wild imagery. I love the song. ‘Nuff said.
A live version of U2’s where the streets have no name. I’m trying to do more live things like this. I love the studio so much be because I love to arrange for other instruments! There is only one of me live, so it can feel so limiting. Plus I love Margie and Liz’ harmonies on my studio version of this. however, there is a certain charm to just a voice and a guitar. Which do you prefer?
A timeless song about people helping people. I’m not completely sure, but I think it was written about the great depression. I felt it was pertinent given all that is happening in the world right now. Take care of each other and stay safe. <3
I was cleaning off my phone and found this video from a rehearsal the last time Wilson Fifer Rose had a gig. I don’t get to play with these guys as much as I used to - it’s a shame because we have great vocal chemistry. Here’s us doing one of Crosby, Stills, & Nash’s epics. Enjoy!
I have greatly enjoyed being a part of various TMBG fan pages on Facebook. These fan pages are really quite active, so as a result, they are always doing fan-made cover albums! I did participate a little for the John Henry cover album by doing a cover of the Flansburgh penned “Out Of Jail”. You can find that on youtube as well.
They Might Be Giant’s most popular album is Flood, and it came out in 1990… 30 years ago! So to celebrate, the moderator of one of the sites decided to open up submissions. I participated in three of the covers, though to be honest I would have enjoyed doing just about any song! I did my own cowboy chill version of “Lucky Ball and Chain”, a techno pop collaboration with another Facebooker of the song “Twisting” and this cover of Birdhouse in Your Soul. To me, Birdhouse is one of the stand-out songs on the record. It’s a little atypical in it’s chord structure which made it a lot of fun. I took the usual liberties with the arrangement. Mostly more guitars and horns, less keyboards. Lots of fun. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas to all! I was derailed pretty badly this month and wasn’t sure I’d get this one done in time for Christmas! Well - here it is! And it’s only after 3am on Christmas morning! But - the problem with Christmas covers is if you’re late getting it done, you have to wait a whole year for the song to be in season!
Deadlines at my day job, extra curricular/holiday related events, and the fam getting sick right before Christmas definitely contributed to that! I had already recorded footage and most of the music before this week, but was not able to be productive at all this past weekend due to how sick we all were!
But here it is - My own version of Paul McCartney’s 1970’s classic “Wonderful Christmas Time.” Such a jaunty little number isn’t it? I am so very grateful to have you all along on my musical journey this year! Merry Christmas from my family to yours!
A great song in 12/8 time originally done by the genius techno band The Pet Shop Boys. Really, these guys are criminally underrated in my opinion. Check out their melodic and quirky album “Very.” Great song craftsmanship. Any of their songs on this album can be redone in almost any style, and they would still translate. Surely a testament to their ability to write great hooks, melodies, and lyrics!
I saw my version as a great excuse for a Redtop Medusa reunion! Redtop Medusa was my college band with my now wife (then girlfriend) Margie, sister Tiger and friend Greg West. Look for our album on streaming services!
Hey. I covered a song by one of my favorite bands of all time, They Might Be Giants. I made it my own and added horns. In fact, there is steamy hot sax all over this sucker. This is an excellent song about a guy who falls in love with someone who is awful. It has absolutely no bearing on my lovely wife. She is not awful. Lol.
Anyway, I hope you like this one.
I recorded this live on my phone about a year ago. Stumbled across it just recently. With the remix of Abbey Road being released soon, I figured, “what the heck? why not post it?” This is one of the greatest ballads of all time. I am no Paul McCartney - few could sing like Paul in ’69 - but I gotta say, I really like singing this one!
This cover is a bit different in that it’s stripped down, under-produced, and totally live. I don’t usually do very simple videos and I’m not sure why, so I think I’m going to throw more of these live and “off the cuff” style videos and performances at you now and then. I was going through my phone and deleting old videos because it had filled up completely, and fogot that I had recorded this. I’ve got a lot of these odds and ends just sitting on my phone so I figured… why not share?
A cover of Elton John’s Rocket Man just in time for the 4th of July. I had fun coming up with the arrangement on this one. I slowed it down just a tiny bit and gave it more of a groove. I especially enjoyed recording the harmonies and the bass guitar. Enjoy!
