Various Artists
When a group of British-born Chicago blues disciples toured Europe in 1970, they took along the genuine article in the person of vocal and harmonica great Junior Wells. "This tune is a payback," Wells says in the liner notes of Paint It, Blue, which is highlighted by his cover of the Stones' 1965 hit, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Where Mick Jagger sings it like a rock star on the make, Wells gives the song a raw urban urgency, sounding as if he's down to his last smoke, his last whiskey, his last cent. Late bluesmen Luther Allison ("You Can't Always Get What You Want") and Johnny Copeland ("Tumblin' Dice") devoted their final recording sessions last summer to these covers. Bobby Womack reprises his own "It's All Over Now," which the Stones recorded in 1964, and Taj Mahal does "Honky Tonk Women" as if it had been recorded in a dirt-floor Delta barroom. (House of Blues)
The country-star covers are not nearly as successful, with Travis Tritt ("Honky Tonk Women"), Collin Raye ("Brown Sugar") and Rodney Crowell ("Jumpin' Jack Flash") giving straight-up rock renditions. Deana Carter does dress "Ruby Tuesday" in a becoming swath of twang, but clean-cut Tracy Lawrence ("Paint It, Black") cannot for the life of him sound sinister. In the end, as their current tour proves, the greatest Stones cover band remains the Rolling Stones. (Beyond)
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