Tell It All Brother, a song by Kenny Rogers And The First Edition

A little throwback to the early days of the Covid shutdown, which started almost exactly 5 years ago. Damn.

This song is from March 21st, 2020. It was, if not the day he died, the day I found out that Kenny Rogers had died. Less than 2 weeks into shutdown, I got it into my head that I would record this cover, finish it and post it before the day was done. Where did I post it? I don’t remember and neither do you. I called up Marco Benevento to play some keys on it and Amy Helm to sing on it. It being the time that it was, they both recorded their parts immediately. I got them back within a few hours. Nobody had anything better to do, you see. It was March 21st, 2020.

Marco Benevento is an insane musician. Watching him record is like watching a mad scientist at work. From a grand piano down to a toy keyboard, he makes them all sing. He’s been doing a lot of high profile stuff recently. Mark Ronson has been working with him and he is all over the last Clairo album. He deserves all his successes. A good dude. We became friends with Amy Helm because our kids are in the same class. That brought us into the world of the “Rambles” at “The Barn” (AKA Levon Helm Studios). I’ve met a lot of world class musicians through that place. It’s always inspiring to go to a Ramble, and Amy is the guiding light, the spirit of the place. Keeping her dad’s dream alive. Now her son Lee has joined the Ramble band. The family tradition carries on.

So, yes, I was happy to get the two of them to play on this song. I’d only recently became acquainted with First Edition songs that were not “I Just Dropped In…” and this was one of my favorites. It seemed like a nice gesture to cover this. A method of paying respect.

The New Ps had been in Australia and New Zealand from end of February 2020 into early March. My wife and son were along for half of it, they stayed in Sydney for the first half of our tour and then joined me when I got there. We ended it in Wellington, NZ, stayed around for a few more days after tour ended. Got to go to Weta Workshop:

Went to a museum that had the costumes and props from What We Do In The Shadows:

I love Wellington, one of my favorite cities. We flew out of there on March 6th, arriving back in the USA on March 7th. There were clues that something was happening. I remember someone starting to cough on a flight and people becoming noticeably agitated. I thought someone was having a heart attack or other medical emergency. It took me awhile to realize that they were worried about themselves. They didn’t want to catch that thing that was going around. If we had left a couple days later we could have been in the middle of some of that early travel panic. It was pretty mellow for us. We told the school that maybe we should keep him home for a couple days, just in case anyone was worried about this new flu. Of course, you all know what happened. There was not any school for quite a long time.

We were very lucky. We are very lucky. We have a house on a few acres. We never felt shut in. After being away for 6 weeks of touring, I didn’t mind the idea of being home for a while. Then I realized that I was really going to be home for a while. It’s all a haze to think back on it. I worked on music. That kept me sane. We had each other. I cannot complain. I got to go to the other side of the world right before it happened. We made it to the end of our tour, didn’t have to cancel shows, lose money. Like I said, lucky. It has been a long journey back to normal from there. I got sober along the way. I feel more inspired to work, to create, to embrace what I love.

Speaking of that, this Friday there is an exciting announcement in New Pornographers world and it pertains to you, you paid subscribers. It is for you. Until then, here is my cover of “Tell It All Brother” by Kenny Rogers And The First Edition, from way back when, March 21st, 2020.