Review by Jack Piccininni
Ralph's new CD is FANTASTIC. It's been my "go-to" CD for the past two weeks, in the coffee shop, while working at my desk, in the gym. Lots of mortality and human frailty in those songs. The lyrics are great and the melodies are clever and very catchy. I find myself humming them all the time. I wanna hear these live again. It's so good. The fellow musicians were great too. Love the guitar work. And closing out the CD with the Chopinesque nocturnalization of Adam McCarthy was very creative. Perfect ending.
Ralph's new CD is FANTASTIC. It's been my "go-to" CD for the past two weeks, in the coffee shop, while working at my desk, in the gym. Lots of mortality and human frailty in those songs. The lyrics are great and the melodies are clever and very catchy. I find myself humming them all the time. I wanna hear these live again. It's so good. The fellow musicians were great too. Love the guitar work. And closing out the CD with the Chopinesque nocturnalization of Adam McCarthy was very creative. Perfect ending.
Review by David Van Ebers
So, I mentioned the other day that we saw Ralph Covert and The Bad Examples at FitzGerald's Nightclub last Friday, and after the show we picked up a copy of Ralph’s new CD, “The Accidental Soundtrack.” The show was great and the album is great, but I have to say, I wasn’t prepared for the way that both reminded me so much of my late brother Tom. Tom was a formidable guitar player in his own right, and he had, shall we say, strong opinions about local bands. But he told me once that he really liked the Bad Examples – which was a bit of a relief to me because I always unconsciously measured my musical likes and dislikes against his.
Anyway, “The Accidental Soundtrack” opens with a bittersweet track called “Pocketful of Change,” written from the perspective of a man who’s come to terms with mortality, and I swear I can almost hear Tom singing these lyrics in better times:
I’m gonna die someday,
And when I go
I’m gonna leave some songs, some bones
And a pocketful of change,
And I might not say good-bye,
And if I leave home on that midnight train,
Just think of me and smile …
I’m not going to lie; that song’ll probably always going through my head when I think about him now. But the track that really hits home is “Adam McCarthy,” a song about visiting a terminally ill friend who’s staring down his final days:
What about growing old,
Getting drunk,
Getting mad at your lover,
What about making time for yourself,
What have I done to deserve
Watching a friend waste away?
What about waking up, feeling good,
Acting like you’re immortal,
What about having a moment to lose,
And what about having a place in the world …
God damn. It’s a beautiful song, but one that’s not easy to listen to if you’ve been there before … and the older you get the more likely it is you’ve been there before. It’s been five years since lung cancer took brother Tom, but that song brings it right back home.
Anyway, the CD is great, and it’s not all as heavy as “Adam McCarthy”. It is more introspective than much of the Bad Examples’ earlier music, but that’s not a bad thing. Maybe I’m partial to Ralph because we’re of a similar vintage, but sometimes having the perspective that comes with having turned over the odometer a few times is a good thing. Songs like “Arthur Carruther’s Laboratory” and “Islands of Lost Certainties” resonate with those of us who know the feeling of seeing the world pass you by, and who know what it’s like to realize that none of us is nearly as smart as we imagine ourselves to be when we’re young and everything seems so clear.
So, yeah, I highly recommend it. You go buy it now!
So, I mentioned the other day that we saw Ralph Covert and The Bad Examples at FitzGerald's Nightclub last Friday, and after the show we picked up a copy of Ralph’s new CD, “The Accidental Soundtrack.” The show was great and the album is great, but I have to say, I wasn’t prepared for the way that both reminded me so much of my late brother Tom. Tom was a formidable guitar player in his own right, and he had, shall we say, strong opinions about local bands. But he told me once that he really liked the Bad Examples – which was a bit of a relief to me because I always unconsciously measured my musical likes and dislikes against his.
Anyway, “The Accidental Soundtrack” opens with a bittersweet track called “Pocketful of Change,” written from the perspective of a man who’s come to terms with mortality, and I swear I can almost hear Tom singing these lyrics in better times:
I’m gonna die someday,
And when I go
I’m gonna leave some songs, some bones
And a pocketful of change,
And I might not say good-bye,
And if I leave home on that midnight train,
Just think of me and smile …
I’m not going to lie; that song’ll probably always going through my head when I think about him now. But the track that really hits home is “Adam McCarthy,” a song about visiting a terminally ill friend who’s staring down his final days:
What about growing old,
Getting drunk,
Getting mad at your lover,
What about making time for yourself,
What have I done to deserve
Watching a friend waste away?
What about waking up, feeling good,
Acting like you’re immortal,
What about having a moment to lose,
And what about having a place in the world …
God damn. It’s a beautiful song, but one that’s not easy to listen to if you’ve been there before … and the older you get the more likely it is you’ve been there before. It’s been five years since lung cancer took brother Tom, but that song brings it right back home.
Anyway, the CD is great, and it’s not all as heavy as “Adam McCarthy”. It is more introspective than much of the Bad Examples’ earlier music, but that’s not a bad thing. Maybe I’m partial to Ralph because we’re of a similar vintage, but sometimes having the perspective that comes with having turned over the odometer a few times is a good thing. Songs like “Arthur Carruther’s Laboratory” and “Islands of Lost Certainties” resonate with those of us who know the feeling of seeing the world pass you by, and who know what it’s like to realize that none of us is nearly as smart as we imagine ourselves to be when we’re young and everything seems so clear.
So, yeah, I highly recommend it. You go buy it now!
Review by Liesl Miller
Ralph Covert has always had the gift of writing amazing and sonically complex pop songs and gives us a new collection with his album "Accidental Soundtrack". When I listen back on to the songs Covert wrote 20 years ago with his Chicago-based power pop group The Bad Examples, I am struck how such a young man could write such mature songs. Now, with his new CD "Accidental Soundtrack", he's given a very personal collection of a man reflectlng on those years. It's the fast-forward from his album "Birthday", which was written at the birth of his daughter, Fiona Grey.
Now that Fiona's grown and a singer/songwriter in her own right, the song "Islands of Lost Certainties" sounds like the advice of a father to a daughter who's ready to set off in the world (on tour, no less). With "Arthur's Carruther's Laboratory", we see a man who spent the best years of his youth so absorbed with his work that he's missed out on the world turning. And the legendary Corky Siegel on harmonica is just an amazing gift on the bluesy "When the Captain's Gone". If "Adam McCarthy" doesn't tear you up, you're just not human. The album ends with the gorgeous redux of the song with the soulful Mike Hartigan on solo piano. He's also brought back Steve Gerlach on electric guitar. As usual, Covert offers gorgeous harmonies with his crew. His engaging tuneful tenor voice hasn't lost a thing through the years.
Don't expect slick production - this is stripped down with the feeling you're sitting in a living room with him and his great band.
Make no mistake, the Ralph and The Bad Examples can still rock and occasionally play around the Chicago area. And he's been hugely successful with his kiddy rock band Ralph's World, giving parent's kids music that doesn't make you want to pull hair out. Now being of a "certain age" myself, I appreciate this collection more than I would have 20 years ago when I first was introduced to his music as a young girl working at a record store.
Ralph Covert has always had the gift of writing amazing and sonically complex pop songs and gives us a new collection with his album "Accidental Soundtrack". When I listen back on to the songs Covert wrote 20 years ago with his Chicago-based power pop group The Bad Examples, I am struck how such a young man could write such mature songs. Now, with his new CD "Accidental Soundtrack", he's given a very personal collection of a man reflectlng on those years. It's the fast-forward from his album "Birthday", which was written at the birth of his daughter, Fiona Grey.
Now that Fiona's grown and a singer/songwriter in her own right, the song "Islands of Lost Certainties" sounds like the advice of a father to a daughter who's ready to set off in the world (on tour, no less). With "Arthur's Carruther's Laboratory", we see a man who spent the best years of his youth so absorbed with his work that he's missed out on the world turning. And the legendary Corky Siegel on harmonica is just an amazing gift on the bluesy "When the Captain's Gone". If "Adam McCarthy" doesn't tear you up, you're just not human. The album ends with the gorgeous redux of the song with the soulful Mike Hartigan on solo piano. He's also brought back Steve Gerlach on electric guitar. As usual, Covert offers gorgeous harmonies with his crew. His engaging tuneful tenor voice hasn't lost a thing through the years.
Don't expect slick production - this is stripped down with the feeling you're sitting in a living room with him and his great band.
Make no mistake, the Ralph and The Bad Examples can still rock and occasionally play around the Chicago area. And he's been hugely successful with his kiddy rock band Ralph's World, giving parent's kids music that doesn't make you want to pull hair out. Now being of a "certain age" myself, I appreciate this collection more than I would have 20 years ago when I first was introduced to his music as a young girl working at a record store.
Review by Bob Hollister
Where to start, with Ralph Covert's amazing new CD 'The Accidental Soundtrack'? Probably his most personal album since 'Birthday', it delights with new tracks (that I already have memorized, thanks to the YouTube videos!), and takes old favorites and makes them surprising and new again.
First, perhaps, a bit of enjoyment of the title of the CD. 'The Accidental Soundtrack' is just the latest movement from the latest sequel of the film that is my life. My entire adult existence has Ralph Covert and The Bad Examples as it's soundtrack. From all the way back in 1987 (1986?) when Becky Heydemann put their first demo tape in my walkman, right on through Smash Record, and now this wonderful new part of my life's songs.
'Pocketful of Change' is a song that has needed to be on a publicly available recording for DECADES now. If Nashville isn't listening, and beating down Ralph's door to put this song on some classic country crooner's next album, then they're going to lose out. A plain great CLASSIC song.
It's so obvious that Steve Gerlach (guitar and backing vocals on Accidental Soundtrack) loves the song 'Me & My Near Blind Hindsight' that it's almost romantic. One of my favorites from the 'Kisses 50 Cents' album this tight trio gives it some new bounce, and a sense of fun.
I have heard Ralph and the band do 'Arthur Carruther's Labratory' probably hundreds of times over the years, but the version on this album is the gold standard to go by. A delicate, beautiful rendition that has Steve Gerlach and Mike Hartigan's backing sounding like a string quartet, their touch is so deft. This has always been one of my favorite songs, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite version. Of course, there hasn't been a version available on CD before regardless. I'm fairly certain that Ralph could release an EP a week, and not be done with all of the songs he hasn't released yet until well beyond my funeral.
This brings us to my new favorite Ralph Covert song. 'Islands of Lost Certainties' is at once wistful and hopeful, wishing for the time when we could do what our parents did, and simultaneously realizing that writing our own maps is the greatest adventure and reward. This song reminds me of everything that I love in my life, from friends long gone, to new adventures and new friendships awaiting just over the 'edge of the map'. Thanks, Ralph. This one is spectacular, and some of your best work.
'When The Captain's Gone' is a rousing little blues ditty that's going to make a great song for driving around with the window's down this summer. Rockin'!
If possible, the version of 'In Another Life' (originally from 'Smash Record', the Bad Examples most recent) is even more esoteric and slightly psychedelic. Mike & Steve's experimental nature in their playing is most strong on this tune. A nice, different take.
The new version of 'Adam McCarthy' is lovely and sweet. The original is raw and quite amazing, but this one still let's you feel the emotions of the content, but smooths out the rough edges a bit. A beautiful version of a beautiful song.
Hooray! A recorded version of 'Damn The Consequences'! Been waiting for this track for the last couple of decades! So happy it's included on this disc! Yay!
Another 'new' track (although according to Ralph in the video, he's been kicking this song around since the 1980s) is the charming and classic-feeling 'Years Down the Line'. A great rousing song about friendship and knowing someone forever. And the legendary and awesome Corky Seigel helping out on harmonica on this one and 'Captain'! Bravo. Another new favorite for me.
The almost dirgelike piano that starts this new version of 'Trying to Prove That The Earth is Flat' actually gives me a new appreciation for this song, and the lyrical content. A bold, different choice from the original light guitar opening, it makes the song that much stronger.
Another new song from Ralph, 'Another Beautiful Day' is an end-of-summer anthem to be put on the same pedestal of 'summer songs' as 'While You See A Chance' by Steve Winwood, or any other flat out, good time, sing along to the radio song. I can already hear my friends and I singing the 'na-nas' of the insanely catchy chorus. Just plain makes me feel good!
Again, the new 'trio' version of 'Out of My Element' is a revelation. Another one of my favorite's from way back, this version feels so much more light-hearted, almost more of a 'looking back' at an event from your life, as opposed to being in that moment. It makes my heart happy to listen to this new take.
Finally, Mike's 'Chopin Version' of 'Adam McCarthy (Nocturne)' is a beautiful, classical piano take on Ralph's already gorgeous song. I think this rendition shows why Mr. Hartigan is such a wonderful new addition to the Bad Examples, and to the soundtrack of my life. Thanks to our old friend Pickles for introducing Mike & Ralph. Well done, sir.
All in all, Ralph's songwriting has never been stronger, Steve Gerlach fits in with Ralph's music like your best friend and the passenger seat of your car. Mike Hartigan is an amazing talent, and I love the fact that he blends so well, like frosting on cake, sweet and smooth. Great job all.
Where to start, with Ralph Covert's amazing new CD 'The Accidental Soundtrack'? Probably his most personal album since 'Birthday', it delights with new tracks (that I already have memorized, thanks to the YouTube videos!), and takes old favorites and makes them surprising and new again.
First, perhaps, a bit of enjoyment of the title of the CD. 'The Accidental Soundtrack' is just the latest movement from the latest sequel of the film that is my life. My entire adult existence has Ralph Covert and The Bad Examples as it's soundtrack. From all the way back in 1987 (1986?) when Becky Heydemann put their first demo tape in my walkman, right on through Smash Record, and now this wonderful new part of my life's songs.
'Pocketful of Change' is a song that has needed to be on a publicly available recording for DECADES now. If Nashville isn't listening, and beating down Ralph's door to put this song on some classic country crooner's next album, then they're going to lose out. A plain great CLASSIC song.
It's so obvious that Steve Gerlach (guitar and backing vocals on Accidental Soundtrack) loves the song 'Me & My Near Blind Hindsight' that it's almost romantic. One of my favorites from the 'Kisses 50 Cents' album this tight trio gives it some new bounce, and a sense of fun.
I have heard Ralph and the band do 'Arthur Carruther's Labratory' probably hundreds of times over the years, but the version on this album is the gold standard to go by. A delicate, beautiful rendition that has Steve Gerlach and Mike Hartigan's backing sounding like a string quartet, their touch is so deft. This has always been one of my favorite songs, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite version. Of course, there hasn't been a version available on CD before regardless. I'm fairly certain that Ralph could release an EP a week, and not be done with all of the songs he hasn't released yet until well beyond my funeral.
This brings us to my new favorite Ralph Covert song. 'Islands of Lost Certainties' is at once wistful and hopeful, wishing for the time when we could do what our parents did, and simultaneously realizing that writing our own maps is the greatest adventure and reward. This song reminds me of everything that I love in my life, from friends long gone, to new adventures and new friendships awaiting just over the 'edge of the map'. Thanks, Ralph. This one is spectacular, and some of your best work.
'When The Captain's Gone' is a rousing little blues ditty that's going to make a great song for driving around with the window's down this summer. Rockin'!
If possible, the version of 'In Another Life' (originally from 'Smash Record', the Bad Examples most recent) is even more esoteric and slightly psychedelic. Mike & Steve's experimental nature in their playing is most strong on this tune. A nice, different take.
The new version of 'Adam McCarthy' is lovely and sweet. The original is raw and quite amazing, but this one still let's you feel the emotions of the content, but smooths out the rough edges a bit. A beautiful version of a beautiful song.
Hooray! A recorded version of 'Damn The Consequences'! Been waiting for this track for the last couple of decades! So happy it's included on this disc! Yay!
Another 'new' track (although according to Ralph in the video, he's been kicking this song around since the 1980s) is the charming and classic-feeling 'Years Down the Line'. A great rousing song about friendship and knowing someone forever. And the legendary and awesome Corky Seigel helping out on harmonica on this one and 'Captain'! Bravo. Another new favorite for me.
The almost dirgelike piano that starts this new version of 'Trying to Prove That The Earth is Flat' actually gives me a new appreciation for this song, and the lyrical content. A bold, different choice from the original light guitar opening, it makes the song that much stronger.
Another new song from Ralph, 'Another Beautiful Day' is an end-of-summer anthem to be put on the same pedestal of 'summer songs' as 'While You See A Chance' by Steve Winwood, or any other flat out, good time, sing along to the radio song. I can already hear my friends and I singing the 'na-nas' of the insanely catchy chorus. Just plain makes me feel good!
Again, the new 'trio' version of 'Out of My Element' is a revelation. Another one of my favorite's from way back, this version feels so much more light-hearted, almost more of a 'looking back' at an event from your life, as opposed to being in that moment. It makes my heart happy to listen to this new take.
Finally, Mike's 'Chopin Version' of 'Adam McCarthy (Nocturne)' is a beautiful, classical piano take on Ralph's already gorgeous song. I think this rendition shows why Mr. Hartigan is such a wonderful new addition to the Bad Examples, and to the soundtrack of my life. Thanks to our old friend Pickles for introducing Mike & Ralph. Well done, sir.
All in all, Ralph's songwriting has never been stronger, Steve Gerlach fits in with Ralph's music like your best friend and the passenger seat of your car. Mike Hartigan is an amazing talent, and I love the fact that he blends so well, like frosting on cake, sweet and smooth. Great job all.
