Van oorsprong een uptempo altcountrysong met galmende gitaren - het had een nummer van een jongere Johnny Cash kunnen zijn - wordt Mother Of Earth hier tijdens anderhalve minuut serieus gestripped. Gedrenkt in weemoed wordt Gahan begeleid door Stapleton op piano. Zachtjes zet een drum in, viool en achtegrondzang vullen aan. Wanneer Gahan zijn gitaar ter hand neemt, groeit de intensiteit. Een zéér geslaagde adaptatie gedrenkt in een poel van duisternis.
The Task Has Overwhelmed Us verschijnt op 29 september 2023 via Glitterhouse Records.
Luister ook naar: het origineel
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‘Mother Of Earth’ by Dave Gahan is the opening track from 'The Task Has Overwhelmed Us', the long-awaited fourth volume in The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project series. This haunting classic from The Gun Club's album ‘Miami’ gets reinterpreted as a 3 and a half minute, soul-clenching, gospel infused, piano driven anthem led by the Depeche Mode frontman and produced by Australian-born, Brighton-based singer-guitarist Suzie Stapleton. The song is awarded extra resonance by Gahan's meaty baritone, evocatively garnished by his lead guitar, Suzie’s piano and backing vocals, violin by James Johnston (Gallon Drunk, The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey), Gavin Jay (Jim Jones Revue / All Stars) on bass, and Ian White (Gallon Drunk) on drums.
Stapleton says, “This started off with me tinkering on piano in my home studio. The lyrics are so beautiful and evocative and I wanted to see if I could take this song to a different place - a tricky endeavour when the original is so perfect. When I invited Dave to take part in the project he was working on the Soulsavers covers record ‘Imposter’ and had been playing around with his own version of Mother of Earth which they didn’t end up recording. So I showed him my version, and he agreed to take part - It was very serendipitous.”
