When Graham Ashton once saw a male folk singer in a bar doing a Beth Orton cover, the seed was planted for 'No Man's Woman', an album of songs by guys doing girls songs.
"That got the ball rolling in my brain and I started fantasizing about You Am I covering Patti Smith's 'Rock and Roll Nigger'", Ashton tells Undercover News.Starting work on the project, Graham came up with an interesting list of artists he wanted to approach. "I am your classic hi-fidelity nerd. You make your list and see how you go from there", he says.
The most bizarre cover on the album is Tex Perkins covering Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman". "Tex couldn't make up his mind," Graham said. "He came back with two songs. He did 'Stand By Your Man' kind of like a Tex, Don & Charlie country version. As the day progressed and the lubricants went down, the band got going and they thought they'd have a crack at 'I Am Woman'. The band was the rhythm section from Dallas Crane, Charlie Owen and Kram from Spiderbait, calling themselves the Ladyboys".
As funny as Tex doing Helen sounds, Grinspoon went for full on credibility with their cover of "Boys In Town". "We were talking about who was to do Divinyls all the way though and they were up the top of the list", Graham said. "At the time, Phil was reading Christina Amphlett's biography. It was at the top of their list and they've done a very true version of it with an absolutely screaming guitar solo, which is very Grinspoon".
Powderfinger took an extremely alternative approach to their usual sound. They covered Portishead. "One thing about that band and working with them, the one thing that has always surprised me is the breadth of their music tastes from every era", he says.
But isn't this an album of men covering songs by women? Dan Kelly has done 'Nothing Compares To You", which was written by Prince. "We have a loop-hole in this project", Graham argues. "It was all based on songs made famous by woman. Certainly in this part of the world the Sinead O'Connor version was the most famous. From the people that have heard the record, the one that comes back as a favourite in everyone's list is Dan Kelly".
And another first - The Vines have possibly become the first band ever to cover a Veronicas song. "Possibly", he agrees. "That one really came as a surprise to us. I was talking to their management and they came back and said Craig (Nichols) and the band are huge fans of The Veronicas and have a lot of respect for them. We thought it would be interesting to hear. I didn't even know the original. It just sounded like a great new Vines song to me".
Graham Ashton moved from major label EMI to work for Indie Dew Process around 18 months ago and this has been his labour of love. "From the day we heard the first song which was Paul Kelly's PJ Harvey cover, until the last song arrived, it was like Christmas each time they arrived" he says.
'No Man's Woman' will be released on Dew Process through Universal Music on October 20.
The tracklisting is:
Angus Stone 'River' (Joni Mitchell)
Powderfinger 'Glorybox' (Portishead)
The Vines '4Eva' (The Veronicas)
Expatriate 'Missing' (Everything But The Girl)
Lior 'Landslide' (Fleetwood Mac)
Bob Evans 'Cars Wheels On A Gravel Road' (Lucinda Williams)
End of Fashion 'Hanging On The Telephone' (Blondie)
Dan Kelly 'Nothing Compares 2U' (Sinead O'Connor)
Whitley 'Hyperballad' (Bjork)
Josh Pyke 'Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)
Paul Kelly 'To Bring You My Love' PJ Harvey
Gyroscope 'Cannonball' (The Breeders)
Grinspoon 'Boys In Town' (Divinyls)
Tex Perkins 'I Am Woman' (Helen Reddy)
