JD McPherson “The Warm Covers LP” 2023. New West Records, limited edition Record Store Day release on red, white and blue splatter clear vinyl. As the title more than suggests, the record is all covers reimagined in McPherson’s rockabilly style, from songs spanning the protopunk to rockin’ rhythm and blues to southern fried rock genres. A lot of the covers, like the blues/rhythm and blues ones, lend themselves very well to a rockabilly interpretation: the cover of the mid-50’s single “Let’s Rock” by Art Neville for instance, or the soulful renditions of Irma Thomas’ “It’s Raining” (1961) and “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes (1964) are all pretty great. Some others, not so much. McPherson’s cover of The Pixies’ “Manta Ray” (1989) is confusing, like he didn’t really know what to do with the track and just threw everything against the wall hoping it would stick. (It all stuck.) I wasn’t expecting to like his cover of Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” (1977) as much as I did: who knew that song would lend itself so well to brush drums? Also unexpected is “Dream Baby Dream” originally by Suicide; McPherson’s cover adds a sultry bendy guitar accent to the hypnotic electro punk song from ’79 (no link available). Most hilarious by far is his rendition of Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat” (1968) which plops the art rock single into a 50’s pop song similar to “Jailhouse Rock” or really any Chuck Berry classic.