A new tribute album to Leonard Cohen is on the way later this year.
Blue Note Records will release ‘Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen’ on October 14. It will feature covers from the likes of Norah Jones, James Taylor, Nathaniel Rateliff, Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples and more. It’s been produced by Larry Klein.
The album will feature 12 tracks from across his career – including ones from his 1967 debut ‘Songs Of Leonard Cohen’, and ones from his last album, ‘You Want It Darker’, which was released in 2016.
Today, Taylor’s take on ‘Coming Back To You’ from Cohen’s ‘Various Positions’ (1984) was shared – listen to it below.
‘Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen’ Track List:
1. ‘Steer Your Way’ – Norah Jones
2. ‘Here It Is’ – Peter Gabriel
3. ‘Suzanne’ – Gregory Porter
4. ‘Hallelujah’ – Sarah McLachlan
5. ‘Avalanche’ – Immanuel Wilkins
6. ‘Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye’ – Luciana Souza
7. ‘Coming Back to You’ – James Taylor
8. ‘You Want It Darker’ – Iggy Pop
9. ‘If It Be Your Will’ – Mavis Staples
10. ‘Seems So Long Ago, Nancy’ – David Gray
11. ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ – Nathaniel Rateliff
12. ‘Bird on The Wire’ – Bill Frisell
“When Larry Klein invited me to participate in a Leonard Cohen tribute album, I accepted immediately,” Taylor said about the cover.
“Both because Larry is a great producer of excellent recordings and a good friend, and because, like almost everyone in my generation, I venerate Leonard Cohen. As soon as I began seeking out my own musical preferences, Cohen’s songs were among my few favorites and had a major influence on my own progression as a songwriter.”
He continued, “For the project, I was drawn to a relatively obscure piece that was new to me, ‘Coming Back To You.’ Larry opted to cut the song in Cohen’s original key, which was certainly at the bottom of my own range. But somehow moving me out of my comfort zone helped me find my own approach to the song. Like so much of Leonard Cohen’s writing, this lyric resonates deeply with his forlorn and hopeless take on the bleak landscape of love and attachment.”
Speaking about bringing the project together, producer Klein said: “It was an immensely gratifying experience to re-contextualise these poems, and shine a different light on them.
“I hope that this musical language that we developed together, the context that we put these things in, makes the songs connect with people in a new way.”
You can pre-order the new album here.
