I love Holly Near. I go to her concerts whenever she is in the area. I have all her albums. I really enjoy her work. Having said that, this is my least favorite album of hers.

What I like most about Holly (other than the really great songs) is the way she can take other people's songs and make them her own. If you listen to Holly covering Bruce Cockburn, you hear great sounding songs, but they don't sound like Bruce's. They sound like Holly's.

Maybe that's why I don't care for this album as much. For this album, Holly decided to cover songs pretty much like the original artists. Most of the songs were written by Holly, so obviously they are done like many of Holly's other songs. For If It Were Up to Me, and Standard White Jesus, they sound pretty much the same as Cheryl and Timbuk3 do them. I'm not familiar with the other covers, so I can't comment on how those are done.

Nina Gerber plays Guitar on Cheryl's song.

Artist Near, Holly
Title Edge
Date 2000
Label Calico Tracks
Cat # CTM0004
Track Title Time Artist
1 Fired Up! 2:06
2 Planet Called Home 3:17
3 If It Were Up to Me 2:46
4 1000 Grandmothers 3:12
5 Kids Are Gonna Love 3:03
6 Love Don't Need a Reason 4:26
7 Think About Your Troubles 2:07
8 Standard White Jesus 4:39
9 Uh Huh 1:55
10 When Do We Rest 3:25
11 Didn't You Mean to Say 1:49
12 I An't Afraid 4:38
13 Further to Fly 5:59