Local Musicians Give Each Other a Boost in Nashville Song Swap

As the live-music ecosystem has ground to a halt in response to COVID-19, an assortment of local bands have been fighting the inertia by participating in a project called Nashville Song Swap. The gist: A heap of groups and solo artists threw their names in a virtual hat, under the care of Erin Lightning and Zach Ferrin of the outstandingly theatrical rock group Fable Cry. Each participant was assigned a different entrant's song, which they'd record a cover version of; many also made accompanying visuals of one sort or another. As assignments have been completed over the past month, artists have been publishing the results on social media.

Today, we're very pleased to premiere a medley of the 17 entries in the project. Not all of the swaps were one-to-one, and that's part of the fun, as you can see at a glance. Above, check out dreamy psych group Black Moon Mother covering indie rockers Creature Comfort; Creature Comfort taking on the aforementioned Fable Cry; Fable Cry covering indie-popsters Pepper Said; Pepper Said covering heavy rockers Year of October, and so on. Some of the visuals are simple performance vids in a band's practice space. In the case of rock outfit Floridian Slim covering electro-pop wizard Basic Printer's “Good Weird,” friend Jillian LaFave animated a video game to go along with the track.

It's a cool idea that helps maintain some of the connections that come about organically in a music scene under normal circumstances, but just can't happen when there aren't shows to see with others and bars to visit afterward. In an email to the Cream, Lightning says she hopes to evolve the Song Swap into a sort of open-source resource for the music community.

“I want to take what we've started and put it back into the hands of the people who really make it shine: our local musicians,” writes Lightning. “To that end, I'm creating a site to host a virtual song swap database of sorts: Any local artist can add a song's permissions to the database, and in return we ask that if you leave one, you take another that hasn't been covered and do it in your own way, in your own time. I plan to continue hosting all of the uploaded materials, shouting everyone out on FB, and supporting the project from a more custodial role. … I can't begin to express how much I appreciate everyone who has been a part of it, and the wonderful people in the community who've supported it.”

Below, find links to the individual contributions to Nashville Song Swap, and see a playlist of the original tracks right here. Hat-tip to We Own This Town for conveniently posting that info in one place.

Basic Printer, “Die Tonight” (Smart Objects)

Black Moon Mother, “Am I Dreaming?” (Creature Comfort)

The Blam Blams, “Growing My Hair” (Kelly Hoppenjans)

Creature Comfort, “Zoo of No Return” (Fable Cry)

Caroline Culver, “Better Off” (Kamber)

Fable Cry, “A Historical Account of Events” (Pepper Said)

Fetching Pails, “Brainplate In Eb” (The Mute Group)

Floridian Slim, “Good Weird” (Basic Printer)

Flummox, “Isabella” (The Blam Blams)

Kelly Hoppenjans, “Homecoming Queen” (Hungry Mother)

Hungry Mother, “Cupid Full of Eros” (Look What I Did)

Kamber, “Follow the Snow” (Black Moon Mother)

The Mute Group, “Other Voices” (Scale Model)

Pepper Said, “Come & Get It” (Year of October)

Scale Model, “Fallin’ Fast” (Floridian Slim)

Smart Objects, “Honest” (Caroline Culver)

Year of October, “Porcelain” (Fetching Pails)