Sit back and enjoy the soothing tones of Elles Bailey on this cover of the Wilson Picket song ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You’. After winning the AMAUK 2020 UK Song of the Year Award with ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ and picking up a couple of UKBlues awards, Elles Bailey is having a fabulous year. She has kept busy during quarantine with livestreaming gigs, a charity single and helping to organise the Lockdown Music Festival. Backed by the excellent players of The Midnight Band, who approached Bailey for this collaboration, she brings the 1970 soulful classic right up-to-date.
Phil Wilson, drummer for The midnight Band, put together the audio and visuals to create a Zoom-like lockdown studio performance. Bailey explains how the song came about: “I guess you could call this release a happy accident! Greg Smith (bassist from the newly-formed Midnight Band) reached out to me asking if I wanted to collaborate with them on social media release, and — if so — could I pick a cover? I’d been listening to a lot of Wilson Pickett — mainly while dancing around the supermarket, shopping for my parents who were isolating (how rock ‘n’ roll!) — so really wanted to cover this song to spread a little soulful love at this time.
Ash Wilson (guitar), Greg and I chatted vibe, direction and production. Ash then worked up a rough of the track and sent it out to the band to work their magic. Then it came back to me… I was completely blown away and started to think that this could become an official lockdown single. I just had to do my thing. I’m very new to engineering myself and have no idea how to edit vocals, so had to get my take in one… About 20 takes later I was FINALLY happy and sent my WAV (and video) to Phil Wilson and he did the rest. And I’ve never even met him!
I really hope you enjoy this version as much as we all enjoyed making it! I’m looking forward to meeting everyone involved in person, once this is all over! I will admit one thing, though. I never got the memo about dressing up! I figured every day is dress-down Friday when in lockdown!”
One of the things we like about Elles Bailey’s dress-down Friday is the Ethan Johns t-shirt. Nice choice.
