I’ve just discovered Ray LaMontagne and he sounds great! I was looking for covers sang by Brandi Carlile and there I found Burn:
and the cover by Brandi Carlile:
Can’t decide which one sounds better 
It was almost a serendipity discovering Brandi Carlile.
It was during a holiday with my kids when the only dvd we had was Tangled. After a while, the kids learned it by heart, but still wanted to see it again and again, so we ended up looking at the extra features on the DVD. One of them was a short clip for first 50 Disney animations and I liked the music, so I used Shazam (oh how I love thee) to identify it – it was “Dreams” of Brandi Carlile.
One thing led to another so I discovered more of Brandi, she has such a wonderful voice. I wonder how she would sing Suspicious minds..
My favorite song so far is “What can I say” – listen to it live here:
This is a traditional folk song from Macedonia region in SE Europe. One of the best* version of this song is by Romanian band Phoenix:
* I said “one of the best” and not “the best”, because I’m sure that there are more wonderful versions among thousands existing.. I just haven’t found another yet
Still searching
Found this interesting piece! Not better than Phoenix’s, but still:
Original song is in Yiddish language and it originated in Russia. It means sound of balalaika. Balalaika is a russian triangular stringed musical instrument. Here’s the best version of it (with lyrics):
And here’s another good version from an interesting movie – Prendimi l’anima:
Girl, girl, I want to ask of you
What can grow, grow without rain?
What can burn and never end?
What can yearn, cry without tears?Foolish lad, why do you have to ask?
A stone can grow, grow without rain
Love can burn and never end
A heart can yearn, cry without tears
Read all lyrics on wikipedia.
And a metal version by Gevolt, an Israelian yiddish singing band:
This is a wonderful song from the Tales from the Thousand Lakes album, 1993.
Lyrics are inspired from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala.
I searched for better versions, but clearly nobody can do better than Elvis on Suspicious Minds. It’s like this song is just made for him.
Found some interesting performances though:
Wonderful voice of Croatian singer Severina
Just a matter of personal taste: what a loss for music is the fact that she chose the pop-folk sexy look way. It’s so sad that the world we live in makes it hard for good looking women to actually just sing music without emphasizing on the looks.
And Jon Bon Jovi –> notice the outfits in this ’85 concert 
I think that I listened to this song when I was a child – I do not remember, but it somehow got stocked in my mind… And some 25 years later it hit me. Didn’t know the exact lyrics, all I heard was “ochi crushnya”… And if some song hits me, I somehow manage to find what song it is even if I don’t know its lyrics… (And without using Shazam, ha!)
So I randomly (:P) searched on Youtube and I think I might have found it listed as suggestion when listening to Kalinka or Katyusha.. Anyway, once I found the title, then the versions obsessed little dwarf on my head activated and .. ta-da, after some digging, I discovered Sophie Milman, a russian-born jazz singer with a divine voice.
Here’s Ochi Chornye by Sophie Milman:
Another great version:
(unfortunatelly unknown credits, I think it might be the St Petersburg Russian Folk Orchestra)
And, of course, the grandious Red Army Choir version:
How about Red Army Choir AND Patricia Kaas:
And this russian song played on a flamenco guitar by taiwanese Ho Lan
Remember the wonderful male voice on El Tango de Roxanne – Moulin Rouge Soundtrack?
The voice is of Jacek Koman of Vulgargrad, a great mix of Russian blatnyak and punk (and a dash of burlesque I might add).
My favorite is Zhopa and as prove that their music „transcends the language barrier by aiming straight for your convict heritage and your dancing feet” as the band says, is that my children LOVE it and sing it outloud .. too loud J
(Zhopa meanings in urban slang)
You can listen to Zhopa here:
and see a live performance on YouTube:
and of course, listen to it on Radio Reset
