COVER Request Contest Week 27! - Winner (50% HP): @danaidhbee! Runner-up (20% HP): @solanaya94!

Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the Music Community. My name is Jasper and I'm writing (and singing) to you from Cape Town, South Africa!

I am into the 27th week of this challenging series of posts I have set myself for Thursdays! That’s just over half a year already! Wow! BUT I desperately need your help to keep going please!

This is the challenge I'm setting myself every Thursday: I ask for cover song requests on the MUSIC community (make a comment on this post to take part by suggesting a song for me to try next Thursday), and then I pick a favourite song to learn and post a live video of me attempting to cover it. The person who asked for the winning song then gets 50% of the post rewards in HP! It's as simple as that! (Well for everyone but me - who then has to learn to sing and play a new song every week! Haha!)

Well, this week was a quiet week. I spent most of the time looking at the one solitary request I had received so far with trepidation. It is a fantastic song but technically… a real challenge!

The winner this week is @danaidhbee! He is an awesome nylon-string guitar player from Scotland who has been sharing original music prolifically since I have been aware of his presence on HIVE! Perhaps he can actually play his requested song properly? “Deep River Blues” was originally released by the Delmore Brothers as “Big River Blues”, but at least they had two guitars! The person who adapted “Deep River Blues” to a single guitar, Doc Watson, admitted that it took him years to evolve his flat-picking technique to get it to the level that we see in the videos! I don’t even own thumb and finger picks! (I would like to – there is a traditional South African style that makes use of them too) So, @danaidhbee, I don’t know if you are “sand-bagging” me with the “impossible song”, but with the amount of time I had to learn the song, I am going to have to give you the “101” version – what is important is the thumb-picking bass, chord structure and general groove! Here is an original video:

Here is a version where he explains how he plays it a bit:

Congratulations @danaidhbee! You win 50% of this post's rewards in HP!

And then at the last minute, along came @solanaya94 asking for “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. She has won this challenge before, so I committed to the other winning song, but how about 20% for a runner-up song?

But oh dear, look at the introduction to this song! @solanaya94, are you “sand-bagging” me as well? Hahahaha! I haven’t touched this song since I was a teenager, but let’s see what I remember out of the blue! Here is the original:

Congratulations @ solanaya94! You win 20% of this post's rewards in HP!

So, that’s Week 27 of my own Initiative on Thursdays done and dusted! Two very challenging songs, but that’s what I get for putting myself out there, and it’s also what I need to improve as a musician!!

So now, for everybody else reading this, please take part! All you have to do is make a comment on this post with a suggestion for a cover song that you would like me to attempt next week. Give it a shot!!

Lyrics for "Deep River Blues" by Doc Watson (the Delmore Brothers version was “Big River Blues”

Let it rain, let it pour, let it rain a whole lot more
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Let the rain drive right on, let the waves sweep along
'Cause I got them deep river blues
My old gal's a good old pal, and she looks like a water fowl
When I get them deep river blues
Ain't no one to cry for me, and the fish all go out on a spree
When I get them deep river blues
Give me back my old boat, I'm gonna sail if she'll float
'Cause I got them deep river blues
I'm goin' back to Muscle Shoals, times are better there I'm told
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Let it rain, let it pour, let it rain a whole lot more
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Let the rain drive right on, let the waves sweep along
'Cause I got them deep river blues
If my boat sinks with me, I'll go down, don't you see
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Now I'm gonna say goodbye, and if I sink, just let me die
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Let it rain, let it pour, let it rain a whole lot more
'Cause I got them deep river blues
Let the rain drive right on, let the waves sweep along
'Cause I got them deep river blues

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Arthel Watson
Deep River Blues lyrics © Hillgreen Music, Stormking Music Inc

Lyrics for “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words, I don't just say
And nothing else matters
Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know
So close, no matter how far
It couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know
I never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words, I don't just say
And nothing else matters
Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters
Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know, yeah, yeah
So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: James Alan Hetfield / Lars Ulrich
Nothing Else Matters lyrics © Creeping Death Music