Artists have the power to build worlds of their own. Drawing from palettes of talents to the far reaches of the imagination; orginal creations are made in their stand-alone worlds while tributes to the works of others highlight new artistic avenues. A maestro of all this and much more is the legendary D.A. Stern who debuts the latest from his series Quarantine Covers Vol. II with a grand and gallant take on Lee Hazlewood's "I'm Glad I Never..." While currently developing the anticipated follow-up to the album Aloha Hola [Slumberland], Stern keeps us home-bound listeners entertained with renderings of cult classics that highlight the intriguing way in which these lesser heralded songs continue to resonate today.

D.A. Stern’s own creative spin on “I’m Glad I Never…” demonstrates the LA artist’s understanding of Lee Hazlewood. With a burst of feedback intro we are thrust into what feels like a truck-stop jukebox karaoke diner/stop & shop joint on the side of a freeway for forlorn, torn and frayed lovers. It has the swagger of a dive bar disco Casanova that has bored themselves out of their tired pick-up lines and recounts that one true lover that changed their world entirely. Stern conducts an elaborate orchestration for what is an otherwise succinct run that gives a toast to the legendary mustachioed troubadour that merged the cinematic country western worlds for main street’s own exiles in the modern realm.

David shared the following reflections on his Quarantine Covers series and more:

Sense of humor in music is underrated.  Beastie Boys, Yo La Tengo, whatever. I’m a Nilsson obsessive and he’s the king of using humor to mask and then accentuate the real pain behind it. I’ll miss you when I’m lonely, I’ll miss the alimony too from “Don’t Forget Me” distills this perfectly. I also love a song with a punchline… “A Little Bit of Soap” by De La Soul, stuff like that. Lee Hazlewood really got it all right with this song so I wanted to pay homage to it.  Plus, thanks to his brilliant economy of writing, it was short enough where I thought I could pull it off decently well. This is an amuse bouche for the “Weird” Al Covers I’m working on with some friends.

In case you missed it — we present you a listen to D.A. Stern’s cover of Felt’s “Voyage to Illumination” from Quarantine Covers Vol. I. An instrumental cover taken from the influential Creation Records album Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death from 1986; David’s tribute is faithful to the original from the elusive and iconic Lawrence, while also adding rich, generous layers of synth. This accentuation of keys finds the eternal mid-80s interlude cross-pollinated with the vintage underground NYC that comprised part of Lawrence’s original vision with something that would make the dearly departed Alan Vega proud. D.A. Stern introduced the cover with the following thoughts:

Felt are one of my favorite bands and their influence on me is quite obvious. This short yet extremely emotional track sounded like a musical meditation and I wanted to put a new spin on it by incorporating an instrumentation that Felt would not have used.

And as a bonus we give you D.A. Stern’s cover of the Beastie Boys’ “I Don’t Know” [Ed note: D.A. Stern has also worked a recording engineer for MCA/Adam Yauch]. Originally featured off the lauded album Hello Nasty; David gives this odd one in the Brooklyn three’s catalog some extra love that hones in on the song’s heartfelt and vulnerable depictions of ambivalence, confusion and hopefulness.