YouTube Gold: Rocket Man Like You Haven’t Heard It Before

A great cover of an Elton John classic

American music is an unbelievably rich tradition - or maybe traditions is a better way to put it. Blues and jazz feed much of it and a lot comes from the United Kingdom which filtered through to country music, leavened by blues and jazz. Hank Williams, for instance, learned to play guitar from a blues musician named Rufus Payne.

You can try to separate it into camps but really, American music is like Americans: we’re all mutts in the end, or will be soon enough.

That’s all true for bluegrass too, of course. It drew on mountain music, borrowed the banjo from Africans brought to America in chains, took blues and jazz and spit out something completely unique.

Bluegrass musicians draw on other sources too. Run C&W put out some bluegrass covers of soul back in the ‘90’s that were pretty great.

A lot of songs lend themselves to bluegrass but some you need to use your imagination for. Take this cover of Elton John’s Rocket Man. It doesn’t seem like a natural fit for bluegrass until you hear what Iron Horse does with it.

As we said, it’s nothing new. Jerry Lee Lewis put a cover of Williams’ You Win Again on the B side of Great Balls of Fire. Elvis Presley covered Arthur Crudup’s That’s All Right. The Blues Brothers covered Sam & Dave’s I’m Comin’ and Ray Charles got Shake Your Tailfeather from The Five Du-Tones. Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole did an incredible medley of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and What A Wonderful World.

It’s all us. It’s all good. It’s all American.