In My Room

The 2010 compilation In My Room comprises folk, Americana and country singer/songwriters covering their favorite songs to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Peter Bradley Adams kicks things off playing a spare take on Matthew Ryan’s “I Hear a Symphony.” With a lightly strummed banjo accompanying an acoustic guitar, Adams’ boyish vocals were mixed with an upfront intimacy. Ritt Henn strips Tom Waits’ “Picture in a Frame” of its junkyard poet’s melancholy, turning the tune into a playful ditty with a whistled intro accompanying a ukulele before Henn sings in a smooth, low tenor reminiscent of Robert Mitchum’s saucy recordings. Dakota Blonde transforms “Only You” into warm and inviting coffeehouse folk – the tune was originally penned by Vince Clarke for Depeche Mode upon his departure, but the band passed on it so he and Alison Moyet’s Yazoo recorded it in 1982 as an electro-pop ballad. And although Sally Fingerett’s church-mom take on Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” leaves something to be desired, Roy Zimmerman makes up for it with a fatherly campfire rendition of Ringo Starr’s “Octopus’s Garden.”