The Beatles are a tricky band to cover, but local gypsy rockers Dry River Yacht Club were up for the task. The group learned Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for Cover the Crescent and played the songs as close to the original versions as possible.
"Every time I've heard a Beatles cover where [artists] put their spin on it, I didn't like it. I was like, 'You ruined a Beatles song,'" says vocalist Garnet Lashley.
The main task for DRYC was dissecting all of the nuances of a Beatles song.
"All of the songs we did have all of these little parts that you never really pay attention to when you listen to it, but when you start to break it down, they're so essential. It's not that song without a little flurry here and there, so we had to pick out those parts and arrange it all. Arranging was really difficult, but fun," says violinist Megyn Neff.
A typical guitar/bass/drum band would likely struggle with a song like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," but Dry River could pull it off thanks to its instrumentation.
"I don't think we would have even attempted this record or these songs without the instruments we have," says percussionist Henri Benard, "All of the interesting instruments allow us to convey the orchestration and all of those extras that made it so interesting, that made the record so intricate when you listen to it because there's so much movement."
Dry River Yacht Club is scheduled to perform at the San Tan Wheelie Jam at Steele Indian School Park on Saturday, April 28 at 3:45 p.m.
If you play in a local band and would like to have a cover featured on our blog, please email us at [email protected].
See our Take Cover archives for more Arizona bands taking on national songs.
