Katee Cross is a country singer-songwriter from Scotland with four well-received albums to her credit. She’s also a great cover artist, able to find and feed the heart of a song while bringing something fresh and new to it.
Here’s a perfect example: her 2016 performance of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest.”
Katee infuses Bruce’s world-weary song with a vibrant, optimistic, light-on-its-feet riff that introduces us to a narrator who is newly in love and fully awakened. Her performance captures those first moments of self-discovery, when we realize we are still capable of loving again after all.
It’s a very different take than Bruce’s, and it casts the song in an entirely different emotional light–but a light just as romantic.
“Tougher Than the Rest” may be one of Bruce’s most frequently covered songs, but Katee’s arrangement and performance elevates this cover to the ranks of the very best versions.
