The Folding Chairs came together three years ago as a six-piece acoustic Irish\/folk\/bluegrass band based in Italy, and with a background like that, it’s no surprise that their repertoire includes Springsteen covers.<\/p>\n
But of all the songs I might have expected a band like this to cover, “New York City Serenade” would not be among them.<\/p>\n
It’s a great song, of course–one of Bruce’s finest, in my opinion. But it’s long, complex, and orchestral, and therefore a bit of a challenge to cover, let alone reinterpret. Add to that the challenge of stitching together six musicians recording remotely–not an easy task for a song like this.<\/p>\n
But The Folding Chairs were up to the challenge, tackling “New York City Serenade” as their entry for this year’s Cover Me<\/em> contest<\/a>. Their arrangement starts out faithful to Bruce’s original but soon shifts more definitively into the band’s wheelhouse with a bluegrass-inflected arrangement that works beautifully.<\/p>\n