Awesome Covers

A 32-piece orchestra needs need a pretty big stage for all of those musicians and their instruments. Jonathan Kayne has solved this problem by replacing those pesky humans with stepper motors. The members of his band never talk back, and they play everything from All-Star to Piano Man to The Mandalorian theme.

MOBA fans might recognize the Lil Nas X track Star Walkin’ as the anthem from League of Legends Worlds 2022. Here’s a very cool cover version of the track performed by musician Moyun on the ancient string instrument known as a guzheng. We really love the Asian flair it brings to the song.

When it comes to the songs of the old West, there’s nothing quite like a deep baritone voice to set the mood. Singer Geoff Castellucci is able to achieve low bass notes that can rattle your bones, and his cover of the Stan Jones and his Death Valley Rangers classic Ghost Riders in the Sky makes perfect use of his vocal abilities.

Robyn Adele Anderson is going to Wichita, far from this opera forevermore. And Kansas seems like an appropriate place for some twangy bluegrass music. If you ask us, her arrangement of The White Stripes hit Seven Nation Army sounds just right with the addition of a fiddle and banjo.

Musician Leo Moracchioli is usually entertaining us with his unique, heavy metal versions of popular songs. This time out, he focused his intense energy on existing metal and rock, performing song excerpts from Disturbed to Cannibal Corpse in a rapid-fire medley.

Despite having come out more than 20 years ago, we still get chills every time the theme music from Halo starts playing on an Xbox console. But does it sound as good without the violins and choir? Beyond The Guitar proves that the track is still spectacular even stripped down on solo acoustic guitar.

Guitarist Cole Rolland and drummer Kristina Schiano teamed up for this high-energy performance of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (3rd Movement) that gives the classical piece new life as a hard rock song. Their other collaboration is entirely on the other end of the spectrum – Eiffel 65’s 1998 Europop hit Blue.

Musician Joe Porter is back with another round of covers performed on unexpected percussion instruments. Crank up the volume for Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train on slapaphone, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit on marimba, Dick Dale’s Misirilou on hammer dulcimer, and Rush’s YYZ on drums and a hammered synth controller.

Musician Luca Stricagnoli is known for his captivating acoustic guitar arrangements. His performance of the Dire Straits track Money for Nothing offers a unique take on the 1985 hit, combining fingerstyle playing with the twangy sounds of a reverse slide neck, an accessory created by Luca and luthier Davide Serracini.

We’ve been following musician Luna Lee and her outstanding Korean-style arrangements of popular tunes for some time. Along the way, we missed one of her best covers ever, this 2016 performance of the Foo Fighters 1997 hit Everlong. She really rocked this one out with those layered gayageum tracks.

Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack from Interstellar is a masterpiece of cinematic music. Musician Jamie Dupuis performed this stellar version of movie’s main theme on his 20-string harp guitar. The beautiful sunset setting for the video makes viewing even more enveloping than the music itself. Headphones recommended.

Andre Antunes takes a momentary break from riffing on viral videos to perform a new arrangement of the Metallica track Master of Puppets as if it was performed by Muse. He does an amazing job capturing the nuances of the arena rock masters while creating an awesome new version of a classic metal track.

The Rockin’ 1000 assembled once again for a concert in Paris, France. This time, the biggest rock band on Earth got together to perform a cover of the 1981 Queen and David Bowie track Under Pressure. The group is always recruiting, and is currently looking for musicians to play their first gig in Brazil.

Van Halen and Tesla were both rocking out stadiums in the 1980s. The latter even opened for David Lee Roth at one point. Franzoli Electronics brought VH and Tesla together for a brief performance, but in this case, we’re talking about a trio of high-voltage tesla coils playing some of Eddie Van Halen’s epic guitar riffs.

The Offspring’s Come Out and Play is one of the best-known pop-punk tracks of the 1990s. We had no idea it would work so well as a Klezmer band tune. That’s Robyn Adele Anderson on lead vocals, Matt Dallow on Accordion, Tom Jorgensen on Drums, Georgia Weber on Bass, Ben Golder-Novick on Clarinet, and Tiffany Weiss on Violin.

Heavy metal musician Leo Moracchioli busts out the banjo and euphonium for this oompah-rock cover version of Mungo Jerry’s classic skiffle track In the Summertime. The only thing Leo neglected to do was grow out some epic sideburns like Mungo lead singer Ray Dorset wore.

Vocalists Robyn Adele Anderson and Anthony Vincent of Ten Second Songs fame teamed up to perform this twangy bluegrass cover of the Guns N’ Roses track Sweet Child O’ Mine. Get out your dew rags and your best square dancin’ outfit for a good old time.

Musician Justin Johnson is a blues guitar master. This captivating 43-minute video features a series of classic rock songs he arranged and performed on a beautiful Gretsch slide guitar, including tunes from ZZ Top, The Beatles, The White Stripes, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, and more.

The PlayStation 5 is a powerful piece of gaming hardware, but its design is definitely controversial, and it doesn’t exactly blend into its surroundings. So builders Chris Salomone and Shaun Boyd got to work to conceal the console inside of a wooden shell that looks like a gigantic version of the original PlayStation.

The Charlie Daniels Band track The Devil Went Down to Georgia is one of the greatest country rock jams of all time. Guitarist Eric Calderone pays tribute to the 1979 classic with a powerful heavy metal version of the song about a fiddle-playing Satan looking for some souls to steal… minus the fiddle.

Get yourself clean, have a good meal, and do whatever you feel. Leo Moracchioli is here to rock out a high-energy cover version of the Village People’s 1978 disco track Y.M.C.A.. The only thing better would have been if Leo had worn the original cop’s uniform.

After entertaining us with her covers of the DuckTales and Knight Rider themes, cellist Samara Ginsberg is back with something a bit more ominous. Her 8-part take on Bernard Herrmann’s Prelude from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho will definitely have you looking over your shoulder the next time you take a shower.

Musician Steve Cruickshank likes to take classic songs and change them up a bit by replacing the original harmonies with their mirror image. The resulting music is at once familiar and pleasant to the ear but also completely different from what we’re used to. Let’s kick the playlist off with his version of The Sound of Silence.