You can’t have a sea chantey without the term “swarthy,” can you? To acquiesce to the aural demands of a pirate ballad collection is Tom Waits and Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, gently and collectively covering “Shenandoah.”
The folk classic is included on “Son Of Rogues Gallery,” the sequel, as it were, to 2006’s “Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys”; it’s out Feb. 19 via Waits’ label ANTI-.
The first double-CD set featured songs from Richard Thompson and Nick Cave. This newest double-album edition contains “Shenandoah,” plus covers from Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Sean Lennon, Shane McGowan (see below) and more.
Richards and Waits were featured together on another recent set: on Waits’ 2011 album “Bad As Me,” the two combined on four much more rockin’ originals, including epic “Hell Broke Luce” and Rolling Stones-nodding “Satisfied.”
Listen to Waits and Richards’ “Shenandoah” via NPR’s All Songs Considered, here.