#walmartkid

got a feeling called the blues

Beck has officially covered “Lovesick Blues” a handful of times over the years on stage: a few times on acoustic Sea Change shows, twice in 2006 (tho probably more we don’t have documented), and then this year nine more times. But as Beck said on stage, this is a song he likes to play around the house, and as a young musician, it’s one he’s done “hundreds” of times. This year, he did it throughout the April/May tour across the Southern U.S. (6 of the 8 shows), and then once in Europe in June, and once more in September. He seems to mainly just want to do the song while in the South/Midwest U.S., the home of Hank Williams. (Even did it in Birmingham near where Hank was from.) Colors tour lineup Beck - acoustic guitar, vocals Kansas City show lineup Beck - acoustic guitar, vocals Jake Sinclair - mandolin (maybe Jason Falkner on acoustic guitar? see video below)

It usually does not take much to have Beck cover some Hank Williams, someone it seems he learned to play guitar/write songs by playing. This year, the trigger was the recent “Wal-Mart Kid” -- a skinny blonde boy who doesn’t not look a little like Beck, singing “Lovesick Blues” in a Wal-Mart, a video of which went crazy viral. Beck saw this video and immediately related to the kid, and as he told it, wanted to ‘reclaim’ the song back a little.

So all the versions usually had Beck telling this story, before he does a quick minute-and-a-half version of the song on his guitar.  He seems to regularly go, “oh shit that’s wrong” and forget the lyrics... but honestly, I think he’s faking it.  Haha.  He knows the song inside and out, right?  Clearly.  Here is the most solid version from Charlotte:

Then nearer the end of the tour in Kansas City, Beck had his band down to the front of the stage and round him. They do some acoustic songs together and then Beck goes into “Lovesick Blues.” It appears that Jake Sinclair is adding some mandolin to it, but the video doesn’t really show any of the band.  Here is a video of that one: