Category: Lagniappe Sessions

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Instrumentals (2016-2026)

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Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions have been rolling along at a steady pace since 2011, bringing together a global lineup of artists to offer up cover versions of a few of their favorite tunes. And some of the most imaginative Lagniappes have been those that deliver purely instrumental pleasures, embracing melody, rhythm and texture.

We’ve gathered together a 90-minute sampling of those covers from over the past decade, which range from MPB bliss-outs to Takoma School dreamscapes, from free-funk workouts to orchestral jazz. And beyond!

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Maisy Owen

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For her debut Lagniappe Session, Maisy Owen turns to four songwriters who share her gift for making difficult things sound beautiful. From Rosa Lee Carson’s devastating “The Drinker’s Child,” written when Carson was just fourteen, to Townes Van Zandt’s “Snowin’ on Raton,” David Olney’s “Deeper Well,” and Amy Winehouse’s “What Is It About Men,” Owen follows a thread through country, folk and soul-pop songwriting, finding a sweetness in songs that are anything but sweet.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Lau Ro

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On this summer’s introspective solo record Lau, multi-instrumentalist Lau Ro crafted an enduring cycle of radiance. Starkly original, yet lovingly recalling the atmosphere and sunny, layered undercurrents of formidable works from the worlds of Brazilian MPB, bossa nova and beyond. For the São Paulo-born musician’s inaugural Lagniappe Session, they tap into such seminal heritage influences with a transporative cover from Tropicália legends Os Mutantes. An effortless showcase of Ro’s whimsical range, also covered are the sublime Mal Waldron/Eric Dolphy jazz classic “Warm Canto” and a beautiful duet with collaborators on the folk standard “All My Trials”.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Erin Durant

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For her Lagniappe Session, Erin Durant turns to two touchstones: Judee Sill’s “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” and Lucinda Williams’ “Jackson.” Recorded between Topanga and Brooklyn with longtime collaborators Kyp Malone and Gabe Galvin, these performances move between close study and personal memory—stepping into Sill’s world while reconnecting with the roads, literature, and landscapes of Durant’s Louisiana upbringing through Williams’ lens.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Resavoir & Matt Gold

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Trumpeter/composer/producer Will Miller (AKA Resavoir) and guitarist Matt Gold released the collab LP Horizon almost exactly a year ago. The album was an expertly rendered love letter to the música popular brasileira world, its 10 tracks breezy, beautiful and deep. Horizon is lush without feeling overdone, intricate but never fussy, favoring groove and melody above all else. These two musicians may call Chicago home, but the sounds they make transport the listener directly to a Brazilian beach. Now, Miller and Gold are offering up a pair of bonus tracks for their debut Lagniappe Session together — gorgeous covers of MPB icons Mario Adnet and Caetano Veloso.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: The Sleeves

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Built from repetition, negative space, and instinctive interplay, there’s something fitting about The Sleeves taking on CAN. Coupled with the twisted wild card of their cover of early-’00s British girl group Sugababes, this Lagniappe Session feels less like a set of covers than a slow dissection, with Jack Cooper and Tara Cunningham pulling the songs apart until only fragments remain.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Simon Joyner & the Nervous Stars

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Simon Joyner is this week’s guest on our Neil Young podcast, All One Song — but he’s not just that! With his friends the Nervous Stars, he also recorded a new Lagniappe Session for us … and it’s all Neil Young songs! What a gift. Simon, of course, is one of our greatest singer-songwriters, with a deep discography stretching back to the early 1990s. He’s one of those guys who just seems to get better with age; to wit, his upcoming album Tough Love is one of his very best, a deeply felt collection that feels timeless and timely all at once. We’ll have more to say about it in the upcoming weeks, but for now, enjoy Simon and the Nervous Stars tackling some of Neil’s very best.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Big Bend

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On their 2024 album Last Circle in a Slowdown, Big Bend took concert recordings and reconfigured them, bending that live energy into weird, spacious and intricate constructions. Leader Nathan Phillips does something similar for his project’s first Lagniappe Session, turning these covers into loose, free and focused interpretations of the source material. Slowdown bore the light but pervasive imprint of Talk Talk, especially Mark Hollis’ tentative yet determined phrasing and breathy, plein air timbre.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Shane Parish

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No stranger to transformation, Shane Parish has built a career that moves fluidly between original composition and interpretive work, distilling and reimagining inspired source material—from the intimate lyricism of Chet Baker to the transcendent soundscapes of Alice Coltrane—while continually expanding his own voice, most recently on Autechre Guitar. This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions finds Parish taking on late 90s southern gothic Cat Power, the croon of Lana Del Rey, nascent Bjork, and the nearly lost hushed brilliance of German folk singer Sibylle Baier.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Wet Tuna

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Nearly a decade into their sonic trans-dimensional sojourn, Wet Tuna’s Vast, slingshots us sidelong toward the very heart of the Tunaverse— a place where the bass is deep and the vibes flow free down that shimmering stretch of good ol’ astral highway. With this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, Matt Valentine, Erika Elder, and Jim Bliss serve up a dubbed out Spectrasound love letter to the glorious fuzz’n’scuzz of yesterday’s underground. The Tuna guide us on a rural glam walking tour of downtown NYC with an ever-unfolding take on Lou Reed’s “Walk On the Wild Side,” an exploration of “Cortez the Killer” that detours into Daydream-era Sonic Youth, nods to venerable free folk progenitors Pearls Before Swine and Sandy Bull, and a glacially resplendent meditation on The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey” that’s basically psychoactive. Many wonders abound here, so get in there and touch the sound!

The Lagniappe Sessions :: The Nude Party

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The Nude Party return this month with the release of their latest—and fourth—LP, Look Who’s Back. Produced by Michael Rault in the desert at his studio in Joshua Tree, the seven-piece outfit boots up, gets loose, and locks in over the course of the record’s nine tracks. Keeping with the vibe, this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions catches up with the band as they pay tribute to 3‑Track Shack era, North Carolina godhead Link Wray, the mutable, perennial gem that is Chuck Willis’s “C.C. Rider,” and the road-worn groove of “Six Days on the Road.”

The Lagniappe Sessions :: The Slaps

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Via Chicago, guitarist Rand Kelly, bassist Ramsey Bell, and drummer Josh Resing are The Slaps. Formed in 2017, the genre agnostic trio are constantly in motion, and, more impressively, consistently interesting. This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions finds the band paying tribute to pre-Dark Side era Floyd with a lived-in, and woolly, cover of Obscured by Clouds’ “Wot’s… Uh the Deal”. AD Manna, indeed! And keeping things local, they deliver an amped up version of friend and touring partner hemlock’s “Under All The Kudzu” …

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Trummors/Prairiewolf

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A meeting of the minds. Last year saw Trummors lit out for the territories touring some esoteric, off-the-beaten path venues in Colorado and New Mexico with Prairiewolf. This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions commemorates the experience with the following collaboration of the two bands reimagining early ’80s George Strait along with a Joni Mitchell chestnut.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Modern Nature

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Those familiar with this corner of the Internet are likely familiar with the music of Jack Cooper, as we’ve fastidiously covered his recorded output in one form or another since 2014. And for good reason. Following the dissolution of his previous band, Ultimate Painting, and the sole release under his given name, Sandgrown, Cooper has channeled his efforts into the potently shapeshifting outfit Modern Nature. On the heels of the band’s latest LP, The Heat Warps, Cooper and co. return with their third entry in the Lagniappe Sessions, this time paying tribute to a pair of Beatles’ chestnuts.

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Cochemea

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Cochemea Gastelum returns with his second Lagniappe entry following up his session from 2021 covering Big Star and the legendary Cuban band, Irakere. This latest installment finds the NYC based multi-instrumentalist and arranger on the heels of his third LP, Ancestros Futuros, released last month via Daptone Records. For his encore session, Gastelum pays tribute to his southern California roots covering War’s “All Day Music,” and Flip Your Wig era Hüsker Dü.