Mark Eitzel will release Courage and Confidence, an album of cover songs, on April 9th. Although Courage is the follow-up to Eitzel's 2001 release, The Invisible Man, he actually recorded the songs three years ago with drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen (both of whom have played with Beck), and guitarist Bjorn Olsson, formerly of Swedish band Union Carbide Productions.

"They were sitting around gathering dust, and I just wanted to use them," Eitzel says of the session, which he produced with Brian Paulson (Wilco, Jayhawks). An arrangement with his label, Matador Records, allowed Eitzel to release the album through New West Records.

The album includes a broad array of stylistic covers. Country music is represented with chestnuts by Seventies iconoclasts Kris Kristofferson ("Help Me Make It Through the Night") and John Hartford ("Gentle on My Mind," popularized by Glen Campbell). Also included is a take on Gene MacLellan's "Snowbird," a hit for Anne Murray, and Sammy Fain's "I'll Be Seeing You," which has been covered more than 400 times.

"In a way, these are all kind of sentimental love songs, and they're all big garish hits that millions of people have done before," Eitzel says. "There's millions of choices. Every time I turn on the radio, I think, 'My God, this is great, why didn't I do this one?' The opportunity to do 'Snowbird' was great. There's such a humor to it. We thought, Oh no! How dare we! 'I'll Be Seeing You,' that's Liberace's big number. So I was probably motivated by a sense of Can I really do this? [Laughs]."

Rounding out the ten-song set are Eitzel's takes on soul men Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," doo-wop legends the Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You," lefty folk singer Phil Ochs' "Rehearsals for Retirement" and New Wavers Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me."

Eitzel plans to tour behind Courage and Confidence later this year.

ANDREW DANSBY
(January 28, 2002)