See Craig Campbell’s Quiet Cover of Alanis Morissette’s ‘Ironic’
In the latest installment of his ongoing Women Covers Wednesday series, clean-cut country boy Craig Campbell tackles Alanis Morissette’s angsty 1996 hit “Ironic,” giving the edgy alternative-rock ballad a refreshingly smooth, acoustic spin.
Campbell’s no stranger to covers after spending five years hustling for tourist tips on Nashville’s Lower Broadway before breaking out with his song “Family Man” in 2011, and here he reimagines Morissette’s signature tune in quiet-strumming, velvety-vocal fashion. Co-written by Morissette with her producer Glen Ballard, the original was striking and decidedly sneering, a cornerstone of her 1995 Jagged Little Pill debut, a smash that sold 33 million copies worldwide. But Campbell takes a little heat off the lyrics, giving a somber feel to vivid vignettes about an old man who wins the lottery and dies the next day, and a guy who’s afraid to fly but finally gets on a plane, only to have it crash.
Campbell, whose current single is the inspirational ballad “Outskirts of Heaven,” has covered songs by Maren Morris, Martina McBride and Katy Perry in past videos for Women Covers Wednesday.