Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert Gets Digital, Vinyl Release
A Leonard Cohen tribute concert, Sincerely L. Cohen: A Live Celebration of Leonard Cohen, will be released digitally September 21st via Royal Potato Family. A special double LP vinyl edition, limited to 500 copies, will be released November 24th. All proceeds from album sales will benefit the Preemptive Love Coalition, a non-profit assisting children and families affected by terrorism.
The concert was hosted at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg in January, months after Cohen’s death on November 7th. The show featured performances from Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, the Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff and more.
The first offering from Sincerely L. Cohen is Delicate Steve’s instrumental rendition of the Cohen classic, “Hallelujah.” The performance finds Delicate Steve using a warped and warbling guitar that imbues the song’s familiar melody with a new sense of strange sorrow.
Other artists that participated in the concert include Richard Thompson, Josh Ritter, Amy Helm, Elvis Perkins, Holly Miranda and Joan as Police Woman. Jesse Lauter, Hannah Gold and Josh Kaufman organized the Sincerely, L. Cohen concert with Kaufman – a guitarist for Bob Weir – leading the house band, which featured Ray Rizzo, Walt Martin, Annie Nero, Stuart Bogie, Nick Kinsey, Dave Harrington and backing vocalists Jocie Adams, Cassandra Jenkins and Leslie Mendelson.
Journalist Justin Joffe penned the Sincerely, L. Cohen liner notes and wrote of the concert, “Sincerely, L. Cohen: A Live Celebration of Leonard Cohen could have been a solemn affair. But all performers took the celebration part to heart, infusing Cohen’s most somber truths with equal parts reverence and reverie. The evening found a mix of New York icons, esteemed singer-songwriters, cult performers, and up-and-comers for a night of Cohen standards, stories and deep cuts… Sentimental and scholarly, full of tearful sing-a-longs and heartfelt remembrance, it was an evening Cohen would have appreciated.”
Sincerely, L. Cohen Track List
1. Delicate Steve – “Hallelujah”
2. Leslie Mendelson – “Sisters of Mercy”
3. Osei Essed – “Diamonds in the Mine”
4. Holly Miranda / Joan as Police Woman & Invisible Familiars – “I’m Your Man”
5. Josh Ritter – “Chelsea Hotel #2”
6. Amy Helm – “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”
7. Elvis Perkins – “Is This What You Wanted”
8. Richard Thompson – “Bird on the Wire”
9. Richard Thompson – “Story of Isaac”
10. Lenny Kaye – “Beautiful Losers”
11. Ian O’Neil – “Memories”
12. Cassandra Jenkins – “In My Secret Life”
13. Teddy Thompson – “Ballad of the Absent Mare”
14. Alana Amram – “Suzanne”
15. Lee Ranaldo – “Famous Blue Raincoat”