!["April Anne" / "No Easy Way Down"/ "Do What You Gotta Do" / "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" (Daytrotter Session) [MP3s/Streams]](http://assets1.pitchforkmedia.com/images/original/41088.okkervil.jpg "\"April Anne\" / \"No Easy Way Down\"/ \"Do What You Gotta Do\" / \"You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man\" (Daytrotter Session) [MP3s/Streams]")
New Music: Okkervil River: "April Anne" / "No Easy Way Down"/ "Do What You Gotta Do" / "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" (Daytrotter Session) [MP3s/Streams]
Folk-flecked Austin rockers Okkervil River have never made any secret of their soft spot for covering relative obscurities; their slept-on 2005 album Black Sheep Boy revolved around a cover of a tune by tragically overlooked 1960s and 70s folkie Tim Hardin. For their Daytrotter Session, the group-- led, after all, by a former music scribe, Will Sheff-- dusts off some additional chestnuts, beginning with a full-band version of "April Anne", originally from former the Mamas and the Papas member John Phillips' out-of-print 1970 solo debut. Sheff's stark, solo acoustic renderings of a song Carole King wrote for Dusty Springfield ("No Easy Way Down") and a Jimmy Webb song once recorded by Nina Simone, among others ("Do What You Gotta Do") put Sheff's quavering vocals, the emotional centerpiece of 2007's Best New Music'd The Stage Names, in a more feminine light. The session closes with a "skiffle version" of the new album's "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" backed by the full band, with Sheff comping on acoustic guitar and member Brian Cassidy trading his electric guitar for piano.
MP3s/Streams:> Okkervil River: Daytrotter Session
[The Stage Names is out now on Jagjaguwar]