Figuring Out Why Morgan Wallen’s Remake of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” Irks Me
Incase you’re wondering wtf I’m talking about, Morgan Wallen recently released a version of Cover Me Up as his own song.
Nothing against Morgan, I honestly have no clue who he is and am not familiar with any of his work. Seems like an OK mainstream country musician, but this article isn’t to argue whether I should be a fan of his or not.
On a recent conquest to click through all of my Instagram friends’ stories, I paused on a screen shot of a song titled “Cover Me Up”, with the caption “this song is sooo good”. Isbell wasn’t the artist, so I knew it was either a remake or just a new song with the same title. Either way, it required more investigating on my part.
I started typing “Cover me…” into google, and good ol google gave me the very first suggestion of Cover Me Up by Morgan Wallen. And I thought “damn this guys song is already more popular than Isbells?” The song popped up, and sure enough there were Jason’s incomparable lyrics. OK so now I had clarity. The only thing left to do was listen to this remake. The first verse was enough…
Again nothing against Wallen, but Jason’s version is one of the finest songs I’ve ever heard, and there is really no need for an inferior mainstream country remake. Now I love hearing peoples’ covers of this song, but this is now Morgan’s song. Like it says Cover Me Up by Morgan Wallen; if you look hard enough, you can find “written by Jason Isbell” in tiny letters.
Now I am more than aware of the REAL ISSUES of the world that would be a much better allocation of my energy to be frustrated about. However, you can’t help a feeling. So I’m trying to dig deep and see why this bothered me.
I guess it bums me out that the average music listener will credit Morgan Wallen with this song. Most pop country songs are written by other people, and 90% of consumers associate the song with the performing artist. It also further perpetuates the notion that distribution is more important than the art itself.
Jason’s song has been around for 6 years. It’s been embraced with critical praise. The industry’s superiors have recognized this song and Isbell as one of the best in the biz. Yet, this song and Isbell are unrecognizable to 99% of people I meet.
The reception to the now Morgan Wallen song proves that even the mainstream music audience would have loved JI’s song.
I can’t help but to be irked by the person that says “wow I found this great song”, when the original is already a modern song that exists and is 1000x better. It’s not their fault though. It’s sad that one of the best songwriters & musicians of our time is still less known than your averagely talented pop country singers. How does Isbell not have a larger platform than Morgan?! And not that I’m going to feel bad for Jason’s financial situation, but if a song is good enough to be loved by millions of people, the original artist should reap those benefits the most. I know Isbell will receive songwriting royalties (which could be lucrative) but he would certainly see a lot more money if all of those plays were his.
Knowing Jason’s fans, I’m confident we’ll all be sure to mention to anyone that promotes the new song, to check out the original, and that brings me comfort. That’s just my perspective, I’ll move on with my life now.
P.S. If you’re reading this because you discovered this song via Morgan Wallen, please listen to Jason Isbell’s original.
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