Brian Ibbott was one of the earliest music podcasters back in the fall in 2004. Brian had a distinct twist to his show though. His show is called Coverville and he plays covers exclusively. He found a way to legally play licensed music by playing the ASCAP/BMI fees because the songs are all cover versions. He does his show three times a week and typically plays 5-6 songs per show. Some shows have a special theme and he also does “cover story” shows where he plays covers of songs originally done by one artist. Some recent cover story shows included one where he played covers of Nick Lowe songs and another of covers of Johnny Cash songs. Brian manages to find some incredibly obscure covers of well known songs. A lot of the songs are really good, but some of them are really atrocious. Some of the more interesting songs I have heard on the show include Don Ho doing his rendition of the Peter Gabriel hit Shock the Monkey and Phyllis Diller covering (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

Brian’s two most recent shows were truly good for a laugh. Last Saturday on April 1, he released his first episode of Originalville which includes a marvelous rendition of the Men without Hats classic Safety Dance. You really need to listen to this one all the way through to get the full impact. Check it out, it’s worth it. Then yesterday Brian did an interview with Richard Cheese. Richard does lounge renditions of hit songs, including a peppy mambo version of Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2. Richard is a very funny guy. Go over to Coverville and peruse the archives. I’m sure you’ll find some fun surprises in there.