Saturday, November 15, 2014

Battle of the Bands Number Nine: Hope in a Hopeless World



I'm back for my ninth installment of Battle of the Bands. Here is how it works:

Listen to the song clips in the blog post. In the comment section vote for the one you like the best. Feel free to explain why you voted the way you did. The battles take place on the first and 15th and winners will be announced on the 7th and 21st. I will normally post the winner in the comments. Of course have fun and enjoy!

If you are still looking for more musical fun after you vote, you can check out these sites for more battles:








The Creative Outlet of StratPlayer


Alex J. Cavanaugh

When I first heard this song, heartbroken wondering the wine country of California and then boom! Over the airwaves of what had to be one of the coolest public radio station came Widespread Panics "Hope in a Hopeless World." It became one of my favorite songs and the perfect song for me at the time.

Phil Roy- Original Artist Not in Battle

Phil Roy originally wrote the song and here he performs his masterpiece..



First Challenger Eric Bibb




Second Challenger Widespread Panic





Enjoy the battle. This time I have two studio versions against each other. Vote in the comments and enjoy! Sorry a bit late in the day. I didn't have to work today and my daughter dragged me out to an event she wanted to go to and got out of the house, unplugged, and enjoyed the sunshine with a book.

8 comments:

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

MIKE ~
I know this song from a good POPS STAPLES solo album released years ago.

This inspired me to look up Phil Roy at Wackypedia and he seems like a really interesting guy.

In my opinion, this is your best BOTB yet.

I liked BOTH of the challengers - the music in both of them was A-list!

In the end, I'd have to say that I preferred Eric Bibb's wee bit more soulful and "Gospel-ly" version, with his slightly world-weary voice and the female background singers.

This was a pretty tough call, but I'll vote 60/40 in favor of Eric.

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

John Holton said...

It's even closer for me that for Stephen. I'm going with Eric Bibb's version here. It had me dancing, and as a man on a cane, that's really saying something. I did like Widespread Panic's version, a lot better than I thought I would.

This was a toughie. Great battle!

farawayeyes said...

I'll triple those votes and say this was a good/tough BATTLE for me. Two good versions of a great song. In the end I too will go with Eric Bibb, he seems to have a better feel for this one.

Robin said...

I am going to echo the comments already left here. I agree that this battle was very good and TOUGH. Quality recordings... and the music was to quote StMc "A-list." I liked them both and would be pleased to hear either one on any given occasion. (I understand why you like this song so much. It all feels very hopeless sometimes, and it can be the little things that make the biggest difference--and inspire hope.)

This loosely comes down to whether you prefer the soulful sound of Eric Bibbs or the guitar-driven sound of Widespread Panic. I am voting for Eric Bibbs. I found myself moving to his music.His style really works well with these lyrics. That said, I really like Widespread Panic's interpretation, too. This was a hard one to call!

StratPlayerCJF said...

Great battle! AWESOME Song!

I've heard the Widespread Panic version several times and love it (especially in some live versions I've heard -- but then every jam band sounds better live, lol). I was pretty certain that I'd vote for WP.

But whoa! That Eric Bibb version is deep! Soulful, heartfelt, and incredibly moving. I like the gospel additions -- it really gives it impact and power.

So while I still love the rocking power of the WP version, I'm voting for Eric Bibb.

I love it when a BOTB throws me for a loop and gets me to vote outside of my 'expected' vote.

DiscConnected said...

I expected this to beasy easy (I own the Widespread Panic version), but as it turns out...

I kind of find myself leaning towards Eric Bibb's version.

Yeah-I'm voting for Bibb.

Cathy Kennedy said...

Whew, Bibb and Widespread Panic are both very good. This is the first time hearing this song, and I really like it. Closing my eyes, I allowed the music to flow over me like water and although I like both a lot I think Bibb's cover gives me the same soulful sense as the original. So, Bibb wins with me!

Mike said...

Though most of the voters stated it was a close call, the winner was a unanimous, landslide for Eric Bibb