Miss your 15-minute window to buy tickets to Kate Bush‘s reunion shows in London? Well, you and most of the world are not alone. There is, however, a fine antidote to the “I’m not willing to sell my soul for some concert tickets” blues, and it comes in the form of an electrifying cover version.
New York singer and self-described “powerhouse” Audra Isadora has recorded a cover of Bush’s early ’80’s hit “Babooskha”, enlivening that piano-driven number’s sound with a full injection of soul. It’s the kind of cover that reminds us that even the most revered of songwriters deserve to be covered; if there is such a thing as “too sacred a song to cover”, it’s a short list of tunes at best. Isadora’s take on “Babooskha” respects the original’s eccentricities, all the while adding a great deal of personality to this now almost 25-year-old song.
Isadora describes her excitement in covering “Babooshka”: “I am a glam girl and former high school drama-club president with a serious passion for soul music, so this cover very much shows what I’m about artistically. ‘Babooshka’ is a story-song which tells a universal story, and yet is so open to theatrical reinterpretation! In reinterpreting this Kate Bush classic, my producer Matt Katz and I had a vision to stay true to the theatricality and the storyline, and then infuse it with an all-American, edgy soul sound (a la Al Green‘s “Love and Happiness”). It just felt so right to me.”
Isadora is set to release her debut EP in July.