Brandi Carlile Records ‘Dark’ John Denver Cover for New CBS Show ‘Clarice’ [Listen]
Brandi Carlile gives John Denver's seminal hit "Take Me Home, Country Roads" a dark spin for a new CBS television show. The singer's cover soundtracks a preview of Clarice released on Sunday (Jan. 10).
Recorded with her collaborators Josh Neumann and Phil and Tim Hanseroth, Carlile's version of "Country Roads" is "so 2020," she says in an Instagram post.
She describes the cover as "dark" and "haunting," and she's spot on: Her airy vocals repeat the instantly recognizable chorus line ("Country roads, take me home / To a place I belong") over a sparse, yet almost orchestral melody.
While Carlile's "Country Roads" cover is used in the newly released preview of Clarice, it's unclear how it will be used in the show itself. However, Carlile notes that she and her band recorded the song specifically for the show, so it's likely to make further appearances.
Written by Denver with Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" was released by the artist in the spring of 1971 and climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and as of early 2014, it's one of West Virginia's four official state songs. "Country Roads" has also been covered by a variety of artists, from Roy Acuff and Lynn Anderson to Ray Charles and Olivia Newton-John.
Set one year after the events of the movie The Silence of the Lambs, itself based on a 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, Clarice tells the story of FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds), who hunted the serial killer Buffalo Bill with the twisted aid of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer. The show, created by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, also stars Kal Penn as Emin Grigoryan and Nick Sandow as Murray Clarke, among others.