Twenty Years Later: Holly Bowling Covers Ani DiFranco’s ‘Dilate’

Following last year’s successful Songs Of Their Own video series of artists covering songs by the Grateful Dead, the Twenty Years Later video series features some of JamBase’s favorite musicians recording songs released in 1996. Looking back, the music released 20 years ago proved to be critical in both rock ‘n’ roll history and particularly within the jam band scene. The year 1996 saw seminal albums released by Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, moe., The String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, Keller Williams, Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, God Street Wine, Strangefolk and The Slip, helping to solidify the maturing jam scene.

There were also influential records issued in 1996 by the likes of artists as diverse as Beck, Jamiroquai, Modest Mouse, Rage Against The Machine, Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam, Sting, Tool, 2Pac and many others. The Twenty Years Later video series takes a look back at those releases, with participating artists covering songs from albums turning 20 this year. For this installment, Holly Bowling opened up “Dilate” by Ani DiFranco.

The title track and fourth song on DiFranco’s seventh studio album, “Dilate” was recorded by the guitarist with Andy Stochansky on drums and Michael Ramos on organ. The self-produced album issued on her Righteous Babe label is among DiFranco’s most popular and commercially successful. The lyrics to “Dilate” are said to form a “song that describes life on the road with a busted organ (heart folks, not Hammond).”

Bay Area-pianist Holly Bowling didn’t have to rely on the lyrics for her instrumental arrangement of “Dilate.” In her typical fashion she presented a vocals-free version of the song on solo piano during a recording session on location at her home in San Francisco. Bowling is preparing to release an solo piano album of instrumental interpretations of Grateful Dead songs entitled Better Left Unsung and offered a preview of the LP with a bonus performance of “Cassidy.” Both “Dilate” and “Cassidy” can be viewed below.

[Dilate]

[Cassidy]

Head here to see all of the entries in the Twenty Years Later series. Stay on top of all of JamBase’s video content by subscribing to the official YouTube channel here.