Starting my second week of women covering songs originally performed by men is Dar Williams with her version of Fountains of Wayne’s ‘Troubled Times.’
Unlike most of the covers I’ve featured so far, this one is slavishly faithful to its source material. Williams recorded this song not because she felt she could bring some new twist to it but simply because she loves it. She’s a fan.
Fountains of Wayne’s original appeared on their 1999 album Utopia Parkway, an excellent collection worth picking up if you don’t own it already.
I imagine it was in that spirit that Williams recorded the song for her 2008 album Promised Land. Her fan base is of similar size, if not smaller, than FOW’s, but perhaps there isn’t a lot of overlap, and this is her way of directing their attention to something great.
Reaching for attention, hoping she would notice you
Collecting bottles and thrown-away cans
Like she was returnable
One day would fill your hands
how she loved you, all you imagined
Fit so well into you plans
Maybe one day soon
It will all come out
How you dream about each other sometimes
With the memory of
How you once gave up
But you made it through the troubled times
Pining away every hour in your room
Rolling with the motion, waiting til it’s opportune
Sitting there watching time fly past you
Why do tomorrow
What you could never do
How she loved you
All you imagined
All this shit you put her through
Maybe one day soon
It will all come out
How you dream about each other sometimes
With the memory of
How you once gave up
But you made it through the troubled times
And it takes a lot of nerve to ask how she is doing
Start with a weak foundation, you will end in ruins
The ways the days and hours pass you’ll never understand
Falling like rain through your hands
Maybe one day soon
It will all come out
How you dream about each other sometimes
With the memory of
How you once gave up
But you made it through the troubled times
Meet Me In Montauk 
I find it rather intriguing that one relatively lesser known artist would cover a lesser known song by an only slightly more popular artist. But, as you said, if you’re just a fan of FOW, or this song, then why not?
This is my favorite type of cover – one that is clearly chosen for a personal reason, whatever that reason might be, rather than one based on some marketing scheme (even though some of those are quite brilliant) – today’s SOTD makes me want to listen to nothing but Dar Williams for the rest of my life. Not sure if that’s more a testament to the song, the singer, or the combination of the two, but I am absolutely loving it!