Cover Wars: Devil Went Down To Georgia

This song comes off a 1979 album by the Charlie Daniels Band titled Million Mile Reflections. Vassar Clements also deserves some songwriting credit, as he wrote the fiddle hook (basically) in his tune Lonesome Fiddle Blues.

For such a popular song, there are not a whole lot of real covers out there. Because of this, I’ve decided to include two renditions where the artist has made some slight changes to the subject matter of the song. If I had not done this - you would be looking at all jamband versions, and I try to avoid that the best I can.

The Contestants:

Blues Traveler: Leading off this week, we’ve got Blues Traveler who have had this cover as a staple in their repertoire for at least 12 years now (earliest recording on the LMA is 1997). Source: 8-22-1998

Bonus Video From Wetlands 1998:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Jiggle The Handle: Boston-based Jiggle The Handle busted out this cover at one of their many “reunion” gigs in the mid 2000’s. Source: 5-29-2005

moe.: This cover has shown up only once on the moe. stage, during their “Good vs. Evil” set at Vegoose 2005 - in the encore slot. Fitting. Source: 10-29-2005

Primus: Maybe someone more familiar with the work of Les Claypool can fill me in here. I was unclear if I should cite this as a Primus cover or to label it as, “Festus Clamrod and the El Sobrante Twangers”. Regardless, I’m pretty sure it’s the members of Primus with perhaps a few extra musicians as well. A really cool video that was originally released as part of the Rhinoplasty EP.

String Cheese Incident: SCI has got the built in advantage of actually having a fiddle player in their touring band. Source: 11-24-2006

Those Darn Accordions: In this rendition, Johnny the fiddle player is replaced by Lou the accordion player. A fun take. Source: Squeeze This!

The Toy Dolls: Similarly to the previous version, in this performance we’ve got The Devil Went Down To Scunthorpe , and our fiddle player in the story is actually a guitar player. Source: We’re Mad!: The Anthology

Trey Anastasio: While Trey’s orchestral first set at Bonnaroo 2004 wasn’t exactly well received by the festival crowd, the second set was and featured two only-time-played covers: This tune and Sing A Song by Earth Wind & Fire. Not a surprising choice as Trey has certainly spent a lot of time singing about the devil/hell over the years (Limb By Limb, Shafty, Crowd Control, 46 Days, Kill Devil Falls, etc.). Well that and the lot legend that Trey has indeed sold his soul to the devil. Source: 6-13-2004

Checking in on Last Week’s Going To California Cover Wars, Great White has emerged victorious with their eerily true to the original performance.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Who Did It Best?(polls)