Easy Guitar Song
Conor Oberst’s Country Covers Band Drops Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn Tunes
Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club — a country covers band formed by Conor Oberst — is releasing a new live album, Live at O’Leavers, featuring recordings from two of the five gigs they’ve played.
The record is set to arrive December 11th via 15 Passenger, and in anticipation, Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club shared their takes on Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and the Loretta Lynn classic, “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” While Oberst sings lead on “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” Corina Figueroa Escamilla (Oberst’s ex-wife) takes on “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’” as well as the majority of the rest of the songs on the album.
Oberst was inspired to form the covers band in 2015 after getting hooked on a 1972 compilation, Them Old Country Songs, owned by his housemate at the time, MiWi La Lupa. When Escamilla returned from a trip to her hometown of Mexico City, Oberst and La Lupa convinced her to sing lead in the group; Escamilla is a trained audio engineer, and although she’d never fronted a band before, Oberst and La Lupa were convinced she was perfect for the job after spending years listening to her sing along to recordings in the studio. Escamilla agreed to take the gig and adopted the stage name Dolores Diaz, a spin on Doris Day.
To fill out the rest of the lineup, Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club enlisted a slew of other Omaha, Nebraska, musicians, including Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis, the Good Life’s Roger Lewis, Cursive’s Matt Maginn, McCarthy Trenching’s Dan McCarthy, plus Ben Brodin, Phil Schaffart, and Jim Schroder. To date, the band has played just five shows, and the recordings on Live at the O’Leavers are taken from their January 2016 and August 2018 gigs at the titular Omaha pub, which is owned by members of Cursive.
“Playing with the Standby Club is pure joy,” Oberst said in a statement. “There is a unique thrill in learning all those classic songs and getting to perform them with a giant band of old friends. And on top of that, it was amazing to watch Corina embrace her alter ego. She is normally a pretty reserved person, but when she slipped on those cowboy boots and stepped on stage she instantly transformed into Dolores and always blew the roof off the place. We all had so much fun and I think you can hear and feel that on these recordings.”
Along with the Dylan and Lynn covers, Live at O’Leavers will feature renditions of Tammy Wynette’s “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s “Just Someone I Used to Know,” Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” and Bob Willis and the Texas Playboys’ “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer).”
Live at O’Leavers Tracklist
1. “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” – Tammy Wynette
2. “Once a Day” – Connie Smith
3. “The Weather Is a Dead Man” – Dan Reeder
4. “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” – Charlie Pride
5. “Jolly Coppers on Parade” – Randy Newman
6. “Amos Moses” – Jerry Reed
7. “Just Someone I Used to Know” – Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton
8. “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’” (With Lovin’ on Your Mind) – Loretta Lynn
9. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” – Bob Dylan
10. “So Long, Charlie Brown, Don’t Look for Me Around” – Sammi Smith
11. “Crazy” – Patsy Cline
12. “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)” – Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys / Willie Nelson