The Morning Pages Cover Lady GaGa’s "Telephone"

(Free MP3 and Video!)

More Upcoming Show Dates

You can download the MP3 of their cover of "Telephone" HERE and watch the video HERE (please feel encouraged to post and share both!)

Brooklyn’s six-piece root-rockers The Morning Pages have just recorded an alt-country take on Lady Gaga’s "Telephone" along with a grainy lo-fi stock photography-esque video complete with slide guitars, cowboy hats and tin cans on strings, answering the question "How would "Telephone" play out in the 1850s?". The ubiquitous song caught the attention of lead singer Grant Maxwell who decided to cover the song because "a great song is a great song and indie music doesn't have to be all dissonant and obscure and depressing all the time and on the other hand pop music could stand to sound a lot more organic and musical. My thought was they maybe we could combine the depth of roots music with the visceral enjoyment and popular appeal of mainstream music and get the next revolution started....also, I just couldn't get that song out of my head!" You can watch the new video HERE on YouTube.

With their 2007 EP The Company You Keep, The Morning Pages immediately stood out from other Brooklyn acts by tracing their roots back to country and folk influences such as Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Waylon Jennings, and The Band. It was this EP that caught the attention of Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion who went on to produce their upcoming debut full length Rising Rain.

The album’s standouts include joyous foot-stompers like “With The Lord,” “Move To The Country” and “This City Keeps Me Down,” as well as plaintive ballads like the album’s first single “My Name Is Lion.”

It began during a downtown Manhattan loft party on New Years Eve of 2008. A somewhat intoxicated Grant Maxwell, lead singer of The Morning Pages, was approached by an equally intoxicated Russell Simins, drummer for The John Spencer Blues Explosion. He had heard The Morning Pages’ EP and was impressed with the band's unique blend of Country, Soul and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Simins and the band got to talking and eventually agreed he would produce The Morning Pages' debut album, Rising Rain.

Simins and The Morning Pages hunkered down in Brooklyn-based studio, Cowboy Technical Services (Ryan Adams, Steve Earle), and began work on the 11 tracks that make up Rising Rain. Surrounded by walls of vintage gear and faded Al Green and Waylon Jennings album covers, the band tore through material ranging from the raucous stomp of "With The Lord," the epic beauty of "My Name Is Lion" and the classic country-flavored duet of the title track. The Morning Pages brought in a cast of NYC's brightest up-and-comers to help out on the record, including sister-duo The Pierces who sing harmonies on over half of the record, Simins himself on percussion, Alec Higgins (Alberta Cross) on piano, and Gillian Rivers (Nicole Atkins) on fiddle.

With prominent influences such as The Band, Waylon, Willie, and Gram Parsons, The Morning Pages, who originally hail from Nashville, Austin, Tulsa, San Francisco, Ohio, and Massachussettes, bring a deep, rural passion to the New York City scene. Alongside contemporaries like The Felice Brothers and Blitzen Trapper, the band blends the speed and sophistication of the city with the organic depth of the country. Their debut EP, The Company You Keep, released in the summer of 2007, perked the ears of critics, with The Tripwire declaring: "The sound that these guys got onto tape comes from the mighty heavens. It's like American Beauty slept with Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris while cheating on The Band's version of 'I Shall Be Released.'"