Savannah Karam – Mama, You Been on My Mind Review

Covers of the veteran songwriter Bob Dylan are frequent. They began as opportunities of relation between one songwriter and another. An overlap in worldview or an interest in the lyrical purpose. It was such a rapid increase in volume that, to stand out, artists took their covers further away from the original work. Listeners heard a jumping of the shark moment, a splice of the tape, with more than a handful of big-name artists. From XTC covering All Along the Watchtower to Bryan Ferry presenting a compilation of half-hearted efforts on Dylanesque, it was time for musicians to return to that initial call and response style. Savannah Karam nails that with their cover of Mama, You Been on My Mind. Dylan has many songs in his decades-long discography which translate well to the modern world. This, thanks to Karam’s tremendous vocals and instrumental additions, is what happens here.  

A slightly slower tempo for this deep cut classic is the noticeable change. What may sound like a clustered instrumental effort is more an attempt at capturing the classic acoustic and harmonica while bringing in new sounds. It works well. Everyone from Johnny Cash to George Harrison has covered Mama, You Been on My Mind, but it always felt they were lacking sincerity. A connection with the song beyond being friends with Dylan. Karam gives the song a refresher not just through these welcome instrumental additions but by tying it to the modern day. That much is an inevitability of cover work, but it is never a guaranteed victory for an artist. Here it works because of the very well-layered instrumental richness. Electric and bass guitar pop up intermittently, the former for a cool and breezy solo to round off the song, the latter given some necessary priority in the mix.  

Karam does the song justice, to say the least. She, as many artists before her have, interprets the song well enough to give it new life. Crucial to this is the attention to detail Karam offers the song. Early moments in Mama, You Been on My Mind offer a booming percussion, a way of sneaking the tambourine and harmonica into place. It wouldn’t be a Dylan cover without either of those instruments. Irrespective of instrumental use, though, is a strong voice. Karam has an exceptional one, a clean range which gives the song that lived-in quality. It’s a song which speaks to the soul, and as such, listeners can only hope those adapting it are finding that link and adapting it to their work. It forms the core of Karam’s interpretation of the song, which, as any rewarding cover should offer, has shades of the original artist blurred with their own style.  

An exceptional singer-songwriter voice with a moving and often changing instrumental range can be found here. Mama, You Been on My Mind drifts into place and, along with it, its maintained heartbreak and longing. That much is shared by Karam here, but there is a softer, hopeful tempo to it. There is a rising momentum found in those booming moments of percussion, in the sudden burst of electric guitar thrills. It’s a song which fights the sorrow and knowledge of love’s end with a hope for healing. Anyone with a guitar can tackle a Dylan song, but few will ever find the courage and talent necessary to tie their experiences to the words Dylan laid out in the studio on a boozy night recording Another Side of Bob Dylan. Karam brings about a delightful rendition of a classic song cut from Dylan’s fourth studio album.