Singer / songwriter Amanda Winterhalter has made quite an impact on the Ball of Wax universe and PNW Americana music scene these past few years, going back to her 2016 debut LP Oleo that features a song called “I’m 100 Years Old” that’s flat-out amazing and you should click the link to listen to it right now. This past October Winterhalter and her band followed up Oleo with What’s This Death, the title track from which Zachary Warnes chose to cover. Winterhalter’s original recording starts as a sparse, country dirge with mostly voice and finger-picked electric guitar. After the first cycle the rest of the band comes booming in, creating an ominous, swamp Gothic atmosphere that wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of True Blood. It’s a polished, thoughtful arrangement that builds a simple, minor-pentatonic melodic idea (there’s really no B section or real shift) up to considerable weightiness.
Warnes takes “What’s This Death” out of the lush vampire boudoir and onto the front porch, reducing it all down to voice and acoustic guitar. Whereas Winterhalter’s version grew and growled, adding layers of instruments and textures, Warnes’s cover relies on the spookiness of simplicity, hoping to hypnotize you with deft guitar playing and soft-double tracked vocals. It’s a neat choice that’s really well executed.