Artist: Wyckham Porteous, Album: 3AM, Song: Hungry Heart

"Got a wife and kids in Baltimore jack.  I went out for a ride and I never went back."  Wyckham Porteous is a roots rock artist from Victoria, British Columbia.  Despite his main focus as a songwriter, it was his theatre work in Vancouver that got him discovered along with a radio play that was aired on CBC.  He released his debut album in 1989 which garnered him some national attention and provided him with an opportunity to teach and perform in Austin, Texas.  A demo for his sophomore release found it's way to the indie label, Bohemia Beat, in Denver, which lead to his critically acclaimed release, Looking For Ground, in 1995.  5 albums later and backed by a new label, Cordova Bay Entertainment (http://www.cordovabay.com/), Wyckham continues to release stellar roots based albums.  He is like a fine wine that keeps getting better with age.  He is a wonderful story teller and I am certainly not doing the body of his work any justice by choosing a cover song here from his 2007 release, 3AM.  However, I did read somewhere that he used to get fired from some of his earlier hotel lounge gigs because he refused to play covers.  He apparently felt at the time, that he couldn't perform other people's work very well.  Well in this case, I think he puts forward a very inventive cover of a classic Springsteen song, Hungry Heart.  You can check out the song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XDWzyHcp9I).  You can purchase the album, 3AM, from Itunes.  The album was produced by former Rolling Stone producer and manager, Andrew Loog Oldham.  Wyckham released an album with Bill Bourne under the moniker, Bop Ensemble, in 2009.  You can follow Wyckham at http://www.wyckhamporteous.org/.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!