Mark Blankenship joins Katie on the line from New York City to talk about the everlasting fascination of cover songs. He and Katie agree that a great cover version unlocks something else inside a song – the artist doing the cover finds something in it that wasn’t evident in the original – and then look specifically at covers done by queer artists of songs originally by straight artists. They vehemently disagree about one particular cover, but their friendship and mutual respect survive! Here is the playlist:

* One – Mary J. Blige and U2 (original by U2)

* Romeo and Juliet – Indigo Girls (Dire Straits)

* Believe – Adam Lambert (Cher)

* Helpless – k.d. lang (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

* Dancing on My Own (acoustic) – Calum Scott (Robyn)

* You Can Leave Your Hat On – Etta James (Randy Newman)

* When the Party’s Over – Cub Sport (Billie Eilish)

Photo of Mark Blankenship and Katie at JOY in February 2019 (above) by Betty Sujecki

Mark Blankenship is a New York–based podcaster and writer who co-hosts the podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs (MASTAS) with Sarah D. Bunting; visit MASTAS’s Patreon page and follow the podcast on Facebook and Twitter. He also hosts the iHeartRadio Showtune Countdown podcast and is the founder and editor of the new publication The Flashpaper: Theatre’s Thoughts on Right Now. Follow Mark on Twitter and Instagram.