Late Night OTB – Gareth Rhodes
Another early-morning edition of Late Night OTB.
One of the reasons YouTube has been a primary music discovery outlet for me in recent years is the availability of live and acoustic versions of songs that aren’t available on studio albums and thus the standard streaming services. Increasingly, the artists themselves or their labels are putting these up as the industry catches up to the culture of the Internet and licensing deals are reached. Historically, though, there have been a lot of amateur cover versions. Most of them are quite dreadful, alas, but every now and again one finds a gem.
Gareth Rhodes is one of those. He started out on YouTube as an Axl Rose wannabe about nine years ago and amassed a rather impressive following. Here’s one of the earliest cuts:
While he continued as a Guns N Roses enthusiast, endeavoring to “cover every GNR song from Appetite For Destruction through to Chinese Democracy,” he soon settled into a style of his own. This “Sweet Child O’ Mine” cover is probably my favorite:
This version of “November Rain” (he has a couple) is also quite good:
There are dozens of other GNR covers but he’s also done quite a few from other artists. Here’s one of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”:
And one with brother Matty Rhodes performing “The Edge Of Glory” by Lady Gaga:
He branched out into some original material but, not shockingly, those get a lot fewer views. There aren’t a lot of words to “Another Life”:
“Should Have Known it From the Start” isn’t half bad:
He’s petered out the last couple of years, putting up very little content. He had a Facebook page but that’s down as of this morning; I don’t know if that’s permanent. He, Matt, and another brother, Tom, perform as “Rhodesbros” but, alas, the only results I can find outside his YouTube channel are for “The Rhodes Bros,” who are decidedly not the same act.
