Last year, the New York punk veteran and culty singer-songwriter Jesse Malin suffered a spinal stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Malin is currently recovering, and he’s planning to return to the stage with a big all-star benefit concert in New York later this year. In the meantime, many of Malin’s peers and admirers have chipped in to cover Malin’s songs and his medical expenses on the new fundraising tribute compilation Silver Patron Saints: The Songs Of Jesse Malin.
Silver Patron Saints has 27 tracks, and it includes some big names — a real measure of the esteem that other musicians have for Jesse Malin. We’ve already posted Bleachers’ version of “Prisoners Of Paradise,” Billie Joe Armstrong’s take on “Black Haired Girl,” and Bruce Springsteen’s “She Don’t Love Me Now” cover. But there’s a lot more on this album that’s worth your attention.
On Silver Patron Saints, Dinosaur Jr. reimagine Jesse Malin’s song “Brooklyn” as a ragged, world-weary jam. Spoon apply their terse swagger to Malin’s nostalgic rocker “The Way We Used To Roll.” The Hold Steady make the deep cut “Death Star” sound just like a Hold Steady song, which is a great thing.
The original version of Jesse Malin’s 2019 song “Room 13” was a duet with Lucinda Williams, and on Silver Patron Saints, Williams sings that song with Elvis Costello. I’m impressed with Counting Crows’ hard-pounding take on “Oh Sheena,” and I’m even more impressed with Rancid’s incendiary sprint through “No Way Out,” a song from Malin’s old band D Generation. Even Heart Attack, the early-’80s New York hardcore band that Malin started when he was 12, gets some love. The album also features contributions from people like Tommy Stinson, Alison Mosshart, the Wallflowers, Frank Turner, Graham Parker, Gogol Bordello, and the late Wayne Kramer. It might be the first tribute album to feature both Susanna Hoffs and Agnostic Front. Stream Silver Patron Saints below.
Silver Patron Saints: The Songs Of Jesse Malin is out now on Glassnote Music, and it raises money for Jesse Malin’s Sweet Relief Artist Fund.
