I have always been of the opinion, that if a song is well written, that it can be sung in a variety of styles and genres and still hold true. While most music consumers would never consider any of Prince's material suitable for country music, I disagree. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" is a story of heartache that takes place in a bar. It also displays a lot of character, as the narrator shows respect for the woman and doesn't take advantage of her vulnerabiities. Which is probably not the angle most pop musicians these days would take. They'd want her to shake that ass and make that booty pop.

I took my theory a step further and actually recorded a country version of this song. I've entered it in a contest, but voting is only for the next couple of days. If you listen to it before August 21, feel free to give it a rating. But this is currently the only link I have on the internet to hear it. Hopefully it will still be available to listen to beyond that.

http://tys.mdmgames.com/nashnextcountry/challenge.aspx

This is new country, but still more rock oriented, to me. Something like Big & Rich would put out. I'd have liked to have had a violin or a slide guitar playing the lead line. Also, a violin doing the background melody on the 2nd verse "Hurt me so bad, when she told me with tears in her eyes...", and a guitar playing the "naaa naaa naaa" part that Boni does in concert.

Prince's music does lend to other things, though. "With You", "When We're Dancing Close And Slow", "Gotta Broken Heart Again", and others have a country vibe to them. Of course, there's plenty of bluesy-rock stuff in there like "5 Women", plus the rockabilly stuff in the 80s. All of that could make for a great country tribute album, if done right.

Yeah.. I wanted a fiddle for the hook.. but I decided to go cheap on this recording and not pay a fiddle player or a live drummer. Both things I would do if I was actually gonna put it on a CD,

but this was a 2-3 hour project.

Last day of voting and I'm a distant second behind a Nick Jonas cover..lol

I like your cover sounds great.