As years in rock history go, 1970 doesn’t seem to be viewed as having made the seismic impact of, for instance, 1967 (“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” released) or 1969 (the year of Woodstock, the breakup of The Beatles and a host of stylistically groundbreaking albums) or 1977 (the year punk breathed fresh life into the music scene).

But with his latest CD, “Listening Booth: 1970,” Marc Cohn is making a case that any conversation about landmark years in rock history needs to include 1970.

Cohn was 11 years old then, and the albums and artists from those 12 months inspired him to pursue music as his life’s work. Still, he doesn’t need that personal connection to remember 1970 as an important year in rock.

“For me, that was really the beginning of the singer-songwriter era,” Cohn said. “That’s what I picked up on as an 11-year-old kid. That’s what touched me the deepest at that moment. All of a sudden, there was this deeply personal, poetic, soulful music being made that was associated with one person, and that person was the singer and the writer.

“And even though (Bob) Dylan obviously had been doing it for several years, this was the beginning — Van Morrison, when I first heard him, James (Taylor), Neil Young, Joni (Mitchell), Leon Russell and then John (Lennon), Paul (McCartney) and George (Harrison), who were now not part of a band. They were just singer-songwriters, and as it turned out that year, each of them proved they were all brilliant at it.

“So for me, it was the beginning of this singer-songwriter era that I, at least, just was becoming aware of.”

Many of these artists and the albums they released that year are represented on “Listening Booth: 1970.” In an era where cover records are so common that they are beginning to become a bad cliche, Cohn’s CD is actually a true artistic statement in which he and producer/multi-instrumentalist John Leventhal have found creative ways to put an original stamp on these songs.

The idea for doing “Listening Booth” came to Cohn after he did a concert with Leventhal’s wife, Rosanne Cash, in which Cohn and Cash performed a set made up entirely of cover songs. “It was so liberating for me, and also challenging, to just be the singer, number one, and to be the singer of someone else’s music,” Cohn said. “I loved it.”

At the time, Cohn had released his fourth CD of originals, “Join the Parade,” and was already toying with the idea of a covers album. What helped give the idea added momentum was the 2007 release of the Robert Plant/Alison Krause CD “Raising Sand.”

“I loved that record, and I loved the way they presented these songs,” Cohn said. “I thought, (‘Raising Sand’ producer) T Bone Burnett has found this really interesting way of pairing artists with interesting songs, even if they’re not by those artists.”

With that idea in mind, Cohn and Leventhal were off to the races, quickly narrowing a list of 25 song candidates down to the dozen that make up the CD.

They made some smart — and not always obvious — choices, including “Look at Me,” an overlooked song from the “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” album, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “As Long As I Can See the Light” from “Cosmo’s Factory,” and Badfinger’s “No Matter What” from “No Dice.”

One way they achieved that goal was by going for a low-key, mostly acoustic treatment of the material, which gives songs such as “The Letter” (Joe Cocker covered this Box Tops classic in 1970), “The Tears of a Clown” and “No Matter What” an entirely different and successful feel.

Other songs aren’t so radically different, but still have significant and valid new wrinkles, such as the swinging cadence that Cohn and Leventhal bring to Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” or the more sultry and assertive feel they give to “Make It with You” by Bread (yes, the soft rockers, Bread!). India Arie guests on the latter song and adds another dimension to that tune.

“Part of what I wanted to do was make a sort of late-night sounding record,” Cohn said. “I didn’t want anything to be too forced. I didn’t want to rock out on this record for sure, not that that’s ever been my forte anyway.

“But my last record (‘Join The Parade’) was definitely the edgiest record I’ve ever made. Part of me was looking to make something a little different this time.”

Alan Sculley is a freelance writer.

 

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