Songs by Others is a Record Store Day exclusive extended play of covers performed by the Chicago artist Ezra Furman and her backing band The Boy-Friends.

On the back of the jacket, Furman writes an explanation for the recording of the EP, reading: "A good song takes you far," sang Jackson Browne on tour in the 70s.

It's true, and very strange-- how these little three-minute compositions crafted on a whim in a bedroom end up bringing us out on planes and highways, into bars and ballrooms and radio stations, pouring out our hearts and lungs for those who themselves were pulled out of their rooms and into the world by the power of song.

Browne understood this: he himself was covering Danny O'Keefe's perfect ode to the bizarre, bittersweet life of a traveling musician, and when I listen to it crammed in a van full of instruments speeding across rainy Germany, it hits hard.

Every time we are preparing to go on tour I can't help assembling the Boy-Friends and demanding that we learn a new cover song to play live.