Favorite Tribute Albums?

. . . Timeless, the Hank Williams tribute CD, had some interesting covers by some great artists.  (I bought that one for Cold Cold Heart covered by Lucinda Williams, but it also featured Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, Keb Mo, Beck, Mark Knophler with EmmyLou, Tom Petty, Keith Richards, Ryan Adams and Hank III.)

Oops.  On edit, I see that the OP already picked Timeless, but I second that nomination.

I like Return of the Grevious Angel - Gram Parsons tribute

Good one.  I particularly enjoyed Lucinda Williams cover of the title track.

I like Cover Me, featuring covers of Bruce Springsteen songs. PBS did a program called Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska:  A Celebration In Words And Music  that I have not heard, but I would like to, if for nothing else, Lucinda's cover of Born In The USA.

And speaking of Lucinda, she did some interesting cover CDs (Lu's Juke Box series) which included cover cds of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty; but I haven't listened to them much yet.

I've got several tribute CDs . . . I'll have to go back and look through them.  I think I still have Steve Earle's tribute cd to Townes Van Zandt, and there was some stuff on that I really liked.

. . . Steve Earle also did a tribute to Guy Clark which he titled Guy, and I honestly was not familiar with Guy Clark's work, but I did like Earle's tribute CD.

Can't Steal My Fire:  The Songs Of David Olney. 

I didn't know anything about David Olney until EmmyLou covered Deeper Well on Wrecking Ball back in '95.  On the tribute Lucinda covers Deeper Well.  Steve Earle covers Sister Angelina and there is a 1977 live recording of Townes van Zandt  covering Illegal Cargo.

I guess I must like tribute CDs more than I remembered:

Tulare Dust a songwriters’ tribute to merle haggard [the nonuse of caps is the way the title is spelled on the CD].  Covers performed by Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement, Dave  Alvin, Tom Russell, Joe Ely, Dwight Yokam, Robert Earle Keen, Marshall Crenshaw, Rosie Flores and more.

The two disc Chimes Of Freedom The Songs Of Bob Dylan:  Pete Townshend covers Corrina Corrina, Patti Smith does Drifter’ Escape, Johnny Cash and The Avett Brothers do One Too Many Mornings, Sting does Girl From The North Country, Joan Baez does Seven Curses, Jackson Browne does Love Minus Zero/No limit, Diana Krall does Simple Twist Of Fate, Steve Earle and Lucia Micarelli do One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below), Lucinda does Trying To Get To Heaven,  Kris Kristofferson does Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), Elvis Costello does License To Kill, Mark Knopfler does restless Farewell, Dave Matthews does a live recording of All Along The watchtower, and there are many more.  I am keeping this one out to give it a spin.

Howling Wolf which is on the Telarc label and featured (among others) Ronnie Hawkins, Lucinda, Taj Mahall. . . .  (I am keeping this one out as well.)

Avalon Blues A Tribute To The Music Of Mississippi John Hurt which features Chris Smither, Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda, Steve and Justin Earle, Peter Case and Dave Alvin, Ben Harper, Geoff Muldaur with Jenni and Clare Muldaur, Beck, Victoria Williams, Bill Morrissey, Taj Mahal, Gillian Welch and John Hiatt.  Wow, looks like I am pulling this one aside also!

Brace Yourself A Tribute To Otis Blackwell, and I particularly enjoyed Chrissie Hynde and Chris Spedding doing Hey Little Boy (Little Girl).

if I were a Carpenter has some interesting people doing some carpenter covers.

treasures left behind:  remembering Kate Wolf features (among others) Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith, John  Gorka, Lucinda, Emmylou, U. Utah Phillips. . . .

Sweet Relief A Benefit For Victoria Williams featuring (among others) Soul Asylum, Lucinda, Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, The Jayhawks, The waterboys, Michelle Shocked. . .

And of course Deadicated which has been previously mentioned. . . .

I don't have J.T. yet, but it should be on my list.  Steve Earle's tribute album/CD  for his son, Justin.

Also not mentioned yet are covers of the Beatles, Dylan and Country Classics. Good stuff.

The two disc Chimes Of Freedom The Songs Of Bob Dylan:  Pete Townshend covers Corrina Corrina, Patti Smith does Drifter’ Escape, Johnny Cash and The Avett Brothers do One Too Many Mornings, Sting does Girl From The North Country, Joan Baez does Seven Curses, Jackson Browne does Love Minus Zero/No limit, Diana Krall does Simple Twist Of Fate, Steve Earle and Lucia Micarelli do One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below), Lucinda does Trying To Get To Heaven,  Kris Kristofferson does Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), Elvis Costello does License To Kill, Mark Knopfler does restless Farewell, Dave Matthews does a live recording of All Along The watchtower, and there are many more.  I am keeping this one out to give it a spin.

@ezwind 

and she does a killer version of Ode to Billie Joe on the Southern Soul disc.

+1 on that!  And although her Southern Soul: From Memphis To Muscle Shoals CD is not a tribute to any one particular artist, I love the cover she does of Games People Play.

And back to Dylan:  I hate to say it, but I still have not played her Bob Dylan cover CD.  I haven’t even taken the cellophane off of it yet.  My bad.

Didn't somebody do a cover of the entire Blood On The Tracks?

I bought Standing In The Doorway---Christie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan a coupla days ago, 

I haven't been paying attention to what has come out over the last few years and I've missed out a lot of it.  I was unaware of that one and I always liked her, so I may have to check it out.

Mary Lee's Covette, in 2002, recorded Blood on the Tracks: Recorded Live at Arlene Grocery which a song-by-song tribute. Great.

Thanks, @rettrussell , I've been interested in that for a while now.  I may have to pull the trigger.

Don't believe anyone has mentioned the Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert recording. Many great versions, including:

I forgot about that one, @ezwind .  If it's the same one I am thinking of, I bought it way back when on two VHS tapes.  That's the one win which Sinead O'Connor got heckled and booed?  

How often does a cover truly equal an original performance, let alone surpass it?  Not that often, to my ears. Emmy Lou Harris is pretty consistently satisfying in this regard but I can’t think of anyone else, off-hand. 

@stuartk , Linda Ronstadt?

How often does a cover truly equal an original performance, let alone surpass it?  Not that often, to my ears.

I can respect that point of view, @stuartk , and to some extent, although I find covers of songs I am familiar with to be interesting, I share it.  For me the notable exceptions include The Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane (and possibly Mr. State Trooper) and also Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson’s cover of Pancho And Lefty (you already mentioned Emmylou, and she also did a cover of that also that is simply beautiful).  I’d probably add Lucinda’s cover of Return Of The Grievous Angel.  I have read that many, including Bob Dylan himself, prefer the Jimmi Hendrix cover of All  Along The Watchtower, but I don’t feel that way about that one.  On a quick edit, I think that I might prefer Sinead O'Connor's cover of All Apologies to the original.  

As far as Linda Ronstadt, I bought the Simple Dreams 8-track shortly after I had graduated high school, and since radio stations were severely limited where I grew up, I grew up actually thinking that she was the original artist on most of those songs.  But now that my musical horizons have been expanded, I think that I still prefer her interpretations on many of the tracks.  Poor Poor Pitiful Me and Carmelita and Blue Bayou come to my mind immediately.  

I vaguely remember the Street Legal 8-track, @ezwind .  I think I remember reading that it wasn't a great commercial success, but I rather liked it.

Have you heard Aretha Franklin’s cover of Eleanor Rigby?  

Not until just a few minutes ago, @stuartk , and it is playing agin as I type.  I also played it as performed by the Beatles, and I honestly have to say that  I prefer the Aretha Franklin cover.  But with that typed, The Beatles do not do for me what they do for most others, so that probably doesn't mean much.

I did find a youtube of live Bruce in '95 doing knocking On Heaven's Door in Germany, and as interesting as it was, I much prefer Bob Dylan on that one.  But it could be due to it being performed live.

. . . and I would really like to hear the Lucinda Williams cover of Born In The USA. . . .

I remember when the Cowboy Junkies sarted performing a cover of Thunder Road (I think that would have been in '01) and I almost that I like the CJ cover better than the original.  Although the original is great.