On Les Stroud’s release of his transitional roots rock album Bittern Lake, comes one of the album’s biggest surprises: a version of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” that strips away the original’s catchy chorus and sunny acoustic guitars in favor of a bluesy take featuring a rich slide guitar along with Stroud’s own dark and scorching harmonica licks. While the bar is set monumentally high for covering Mitchell’s material, Stroud approaches the level of the original while vastly surpassing the more famous rendition from Counting Crowes.