I have bought the odd cover version by an artist that I may not necessarily buy because I like both the original artist and the cover version. But isnt that part of the marketing plan? Expand one artists fan base through another artist....rarely i assume is one tribute album a great album but it can be a bit liquorice allsorts...

Does anyone here have interesting stories about how some of these tributes come about? Also does the artist being tributed have much of a say generally?

As usual Wiki provides an interesting array under 'tribute album'

...this is the only one that I can think of that's any good:

http://www.emmylou.net/gramnews.html

It's got The Mavericks on it. But hey. You can't have everything.

(Of good ones) OK, they ain't the original, but that's the point, variations on the theme etc.
Poet (Townes Van Zandt) Return of the Grievous Angel (Gram) both the Richard Thompson ones, both the Leonard Cohen ones (studio ones, as there is also the so so live soundtrack one) Oh and the purely Jennifer Warnes one, Famous Blue Raincoat. (Is the single artist covering another count, viz FBR above, Holly Cole's tom Waits one, Shelby does Dusty etc etc?)
Nebraska, the covers version, is another favourite.
My tip, oft repeated, is that if the Cowboy Junkies or Lucinda Williams or Emmylou are on it, a cracker it will be.
Stories of how they came to be: is it not true that Van the man was so aggrieved at not having one made for him, made his own, selecting the artists and songs himself....

This German band's speciality is recreating complete stage sets of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. Their attention to detail verges on the obsessional - for their recreation of the "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" tour, they managed to acquire many of the stage props from the tour, rebuilding the rest from surviving photographs. They even got hold of Peter Gabriel's costumes from the tour, and most of the back-projected slides that had been used. They even, where possible, played the same venues. The final cherry on the cake came when Mike Rutherford lent them the custom double-neck bass/12-string he'd played on the tour. To call this obsessive recreation a "tribute band" is a major understatement - they're more like one of those Civil War re-enactment societies!

...removing a duplicate post. (Fraser: any chance of the ability to delete our own posts, as well as editing them, as long as there are no replies?).

Tribute albums can be useful. I've said before on these pages that I didn't 'get' Dylan until a decade or so ago, when I started to discover him through a couple of albums of covers attached to music mags. The songs stood up whatever the treatment given to them.
Likewise, I would rather have root canal surgery than listen to Bruce Springsteen, but occaisionally play a similar album - stripped of his mannerisms some of the songs are ok. (Unlike the Bob example, I haven't been able to overcome my reservations abou the originals.)

David Bowie's tribute to the 60's. Very different versions and, whisper it softly, sometimes superior to the original. See Emily Play for example (runs for cover).

An album done for all the right reasons - entertaining and more royalties to the original artists.

I really like Sweet Relief, The Victoria Williams tribute, particularly as I'm not that keen on Williams voice. The Tom T Hall Project isn't bad either.

Does a beautiful version of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by Flaming Lips, a band I didnt really listen too....she also does other covers by White Stripes and N.E.R.D.'s "She Wants To Move"

I seem to remember thats one to avoid

Neil Young tribute. Mixed results but Pixies Winterlong and Nick Cave Helpless I recall fondly. And all for a good cause. Also ended my Neil Young hiatus and returned me to the delights of his oeuvre - so this post could go in that thread about cover versions leading you to seek out originals, which is pleasing.

must dig it out of the heap to check but I remember this is full of gems - Ron Sexsmith's My Old Desk, Jellyfish, Aimee Mann "One",Randy Newman - might be a dodgy Stevie Nicks/Ringo interface

A few of my favourite cover versions are all by the same guy....All along the Watchtower, Wild Thing, Rock Me Baby, Like a Rolling Stone ,Please crawl out your window, Come On, Star Spangled Banner.....definitely my no-brainer nomination for the best dead rock star too...he managed to knock out some good originals too, as well as singlehandedly dragging "pop" music into the future,and possibly inventing a few of those genres we love to toss around these days..."heavy metal" Foxy Lady, Manic Depression, Purple Haze..."ambient electronic" - side 3 of Electric Ladyland..."psychedelia" would have been nowhere without Axis Bold as Love...Also the original "guitar hero"...Ah, what would Hendrix have produced during all those lost decades of music....I don't think he'd have gone down the Sir Paul McCartney route!