Here’s A Bluegrass Tame Impala Cover From Chris Thile’s Punch Brothers
Before Chris Thile became the host of the radio variety show A Prairie Home Companion — which has since changed its name to Live From Here after cutting ties with creator and original host Garrison Keillor — he was mostly known as the virtuosic mandolin player at the helm of the Punch Brothers. And the Punch Brothers themselves, while plenty famous for their own original music, have garnered a reputation for arranging and performing bluegrass covers of popular songs from the likes of Radiohead, the Strokes, the Cars, and Beck.
Now, they’ve added another song to their repertoire. Chris Thile and Punch Brothers recently stopped by Spotify’s Studios to record a session for the streaming service’s Spotify Singles series, and along with their own Donald Trump Jr.-skewering “Jumbo,” they did a cover of Tame Impala’s epic Currents opener “Let It Happen.” Their rendition is about as faithful as it can be while completely switching up all of the instrumentation, swapping out the original’s electrified psych groove for the warm acoustics of mandolin and strings. Listen below.
Here’s the whole session: