Phoebe Bridgers – “Powerful Man” (Alex G Cover)
Phoebe Bridgers has been busy lately. The frighteningly gifted Los Angeles singer-songwriter is one third of the new supergroup boygenius alongside Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, and they released a hell of an EP last week. Since then, Bridgers has also showed up on a new version of Conor Oberst’s “LAX,” singing (not for the first time) with a hero of hers. And now she’s got a new song, a cover of a (Sandy) Alex G track that sounds completely different coming from her.
Last year, (Sandy) Alex G released his Rocket album. One of its songs was “Powerful Man,” an acoustic folk ramble laced with Cajun fiddle. The song works as a sort of deconstruction of the whole idea of masculinity, of what it means to be a powerful man: “Had a dream about a promised land / Walkin’ round with a big gun in my hand… Gonna be a powerful man / Red blood running down the broken sand.”
Bridgers’ version of the song, like Oberst’s new take on “LAX,” is part of Amazon’s Produced By series. For the song, she worked with producer Simone Felice, a member of the rootsy Felice Brothers. She’s done a warm, delicate, genuinely gorgeous version of the song that features Conor Oberst on harmonica. And of course, it’s hugely different to hear those words coming from a woman. Listen to Bridgers’ version of “Powerful Man,” as well as the original, below.
Bridgers’ album Stranger In The Alps is out now on Dead Oceans.