Barry Gibb – “Butterfly” (Feat. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
Last month, Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb announced a new album called Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1. The premise: Gibb was rifling through the past and reinterpreting songs from across his career in a country/bluegrass style. To help him get there, he teamed with Nashville producer Dave Cobb and brought in a whole array of rustic types to guest and duet across the album.
So far, we’ve already heard Gibb partner with Jason Isbell for “Words Of A Fool.” (Months before Greenfields was announced, Isbell told me a funny/nerve-wracking/charming story about being in the studio with Gibb.) Today, Gibb is back with another preview of the collection.
This time around, Gibb worked with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Together they’ve taken on a very old Bee Gees song, “Butterfly.” It’s a mid-’60s cut that has a kind of folk-tinged pop style to it you might expect from the middle of that decade. As it turns out, “Butterfly” lends itself pretty well to getting an Americana spin, and that’s before you get to the fact that this song happens to feature multiple references to “green fields.” Appropriate for this project! Check it out below.
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 is out 1/8 via Capitol.