Watch Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy Cover Cat Stevens’ “But I Might Die Tonight”
Earlier this month, a bunch of noteworthy artists including Feist, Haim, Sad13, Dave Matthews, Brandon Boyd, and more participated in a virtual Cat Stevens tribute concert called the Catsong Festival. Haim’s performance has since emerged online, and we saw Feist cover the future Yusuf Islam’s “Trouble” a couple months before the event. Now Drag City has posted footage of Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s contribution to the event.
This performance further tangles the web of covers and collaborations that a particular sector of rootsy indie-rock veterans have been weaving this year. Will Oldham and his fellow legend Bill Callahan have been posting tons of covers lately, and the first of them was a rendition of Stevens’ “Blackness Of The Night” assisted by Azita. Another one of those covers, Hank Williams Jr.’s “OD’d In Denver,” featured Sweeney. Oldham and Sweeney, who released an album together as Superwolf back in 2005, also recently shared a new single called “Make Worry For Me,” a follow-up to March’s Superwolf return “You’ll Get Eaten, Too.” They’ve been teasing an album together for a while.
In addition to all that, Sweeney and Oldham appeared on the Catsong livestream to perform “But I Might Die Tonight” from Stevens’ 1970 album Tea For The Tillerman. Sweeney brings the guitar goodness. Oldham delivers a powerful vocal performance with a child on his lap. It’s very cool and as charmingly off-kilter as you’d expect. Watch below.
How’d they get the kid to stay quiet that long?