Angel Olsen – “Greenville” (Lucinda Williams Cover)
A few weeks ago, Angel Olsen released her album Big Time. The new album takes Olsen back into the realm of classic country music, a sound that she hasn’t really explored in a while, and it rules extremely hard; it’s one of our favorite LPs of the year thus far. In the wake of that album’s release, Olsen has just dropped a new cover of one of her inspirations. She’s taken on “Greenville,” one of the highlights of Lucinda Williams’ classic 1998 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.
Olsen covers a lot of other people’s songs; she just took on Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” for the Apple show Shining Girls last month. But this “Greenville” cover still stands out, mostly just because it sounds awesome. Olsen’s version of the song is a little folkier than Williams’ original. Kyle Thomas, otherwise known as King Tuff, engineered the cover, and Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy sings backup. In a press release, Olsen says:
Before I wrote Big Time, I found a new obsession and love for Lucinda’s body of work. There is no one like her out there. It’s clear to me that her songs come from a very real place, and that’s the only kind of writing I like.
I recorded my version of “Greenville” in Los Angeles earlier this month with Kyle Thomas of King Tuff. We’ve known each other for a while but never recorded music together. Kyle made this so fun to record, and we had a great time goofing around. Meg Duffy also sang with me on this track. Meg showed me this song for the first time years ago and was the first one to introduce me to Lucinda’s music. It was very meaningful to have them on the track with me.
The “Greenville” cover is an Amazon Music exclusive. Check out the cover and the Lucinda Williams original below.