These days, lots of musicians are doing their part to raise money for people affected by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, and now two LA-based musicians have gotten together to cover a song that can justifiably be called a Southern California classic. Singer-songwriter Olivia Kaplan and Meg Duffy, better known as Hand Habits, have shared their tender, harmony-heavy take on Neil Young's "Birds," and they're donating the song's Bandcamp proceeds to the Anti-Recidivism Coalition Firefighter Fund, which supports the incarcerated people who worked to fight the fires, and the Flintridge Center’s Dena Fire Relief Fund, for families affected by the Eaton fire.
Neil Young is not from Los Angeles. But when he made "Birds" and the rest of his 1970 classic After The Gold Rush, he was living in Topanga Canyon and working in his home studio. He recorded "Birds" at Sound City, and it's a gorgeously melancholic duet with his occasional bandmate Graham Nash. Olivia Kaplan and Meg Duffy stay pretty faithful to the original song, but their version is a bit more stripped-down and intimate. Listen to the Kaplan/Duffy version of "Birds" and the Young/Nash original below.
You can by Olivia Kaplan and Hand Habits' take on "Birds" at Bandcamp.
