We’ve been covering the lockdown collaborations between old friends Bill Callahan and Will Oldham aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy for some time now, collaborations which have involved getting together with friends and covering other people’s songs, both well known and not so well known, including covers of songs from Johnnie Frierson, Air Supply, and Michael Burton.
This week they’ve covered a Leonard Cohen song, but one you may not have heard before unless you’re a Cohen fan. ‘The Night Of Santiago’ came out in 2019, three years after his death in 2016, and his son Adam released a finished version of the last album he was working on prior to his death under the title ‘Thanks For The Dance’ at the tail end of 2019. ‘The Night Of Santiago’ is based on a story describing a brief affair, which Cohen adapted from a Federico García Lorca poem, the original version of the song featuring contributions from Beck, Daniel Lanois, and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. The new version features veteran guitar wizard and former Squirrel Bait/Gastr Del Sol member David Grubbs.
A beautiful little gem, thank you!