Waxahatchee‘s Tigers Blood and MJ Lenderman‘s Manning Fireworks are two of the year’s best alt-country-leaning albums that have both been ranking very high on multiple major lists of the year’s best albums, and their duet “Right Back To It” from Waxahatchee’s album (which Lenderman also plays guitar on every song of) is coming in at or near the top of multiple lists of the year’s best songs. Now, they’ve teamed up once again to cover an alt-country pioneer who paved the way for both of them, Lucinda Williams. They do a gorgeous cover of her 1988 song “Abandoned” for Waxahatchee’s just-released Apple Music Nashville Sessions EP, which was recorded with Lenderman on vocals/guitar and Tigers Blood producer Brad Cook on bass, and also features stripped-down renditions of “Right Back To It” and “Burns.” Hear the whole thing below.
Waxahatchee has also announced a show she’s curating during SXSW, happening at Willie Nelson‘s Spicewood, TX Luck Ranch on March 14. The lineup includes Lucinda Williams and her band, Futurebirds, Bill Callahan, Kam Franklin, Brennan Wedl, and special guests to be announced. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 6 at 10 AM CST.
Lenderman recently spoke in an interview for the BrooklynVegan digital magazine about how Waxahatchee leader Katie Crutchfield’s 2018 essay on Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On A Gravel Road helped get him into Lucinda’s music in the first place. Lucinda herself also has a live-in-studio Beatles covers album coming out this week.
