After a year full of bizarre collaborations, 2021 is kicking off with a joint track that’s more exciting than surprising, and certainly not nearly as weird as mall punks showing up on a gecs remix. Today, recent tourmates Vagabon and Courtney Barnett are sharing a collaborative cover of Karen Dalton’s home-recorded “Reason to Believe,” which is itself a cover of a folky Tim Hardin track later also performed by The Carpenters, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Cher, and plenty of others.
“I recently discovered the Karen Dalton version of ‘Reason to Believe’ for the first time,” Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko noted in a press release. “I became obsessed and so a few days after discovering it, I was encouraged to record a cover of it in my garage. The decision to have Courtney sing it with me came after we performed it together live at the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day 2020, a month before lockdown.”
“I’m a huge fan of Vagabon and Karen Dalton so this was a dream,” Barnett added. “They both have a voice that absolutely knocks the wind out of me. I really admire Laetitia and am constantly inspired by her songwriting, production, and our sporadic FaceTime chats.”
You can check out the track below with a grainy road-trip visual attached. You can also catch Vagabon’s newly announced live stream at the end of the month, airing January 29 at 6 p.m. PST on Noon Chorus.
