Watch Kurt Vile and his daughters cover Gillian Welch and Neil Young for Democratic campaign
American singer-songwriter Kurt Vile has enlisted the help of his young daughters to cover Gillian Welch and Neil Young for a Democratic party campaign.
The Vile family performed three songs from home as part of the weekly ‘Team Joe Sings’ series, in support of presidential candidate Joe Biden and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Vile opened his set with a solo performance of his own original song ‘Bassackwards’, from his 2018 album ‘Bottle It In’. He and daughter Delphine then launched into a rendition of Neil Young’s ‘Heart Of Gold’, with Delphine playing drums and adding some vocals at the song’s end. To wrap things up, Vile and his other daughter, Awilda, performed a cover of Gillian Welch’s ‘Wayside/Back In Time’, from her 2003 record ‘Soul Journey’.
Check out the performance below:
In between songs, Vile paused to explain why he’s throwing support behind Biden and Harris for the forthcoming election.
“They both have a heart, they both wanna help,” he said. “This is not a normal thing that I do exactly, so I might not be coming off so professional but what I’m here [for] is to support through music and you know, with my family and stuff, so we’re going to play some music for you.”
The former The War On Drugs guitarist has demonstrated his penchant for covers in the past. In March, his rendition of Nick Cave’s ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ appeared on the ‘Songs For Australia’ benefit album, raising money for bushfire relief and climate change charities.
In September, he also shared a posthumous duet titled ‘How Lucky’ with the late John Prine, who passed away from coronavirus complications in April. The single was lifted from Vile’s latest EP ‘Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep)’, which he released earlier this month.
The ‘Team Joe Sings’ series kicked off last month, and has so far featured artists such as Chloe x Halle, The National’s Matt Beringer, Andrew Bird and JP Saxe, among others.
Other musicians such as Billie Eilish, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Cardi B, Madonna and more have also shown their support for Biden and Harris.