Rufus Wainwright shared a cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest,” featuring Andrew Bird and Chris Stills. The track is set for Wainwright’s forthcoming album, Folkocracy, arriving on June 2 via BMG.
Wainwright detailed Folkocracy — a guest-filled album of folk classics in homage to the genre as well as his famous folk-singer family — in March and shared the single “Down In The Willow Garden” featuring Brandi Carlile. Wainwright followed with Peggy Seeger’s “Heading For Home” featuring John Legend. Additional guests on the album include David Byrne, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Madison Cunningham and more.
Rufus now teams with singer-songwriters Andrew Bird and Chris Stills — son of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Stephen Stills — for a cover of Neil Young’s classic “Harvest,” the title track to his landmark 1972 album. Wainwright spoke about working with Andrew and Chris on the song:
“The music of Neil Young has been part of my entire life. What has always drawn me to him are his lyrics. I think that lyrics are often underrated in today’s music. But then of course with Neil Young you also get these absolutely iconic melodies and the sound quality of his albums is simply amazing. He is the full package.
“To record Harvest was a pure joy. I had never sung with Andrew or recorded with him playing the violin and he is so inherently musical that it feels so natural to sing such a sophisticated song with him. And it was amazing to include my old friend Chris Stills on this track who probably was fed Neil Young’s voice with his mother’s milk. Chris has one of the most beautiful voices I have heard and his harmonizing is absolutely delicious.”
Check out the in-studio lyric video for Rufus Wainwright’s cover of “Harvest” below:
