Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett recently teamed up with the indie pop outfit Lucius to host a four hour livestream titled “Festival” in support of the Oxfam COVID-19 Relief Fund. This livestream was a musical marathon, with a number of notable guests including The War on Drugs, Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Kevin Morby & Katie Crutchfield, Fred Armisen, Sheryl Crow, Bedouine, Nathaniel Rateliff, Emily King, and Lukas Nelson. Keeping in tune with social distancing, this livestream was hosted in Barnett’s living room, while guests joined via their own webcams.
During the livestream Barnett and Lucius tackled multiple covers, which included Wilco’s “Jesus, etc,” Skeeter Davis’ “The End of the World,” Gerry & The Pacemakers’ “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Leonard Cohen’s “So Long Marianne,” and Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Other notable covers during the livestream included Van Etten’s cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason,” Kevin Morby and Katie Crutchfield cover of Songs: Ohia’s “Farewell Transmission,” Kurt Vile’s cover of “Everybody Here Hates You” and King’s cover of Boyz II Men’s “On Bended Knee.”
Barnett released MTV Australia Unplugged Live in Melbourne back in February, and was also set to perform at Iceland Airwaves this year. The performer also had a slew of tour dates for this year, which ended prior to the massive cancellations caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lucius recently teamed up with Grace Potter for the song “Back To Me,” which dropped in January. Van Etten recently performed a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “If My Love Could Kill” an Alzheimer’s benefit album and released the song “Staring At A Mountain” from the film Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Kurt Vile recently released a cover of Nick Cave’s “Stranger Than Kindness.”
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna