Stereogum reports that the Portland-based indie rock outfit The Decemberists brought out a special guest at their recent performance at Central Park, New York: the Grammy award-winning songwriter and playwright Lin Manuel Miranda. Footage of the performance, which took place on August 23, was recorded and uploaded to YouTube, allowing fans all over the world to see the show.

The performance saw the Encanto and Hamilton songwriter perform the collaberative track “Ben Franklin’s Song,” which Miranda wrote with The Decemberists in 2017 as part of the Hamildrop collection. Before the track, the band warns the audience about vulgar lyrics in the track, while jokingly giving the blame to Lin Manuel Miranda, who he describes as the writer of “that Bruno song.” In the performance, we see the Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy sing the first half of the catchy song solo, until the 2 minute mark, when we see Miranda join him on stage while being cheered on my the audience.

The second half of the track sees the duo of Miranda and Meloy, both allowing Miranda to sing solo and creating passionate harmonies together. Watch Lin Manuel Miranda perform “Ben Franklin’s Song” with The Decemberists via YouTube below.

The Decemberists are currently on their 2022 Summer Tour, with dates scheduled in North America until August 28. Colin Meloy recently created a Substack page which offered unreleased music from The Decemberists and other content for fans.

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna