Courtney Barnett and Vagabon Share Cover of Sharon Van Etten’s ‘Don’t Do It’

    Courtney Barnett and Vagabon have shared a cover of Sharon Van Etten’s ‘Don’t Do It’. Their rendition is taken from an upcoming release celebrating the 10th anniversary of Van Etten’s 2010 LP Epic, which is titled epic Ten and includes a reissue of the original album as well as a collection of covers. Hear Barnett and Vagabon’s take on ‘Don’t Do It’ below.

    “Courtney and I found that we have a beautiful collaborating chemistry when we made our cover of ‘Reason to Believe,’ which came out earlier this year,” Vagabon explained in a statement. “So when CB asked me to join her in singing ‘Don’t Do It’ by the inimitable Sharon Van Etten, I was thrilled! ‘Don’t Do It’ is one of my favorite tracks off Epic and it was such a pleasure to do a version of it with Courtney.”

    Courtney Barnett added:

    I was so honoured that Sharon invited me to be part of this project. She is one of my favourite songwriters and such an inspiring artist, performer & encouraging friend to me. This song “Don’t Do It” is powerful and personal, I really didn’t know how to make it my own, in fact I tried to pick a different song and convinced myself I wasn’t up to the task, but Sharon was quietly supportive the whole time. in the process of talking vulnerably about the lyrics with her, I had to delve deeper into what the song meant for me. It’s fascinating to hear an artist ruminate on a song that is 10 years old and see how it/they have evolved. I think it’s a beautiful thing to celebrate the journey of a song.

    I went into the studio a few days after Melbourne lockdown lifted. Stella Mozgawa played drums and I played guitar and we built the song from there. A week later I was talking to my friend Lætitia (Vagabon) we were saying how we should collaborate more. I nervously asked if she’d be interested in singing with me on this song and I’m so glad she said yes, her voice sounds incredible and really made the song feel complete. After nearly a year of solitude, I was so grateful for this opportunity to create something different with people that I greatly admire. And it seemed perfectly strange that the last time I was on a stage pre-COVID was with these three people.

    Epic Ten arrives digitally April 6 and physically June 11 via Ba Da Bing and includes previously released covers from Big Red Machine, IDLES, Lucinda Williams, and Shamir. Earlier this year, Vagabon and Barnett also teamed up for a cover of Tim Hardin’s ‘Reason to Believe’.

    Konstantinos Pappis
    Konstantinos Pappis
    Konstantinos Pappis is a writer, journalist, and music editor at Our Culture. His work has also appeared in Pitchfork, GIGsoup, and other publications. He currently lives in Athens, Greece.

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