What is weirder than thinking about Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong casually chilling out with indie-jazz super chanteuse Norah Jones? How about if the two of them get together and record an album of Everly Brothers covers? In an instance of something so weird it actually makes perfect sense, the two musicians recently convened in NYC to bang out their own version of the Everly Brothers’ album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. The original album, released in 1958, was itself a kind of covers record: a collection of traditional country songs that were previously made famous by the likes of Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. Hearing Armstrong and Jones take on these songs is something of a quiet revelation. While a country standard might not exactly seem out of place in Jones’s oeuvre, hearing her harmonize with Armstrong — a vocalist who doesn’t always get the chance to show off the subtle range of his voice — is both surprising and pretty wonderful. Foreverly not only gives listeners the chance to hear a couple of very established artists creatively letting their hair down — purely for the fun of it — but it also brings to light some beautiful old songs that might otherwise never come to the attention of a contemporary audience.
I had to the chance to talk to both artists about the origins of the project and the experience of recording together. You can check out their version of “Long Time Gone” below.
STEREOGUM: I realized after listening to your new record that I actually have a history with the original Everly Brothers album.