Ben Harper and Rhiannon Giddens

"Black Eyed Dog", Anti-Records

This cover of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog" brings together the amazing talents of Ben Harper and Rhiannon Giddens. Released on East of Nashville, Vol. 1 (an Experimental Country and Folk Compilation) in 2020 from Anti-, it features Ben Harper on lap steel and Giddens on banjo with vocals recalling a time and perspective mostly forgotten. As Harper states, "Rhiannon and I are both black purveyors of American roots music... We have unquestionably tapped into the same creative well of influence, carrying on the tradition through our own individual instincts and perspectives." In the era of Black Lives Matter, this glimpse of our American past in the form of two Black musicians covering an English musician's song written in an Appalachian style couldn't be more current, or more beautiful.