Margaret Glaspy ft James Bay– These Days
Margaret Glaspy will return this Friday, September 12 with The Golden Heart Protector, a new project featuring seven covers and collaborations with friends including Norah Jones, Julian Lage, Madison Cunningham, Andrew Bird, and Alam Khan.
Today she is excited to share her rendition of Jackson Browne’s “These Days (feat. James Bay).”
James Bay says:
Margaret and I met back in 2016, I reached out as a huge fan of her record Emotions And Math. We were playing the same festival and though we were on different stages at the same time, she sent a signed copy of her record to my dressing room. We’ve been friends ever since! In 2024 Margaret was in London playing some solo shows; she asked if she knew anyone who might be able to open up the show. I asked if I could and she said yes! We decided it would be fun to do a cover song together and we found These Days on a playlist of hers and thought it could make for a cool duet so we worked out a version that afternoon and that evening we played it live. We loved duetting and agreed it would be fun to capture it in the studio some time. At the end of 2024 we happened to be in LA at the same time and Margaret was working with Ryan Lerman in the studio. Margaret and I realised this was our chance to record These Days, she invited me over and we captured it in just a couple hours! The rest is history! I’m so grateful to Margaret for her friendship and inspiration, I’m such a huge fan of her work.
The tracklisting for The Golden Heart Protector is completed by six other songs reimagined through Glaspy’s singular lens, including her recently released version of Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” featuring Norah Jones, alongside selections from Magnetic Fields, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Blake Mills, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Each performance offers a new emotional texture while remaining true to the spirit of the originals.
Margaret will be returning to the road this fall and has just announced additional dates for the run including a show in Boston, MA on November 3 and in Washington, DC on November 1. Glaspy previously announced a New York City show at Le Poisson Rouge on October 16. All shows are listed below and tickets for the new dates are on-sale Friday, Sept 12 at 12pm ET
The Golden Heart Protector will mark the follow up to Glaspy’s 2023 EP The Sun Doesn’t Think (ATO). Of the project she notes,
I made this record out in LA almost by accident. My dear friend Ryan Lerman and I hung out for a weekend in Los Angeles at his studio and I just kept playing songs and wonderful people kept showing up to sing and play them with me. He was the dream producer for a project like this because he just let it all happen. James Bay just happened to be in town from London on the day we were tracking, Madison Cunningham had a day off, Alam Khan is a childhood friend of my husband’s and happened to be in LA; It really was the most organic and wonderful thing. I’m such a lover of a good song and to have the opportunity to sing and celebrate all these well written tunes with all of my dear friends is really enchanting. All of the songwriters that we cover are either friends or heroes of mine and it feels special to pay homage to the legends of our time.
Margaret Glaspy tour
10/3 – 10/5 – Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival – San Francisco, CA
10/15 – MilkBoy – Philadelphia, PA
10/16 – Le Poisson Rouge – New York City, NY
10/17 – City Winery – Pittsburgh, PA
11/1 – Pearl Street Warehouse – Washington, DC
11/3 – City Winery – Boston, MA
11/6 – Daily Brew Coffee House – North Falmouth, MA
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