Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Feist, HAIM, Sad13 & more covering Cat Stevens for virtual fest
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yusuf / Cat Stevens‘ 1970 albums Tea for the Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon, over 40 artists will cover his songs on a new virtual festival, CatSong, streaming on Thursday, December 5 at 3 PM ET. Watch it below.
Feist, HAIM, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Dave Matthews, Matt Sweeney, Brandon Boyd, Sad13, Imelda May, Sen Morimoto, and Ron Sexsmith are among the artists performing; see the full lineup on the poster below.
“It’s great to see and hear these covers of my songs given new life,” Yusuf / Cat Stevens says. “There’s no better honour for a songwriter than to have his songs performed by talented musicians with such love and sincerity. Thank you.”
More from festival organizers:
With the extended disruption to the music industry due to the global Coronavirus pandemic the CatSong Festival has also taken on a new significance. Having had to cancel a full year of scheduled touring in 2020, Yusuf is all too aware of the significant threat that the ongoing pandemic poses to live music and is keen to be a part of the solution. He sincerely hopes that this event will give the participating artists a chance to share their talents with his and each other’s audiences. At all levels of the industry, it is imperative that we find ways to allow musicians to connect with new audiences to keep the flame of live music burning.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Bill Callahan recently covered Cat Stevens’ classic 1967 protest song, “Blackness of the Night.”
Meanwhile, 50th anniversary box set reissues of both Tea for the Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon are out this week.
