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Jan 23, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Susanne Sundfør

Mercury Rev are releasing a new album, The Delta Sweete Revisited, on February 8 via Partisan and Bella Union. On the album they cover Bobbie Gentry’s 1968 “country-rock opera” The Delta Sweete in its entirety, each with a different guest singer. Now they have shared two more tracks from it: a cover of the album’s “Tobacco Road” featuring Susanne Sundfør and the album’s bonus track, a cover of “Ode to Billie Joe” featuring Lucinda Williams (the original was the title track to the album before The Delta Sweete). Listen to both tracks below.

Previously Mercury Rev shared the album’s first three singles: a cover of “Sermon” featuring Margo Price (it was one of our Songs of the Week), a cover of “Big Boss Man” featuring guest vocals from Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, and a cover of “Okolona River Bottom Band” featuring Norah Jones. The Delta Sweete Revisited also features guest vocals from Phoebe Bridgers, Vashti Bunyan, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Lætitia Sadier (Stereolab), Kaela Sinclair (M83), Beth Orton, and others.

Midlake’s Jesse Chandler joined Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper to produce, perform, and rearrange all the music on The Delta Sweete Revisited. The original The Delta Sweete was Gentry’s second album and was released in 1968. It followed her 1967 debut album, Ode to Billie Joe, which was a #1 album, in part thanks to its hit single of a title track. The Delta Sweete, on the other hand, was much less of a success, only making it to #132 on the Billboard album charts. Mercury Rev’s album includes as a bonus track a cover of “Ode to Billie Joe” featuring Lucinda Williams.

Margo Price had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “Bobbie Gentry is one of the greatest writers and performers of our time. She was the definition of country funk and southern soul. Her songs were well-crafted, literary masterpieces. Bobbie produced so much of her own work that she didn’t get credit for. Her influence on my music has been massive and her influence on the music world in general is earth shattering. Bobbie is iconic, original, eloquent and timeless. She is an elusive wonder in a world of plain spoken, worn out cliques. She has remained a strong voice and an eternal spirit of the delta, wrapped in mystery, yet forever here.”

Mercury Rev’s last album, The Light In You, came out in 2015 via Bella Union. Last year they celebrated the 20th anniversary of arguably their most acclaimed and beloved album, 1998’s Deserter’s Songs, via some tour dates where they performed the album.

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