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Aug 03, 2020 ANOHNI By Samantha Small

ANOHNI sparingly releases music—the last we heard was a 2018 cover of The Cranberries’ “No Need to Argue.” But today we’re happy to announce she has released two choice covers: one for Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and another of Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband.” The songs are available digitally, with a 7-inch following on October 2nd via Secretly Canadian. Stream the tracks below.

Originally from Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, ANOHNI brings in guitarist and longtime collaborator Kevin Barker for a lo-fi cover of the track that sounds like she’s underwater. But her powerful voice, much like Dylan’s, breaks through these waves.

“I recorded ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ with Kevin Barker one afternoon a few years ago,” says ANOHNI in a press release. “I listened to it recently and it reminded me of Now, a nausea of nostalgia for the suffering of the present, or even the future. I did a couple of songs by Bob Dylan at that time, encouraged by Hal Willner, the producer who we lost to COVID-19 in April. I hope that this period, and this repugnant presidency, will be over soon, and that these bigots and apocalyptic capitalists and evangelicals will crawl back into their rotten little holes. But how can this happen unless the American media and social media are forced to tell the truth? I am glad to see the mobilization of Black Lives Matter and the re-emergence of the Occupy movement. When Biden said ‘Americans don’t want revolution, they want a return to decency,’ he was wrong. We all know deep down that the continuation of our civilizations for much longer will require seismic change.”

The Nina Simone cover of “Be My Husband” then comes in with a full(er) band—a dreary piano, some caged drums ,and ANOHNI’s staggering vibrato singing about traditional gender roles. Interestingly enough, Simone’s husband at the time, Andrew Stroud, is the song’s credited writer for the track off her 1965 album Pastel Blues.

“I saw Nina Simone perform at Carnegie Hall in 1991 while I was still in college,” says the singer in the press release. “The concert was not properly publicized, and the theater was only half full. I think it may have been her first time back in NYC in many years. She was rumored to be volatile and unpredictable. That night she sang and played with such dignity, so incredibly, and she did 5 or 6 encores. For me, she was the greatest musician of the 20th Century. She didn’t write many songs, but the ones she wrote were among the most profound of the era. ‘Be My Husband’ was one such song. The lyrics spin a paradox of romantic assertion and submission. This live version of the song was recorded at an Antony and the Johnsons concert at the Knitting Factory in NYC in 1999.”

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