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Dec 06, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Marlon Williams

Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Courtney Barnett has surprise released a new live album, MTV Australia Unplugged Live In Melbourne. It was recorded on October 22 in her hometown and features the previously unreleased new song “Untitled (Play It On Repeat),” a duet with New Zealand singer/songwriter Marlon Williams (a cover of “Not Only I” by the Australian band Seeker Lover Keeper), and ends with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “So Long, Marianne.” It will be released on vinyl and CD on February 21, 2020. Listen to it below and also watch videos from the performance. Videos of her performing four of the songs (“Charcoal Lane,” “Untitled (Play It On Repeat),” “Not Only I,” and “So Long, Marianne”—basically the new song and all of the covers) have been shared. Also below are the dates of her upcoming first ever American solo tour, which is almost sold out.

The performance featured Barnett’s regular bandmates Dave Mudie and Bones Sloane, alongside cellist Lucy Waldron and special guests Paul Kelly, Evelyn Ida Morris, and the aforementioned Williams.

In a press release Barnett had this to say about the album: “I love playing to Melbourne crowds…I wanted to have a mixture of old songs, new songs and covers, and tracks that we don’t perform all the time - it’s been interesting to see the songs through a different filter, and it brings out this other emotional side to the music and the lyrics…. Unplugged is so nostalgic for me. We had two Unplugged Records in our CD collection growing up and I know those records inside out because we listened to them every day.”

Barnett’s last album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, was released back in May 2018 via Mom + Pop/Marathon Artists/Milk! Records. It was our Album of the Week and one our Top 100 Albums of 2018.

Read our 2018 cover story on Courtney Barnett here.

Also read our review of Tell Me How You Really Feel.

In 2017 Barnett teamed up with American singer/songwriter/guitarist Kurt Vile for the collaborative album, Lotta Sea Lice, which came out in October via Matador. (It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2017.)

Read our 2017 interview with Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile on Lotta Sea Lice.

Barnett released her debut full-length album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, via Mom + Pop in 2015 and it landed at #6 on Under the Radar‘s Top 100 Albums of 2015 list.

Also read our joint interview between Barnett and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, from our Best of 2015 issue.

MTV Australia Unplugged Live In Melbourne Tracklist:

1. Depreston
2. Sunday Roast
3. Charcoal Lane (featuring Paul Kelly) - written by Archie Roach
4. Avant Gardener
5. Nameless, Faceless (featuring Evelyn Ida Morris)
6. Untitled (Play It On Repeat)
7. Not Only I (featuring Marlon Williams) - written by Seeker Lover Keeper
8. So Long, Marianne - written by Leonard Cohen

Courtney Barnett U.S. Tour Dates:

1/18/20 - Riveira Maya, Mexico @ Sky Blue Sky Festival
1/20/20 - Nashville, TN @ The Ryman (supporting Brandi Carlile) - SOLD OUT
1/21/20 - Nashville, TN @ The Ryman (supporting Brandi Carlile) - SOLD OUT
1/23/20 - Wilmington, DE @ The Queen* SOLD OUT
1/24/20 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse* - SOLD OUT
1/25/20 - Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios* - SOLD OUT
1/27/20 - Pittsburgh, PA @ The Warhol at Carnegie Lecture Hall* - SOLD OUT
1/28/20 - Cleveland, OH @ Garner Auditorium* - SOLD OUT
1/29/20 - Bloomington, IL @ Castle Theatre*
1/31/20 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s* - SOLD OUT
2/1/20 - San Louis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater*
2/2/20 - Sonoma, CA @ Redwood Barn* - SOLD OUT
2/4/20 - Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House*
2/6/20 - Jackson, WY @ The Center Theatre*
2/8/20 - Estes Park, CO @ The Stanley Hotel* - SOLD OUT

*with support from Hachiku

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