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Aug 03, 2020 By Samantha Small Courtney Barnett

Music festivals are long gone, for now. And although we’re sad to miss out on overpriced beer and potential heat stroke, that isn’t stopping organizers from doing a virtual version of the events. This past weekend was the legendary Newport Folk Festival, and slotted for those events were contemporary singer/songwriter starlets Phoebe Bridgers and Courtney Barnett. The pair decided to give fans an extra treat and covered folk luminary Gillian Welch’s “Everything is Free.” Watch the performance below.

Interesting enough, Welch wrote the song about the long departed Napster. Everything was free on Napster, and well, it pretty much is on Spotify now too (unless you want to count .0004 cents per stream, but I don’t). But timeliness aside, “Everything Is Free” is a cover both Bridgers and Barnett have in common, so it only made sense they do it together this time. With just Barnett’s cool guitar and casual melody paired with Bridgers’ higher harmonies the cover is a joyous listen, albeit one with a less-than-joyous meaning.

Last week Bridgers released the video for “I Know The End,” the final track on her excellent new album Punisher. Punisher also includes “Garden Song,” and “Kyoto,” which were both #1 on our Songs of the Week list. “I See You,” was also one of our Songs of the Week, as well as “I Know the End.” It’s a pretty spectacular album—you can read all about it here.

Read our 2017 exclusive interview with Phoebe Bridgers and check out our photo-shoot with her.

Read our 2019 cover story interview with boygenius.

Barnett has been pretty busy too. Back in December, she released a live album MTV Australia Unplugged Live In Melbourne. Before that she released Tell Me How You Really Feel 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.

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

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

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