To mark what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday today, Wilco have shared their live rendition of the music icon’s “Space Oddity.”
The cover was recorded during the band’s visit to Mountain Stage, NPR Music, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s long-running live radio show and features as the opening track on an upcoming compilation highlighting performances from the series.
“As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an honor and a challenge to tackle any of David Bowie’s space-soaring arrangements,” Wilco said in a statement. “Striving to reach the heights of his freedom and talent is a wise goal for any band. We thank Mountain Stage for letting us give this song another home on Earth.”
Live On Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers, out April 19 via Oh Boy Records and available to preorder now, also features performances by Eric Church, Margo Price, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Lucinda Wiliams, Tyler Childers, and many more.
The compilation arrives as Mountain Stage enters its 40th year of broadcast, having been established in 1983. “Mountain Stage has always been about our guests,” founder and original host Larry Groce said in a statement.
“Our only purpose has been to showcase their incredible talent. We’ve heard a lot in forty years, and these songs are just a few of the treasures from our archives that we want to share with the world. When we got the chance to work with Oh Boy Records on this project, we jumped at it. John Prine is an American music icon who set the bar for performing songwriters like the ones in this collection. There’s a lot of fun here but there’s also a lot of insight as to what life is all about.”
Live On Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers Track List
1) Wilco-“Space Oddity” (David Bowie cover)
2) Watchhouse-“The Wolves”
3) Molly Tuttle-“You Didn’t Call My Name”
4) Tyler Childers-“Going Home”
5) Lucinda Williams-“Joy”
6) Eric Church-“Sinners Like Me”
7) Margo Price-“Hurtin’ (On The Bottle)”
8) Gillian Welch and David Rawlings-“One More Dollar”
9) Bird of Chicago-“Lodestar”
10) Kathy Mattea-“Redwing Blackbird”
11) The Indigo Girls-“Closer To Fine”
12) John Prine-“Souvenirs”
13) Steve Earle-“You Know The Rest”
14) Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn-“What’cha Gonna Do”
15) Sierra Ferrell-“I’d Do It Again”
16) Tim O’Brien-“Cup of Sugar”
17) Rhiannon Giddens-“Black Is the New Color”
18) Alison Krauss-“Let me Touch You For A While”
19) James McMurtry-“Canola Fields”
20) Jason Isbell-“Traveling Alone”
21) Sam Baker-“Isn’t Love Great”
