Don’t know how I missed this video when it came to light late last month, but Andrew Bird and Priscilla Ahn’s gorgeous take on Cass McCombs’ “Meet Me Here at Dawn” is just too good not to mention. This video, as well as a slew of others featuring the Submarines, Joseph Arthur, R.E.M’s Mike Mills, and Brett Dennen, are part of The Voice Project, “a song-driven movement inspired by the women of Uganda who are using their voices and songs as vehicles for change in the war-ravaged region of Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo.”
I’m not normally a big fan of Bird’s prowess in the art of whistling, but this time it definitely works, not to mention his phrasing and voice here eerily reminds me of Townes Van Zandt (a thought I’ve never had about Van Zandt’s many imitators). Meanwhile, Ahn does a great job at adding a touch of sweetness to the choruses while patiently staying out of the way of Bird’s nuanced lead.
Watch Bird and Ahn cover McCombs’ “Meet Me Here at Dawn” from his 2003 album, A, here or below: