Performing livestream concerts from home has become the new normal these days. Aside from artists going at it on their own, organizations and other entities have been hosting multi-artists performance series (like Indie Mixtape, for example). One of the latest, Isol-Aid’s Lunch Without Borders, went down yesterday, and one of the artists performing was Julien Baker. She made the most of her 17-minute set (which somebody graciously uploaded in full on YouTube) by debuting a new song called “Mercy.”
Her rendition of the track, featuring just acoustic guitar and vocals, was minimal and absolutely lovely. Before playing the song, she said of it, “It’s a new one. It’s not newly written, but it’s not on a record or anywhere. And it’s a song about other people showing you how to be a better person by being better people than you, at you, which requires a lot of humility, which is an important and necessary lesson, and probably one of many that we’re all learning.”
Baker wrapped up her 2019 by dropping a pair of new singles, “Tokyo” and “Sucker Punch.” She also has some new material this year, thanks to her inclusion on Hayley Williams’ upcoming album Petals For Armor (alongside fellow Boygenius members Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus).
Watch Baker’s full set above, with “Mercy” beginning at 14:07 into the video.