While essentially every music festival that was set to take place this summer has been canceled, some of those have found ways to continue celebrating and propagating music. A common way that has happened is for fests to host some sort of online event in place of the in-person festival. Newport Folk Festival did just that this past weekend, and the virtual event managed to produce at least one highlight: Phoebe Bridgers and Courtney Barnett came together virtually to perform a cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything Is Free.”
The pair kept their set-up simple, with Barnett sitting on her floor with a guitar in hand and both artists singing, sometimes harmonizing and other times trading verses. The whole thing went off without a hitch and whatever digital barriers may have existed didn’t get in the way of two of indie’s finest.
Bridgers has had a big 2020 so far with the release of her new album Punisher, which she recently promoted with a video for “I Know The End.” Barnett hasn’t had as big of a year, although she did manage to tour the US solo for the first time before the pandemic essentially shut down the music industry completely.
Watch Bridgers and Barnett perform “Everything Is Free” above.