The Fat Angel Sings

Jason Isbell and his wife and fellow musician Amanda Shires have released a digital-only two-song EP called Sea Songs. Featuring covers of Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers” and Warren Zevon’s “Mutineer,” the EP is stripped down and intimate, the pair’s knack for vocal harmonies underscored by Isbell’s guitar and Shires’s fiddle.

While Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires gear up for a March recording session with producer Dave Cobb whose Nashville studio has helped spawn some of the decade’s best roots albums, including Isbell’s “Southeastern“ this Americana power couple is tossing a bone to fans who’ve waited nearly two years for follow-ups to “Southeastern” and Shires’ last solo effort, “Down Fell the Doves“. This week, they’re releasing a digital EP, “Sea Songs”, whose two tracks splash the duo’s harmonies against a backdrop of acoustic guitar, fiddle and maritime themes.

Sparse and lovely, “Sea Songs” has a lot in common with the pair’s cover of “Born in the U.S.A.,” a highlight from last year’s Bruce Springsteen tribute album “Dead Man’s Town”. This time, Isbell and Shires are putting their sonic stamp on Lykke Li‘s “I Follow Rivers” and Warren Zevon‘s “Mutineer,” stripping the songs free of nearly everything — including Li’s computerized bleeps and bloops, and Zevon’s swooning synths — but the melodies and chord progressions.

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Recently, Isbell announced a run of tour dates with the 400 Unit in April and May, presumably after wrapping up his fourth solo album with Cobb.