Speed, Sound, Lonely KV - EP

Editors’ Notes Kurt Vile’s five-song EP is the culmination of a series of recording sessions in Nashville, Tennessee, in the span of four years. Having toyed with country sounds in 2018’s Bottle It In, the Philly singer-songwriter explores the genre even further with compact, less drawn-out songs that carry a more traditional bent. The three covers featured here, two originally written by John Prine and one by “Cowboy” Jack Clement, remain closely tied to the originals, albeit armed with a group of seasoned studio musicians. On Prine’s “How Lucky,” the veteran folk songwriter joins Vile for a moving duet—one of his last recordings before he passed away in April 2020. The two originals, “Dandelions” and “Pearls,” are gliding, laidback, and a little hazy, with Vile making his typical matter-of-fact observations over fingerpicked acoustic guitar.