James Blake has delivered a whole bunch of covers of his favourite artists while in lockdown, and Nirvana are the next band to get his acoustic treatment.
Over the weekend, Blake put on a “piano improv concert”, performing a few tracks with just vocals and piano… as could reasonably be assumed.
Ahead of the performance, he received a request from a fan. “Do like a soft version of Come As You Are by Nirvana if you can. Sounds random but thought it might be cool,” posted a punter on his Instagram.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) June 28, 2020
Did he ever deliver, with Blake performing a slow and soft cover, putting his own spin on the classic Nirvana tune in a hauntingly beautiful manner. His vocals really did justice to the tune, and the piano gave it a really honest and beautiful quality.
The cover saw fans request the singer-songwriter to record the cover and release it.
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“Please record this, ‘cause OMG it’s beautiful,” said one. “Maybe its an idea to release these as a little ep-thingy so we can listen to it on streaming platforms? That way we can listen to them whenever we want, like while traveling,” asked another.
The concert was raising money for The Loveland Foundation, a charity committed to helping communities of colour in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls.
Upon uploading the full concert to Instagram, Blake revealed that over $6,000 US had been raised, and he also pledged to match the money raised, taking the total to almost $13K US.
“We raised $6400!! I will match it,” he said. “Thanks everyone for watching x”.
You can also check out the full hour-concert here. His dog also makes an insanely cute appearance.