Nashville’s country-grunge artist announces the project with a studio version of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”
Stephen Wilson Jr. has always infused his country music with a strong element of Nineties grunge and alt-rock — he’s described his sound as “Death Cab for Country” in the past. Now, he fully embraces those early influences on the new EP Blankets, a collection of four cover songs, leading off with Nirvana’s “Something in the Way.”
Wilson frequently covers the Kurt Cobain-written track, off Nirvana’s 1991 groundbreaking Nevermind, during his live shows, but here he releases the first studio recording. (He’s also been known to tease the melody of “All Apologies” in his song “Year to Be Young 1994.”)
“I used to listen to this song 100 times a day,” Wilson says in a statement. “There was ‘something in the way’ it was recorded. Kurt sang it lying down on his back, not an easy thing to do. It’s magic. There’s also something in the way that he transported this hillbilly kid from southern Indiana to Seattle, Washington.”
Due Aug. 29, Blankets also includes Wilson’s versions of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight,” off 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; the Postal Service’s “Clark Gable,” from 2003’s Give Up; and Temple of the Dog’s enduring “Hunger Strike,” the Chris Cornell-Eddie Vedder collab that was a staple of MTV in 1992.
“I’m very much an indie-rock kid at heart,” the songwriter told Rolling Stone in March. “But I’m a country songwriter. I write songs from a rural perspective and a blue-collar perspective.”
Wilson is currently on the road with Hardy and on his own headlining dates. He’ll also perform at Marcus King Band’s Family Reunion this weekend in North Charleston, South Carolina, and headline a pair of sold-out shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Nov. 23 and 24.
