Mercury Rev & Norah Jones – “Okolona River Bottom Band” (Bobbie Gentry Cover)

Mercury Rev & Norah Jones – “Okolona River Bottom Band” (Bobbie Gentry Cover)

We’re a month out from the release of Mercury Rev’s album-length tribute to Bobbie Gentry in which the band covers the reclusive country star’s 1968 album The Delta Sweete in full, calling upon all sorts of notable musicians to lend their voices in place of Gentry’s own. We’ve heard their takes on “Sermon,” with Margo Price, and “Big Boss Man,” with Hope Sandoval, and today they’re sharing their version of “Okolono River Bottom Band,” with Norah Jones’ sultry tones subbing in for Gentry.

“While sipping concoctions from a coffee cup labeled ‘Near Enough,’ a brilliant mind once theorized that in any large enough system, even the most improbable event will occur,” Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donohue said in a statement about the track. “So, like bats in the moonlight, we pinged our sound out there and waited to see what bounced back…and then, much to our surprise what came back was Norah Jones singing the daylights out of our lil’ pocket fantasia version of Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Okolona River Bottom Band.’ Theorem proved.”

Listen to it below.

Bobbie Gentry’s Delta Sweete Revisited is out 2/8 via Partisan/Bella Union. Pre-order it here.

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