Offa Rex (The Decemberists and Olivia Chaney) Share Live Video For Impassioned Cover of “The Old Churchyard”
Images via Shervin Lainez, Nonesuch RecordsOffa Rex is the collaborative folk supergroup consisting of The Decemberists and singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney, and the music they create can be summed up as an homage to British folk.
The group is set to release their album The Queen of Hearts on July 14 via Nonesuch Records, which will feature 13 versions of classical folk songs. The band have shared two tracks already, including the record’s title track and “Blackleg Miner.” The band offers strong vocal harmonies and instrumentation when executing the stories told in the classic songs they cover and today they released another new video for another song, “The Old Churchyard.”
This latest cover highlights Chaney’s hauntingly beautiful vocals, just as the title track “The Queen of Hearts” did—”The Old Churchyard” is a four-and-a-half minute ominous hymn that consumes the listener through its musicianship and the compositional and arrangement skills on display. The whole album promises to be a collection of songs that will transport a listener in time through angelic vocals accompanied by swirling/droned-out instrumentation. Listen to “The Old Churchyard” above.