I remember the summer when we met Gregory Alan Isakov. It was at Edmonton Folk Festival in 2014 and it was the first summer when Andrew and I were on a real tour, which meant playing festivals people had heard of, and it felt amazing. We found ourselves playing on a workshop stage together (oh what we would give for that in 2020). I’ve always been drawn to music almost purely based on the sound of someone’s voice, so Greg was a shoo-in that day.

We had the warmest of times joining GAI on tour several months later, and when we got home I could not stop humming Amsterdam. Being the olden-music lovers that we are, we rarely sit down to learn all the words to a nowadays song. But this one fell into place straight away, and I don’t think we’ve changed anything about the way we play it since then. Singing it during the duo part of a show, or for an encore, feels like a treat to myself more than anyone, but I’m glad folks like to hear it.

It’s fun to hear artists record covers, because you know how much sheer enjoyment went into it. Less of the self-doubt that can come along with recording your own music, more of the delightful fun of doing karaoke in a studio. As a fellow lover of singing Harvest Moon (and pretty much any song on that album), I loved the detailed accuracy in Lord Huron’s. I didn’t recognize Phoebe’s voice right away when Friday I’m In Love came on and I was immediately captivated—dropped what I was doing to go back and check what I was hearing. These are great versions of some of my all time favorite songs. I hope everyone had as much fun singing their hearts out as we did.

– Emily Frantz