Vagabon and Courtney Barnett unite to cover Karen Dalton's version of "Reason to Believe"

After teasing the collaborative release earlier this week, Vagabon and Barnett have unveiled their cover of "Reason to Believe", inspired by Karen Dalton's version.

The song was originally written and recorded by Tim Hardin in 1965, and has been covered by the likes of Dalton, Marianne Faithfull, Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash, Billy Bragg, Neil Young over the years.

Vagabon's Lætitia Tamko says of their cover, "I recently discovered the Karen Dalton version of "Reason to Believe" for the first time. I became obsessed and so a few days after discovering it, I was encouraged to record a cover of it in my garage. The decision to have Courtney sing it with me came after we performed it together live at the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day 2020, a month before lockdown. It was fresh in our brains then so not long after the show, CB came over and we recorded her parts. Oliver Hill plays slide guitar on it."

Barnett adds, "I'm a huge fan of Vagabon and Karen Dalton so this was a dream. They both have a voice that absolutely knocks the wind out of me. I really admire Lætitia and am constantly inspired by her songwriting, production, and our sporadic FaceTime chats."

The cover marks Vagabon's first outing since last year's orchestral version of "Home Soon" and her 2019 self-titled album, and follows Barnett's cover of Gillian Welch's "Everything Is Free" with Phoebe Bridgers that landed in October 2020.