Watch Aldous Harding Cover Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down The Line,” Debut Designer Tracks In Brooklyn

Clare Shilland

Watch Aldous Harding Cover Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down The Line,” Debut Designer Tracks In Brooklyn

Clare Shilland

New Zealand folk-pop iconoclast Aldous Harding is releasing her new album Designer later this month. Maybe you saw the incredible video for lead single “The Barrel”? She kicked off her tour supporting the album last night at Rough Trade in Brooklyn, and in addition to debut performances of most of its songs, the setlist included an unexpected cover.

Harding and her band trotted out “Right Down The Line,” the single Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty released directly after his 1978 smash “Baker Street.” (Sorry, Number Ones fans, that one topped out at #2.) As she is wont to do, Harding put her own spin on the song, converting it from a breezy soft-rock groover into a slow-creeping ballad lit up by gentle yet spine-tingling soprano.

Brooklyn Vegan posted a generous portion of the performance, which you can catch below along with Rafferty’s original. Stick around for footage of new Harding tunes “Designer,” “Zoo Eyes,” and “Treasure” (together in one YouTube video), “Damn,” “Weight Of The Planets,” and “Heaven’s Empty” (together in another YouTube video), and a run through “The Barrel” for good measure because it’s great.

Designer is out 4/26 on 4AD. Pre-order it here.

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