Live from Here host Chris Thile has started a new live music series, dubbed “Live from Home”, while under self-quarantine due to the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. The series’ first video featured Thile himself, performing a bitterly appropriate cover of “Radio Cure” from Wilco‘s 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In a statement that accompanied the video, Thile introduced “Live from Home” as “digital space for us to keep making and experiencing art when we can’t be physically together.”
Filming from inside his brother and sister-in-law’s closet, Thile introduced the “Live from Home” video series as a substitute for not being able to play music out there, as all upcoming performances of Live from Here have been canceled. Before launching into the song, Thile invites Live from Here frequent collaborators Sara Bareilles, Jon Batiste, and Hilary Hahn to join in the series with their own video submissions.
Thile then launched into a solo mandolin cover of a B-side from Wilco’s breakthrough album, featuring the poignant phrase repeated at the end of the song, “oh, distance has no way of making love understandable.” Watch the first installment of “Live from Home”, featuring Chris Thile performing Wilco’s “Radio Cure” from inside a closet.
Live From Home: Chris Thile – “Radio Cure” (Wilco)
[Video: Live from Here]
In just the one day since Thile posted that video on Sunday, there has already been another submission to the “Live from Home” series. This installment features Rachael Price and Taylor Ashton covering Cyndi Lauper‘s “Time After Time” live from their home. Before performing the song, Price and Ashton introduced a recurring format for the series, where performers must challenge three other musicians to submit a “Live from Home” video, and those three people will challenge three more people, and so on and so forth until we are allowed to gather en masse together again. Price and Ashton issued challenges to Emily King, Theo Katzman, and Akie Bermiss, before providing their own submission.
Live From Home: Rachael Price & Taylor Ashton – “Time After Time” (Cyndi Lauper)
[Video: Live from Here]
Thile’s new “Live from Home” series is the latest bold, new idea from the live music industry on how to survive through this crisis of an undetermined duration. Already, other bands have begun organizing live stream and pay-per-view concerts from studios, including acts such as Dopapod, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and Goose, the latter two being the first installment of nugs.tv‘s new “Life From Out There” digital concert series. Meanwhile, Ideaison has also announced a remote concert featuring members of Turkuaz, The Main Squeeze, Dumpstaphunk, and more for Tuesday, March 17th that will have a 10-dollar suggested donation.