Yusuf Islam, formerly known within the singer-songwriter and folk communities as Cat Stevens, has shared a soothing at-home rendition of “The Wind”, which originally appeared on his 1971 studio effort, Teaser and the Firecat.
Self-shot video of the at-home performance was shared to Yusuf’s Facebook recently, and the classic folk tune does a wonderful job at helping to ease some of the stress and emotional burdens that continue to add up from what is now the third month of coronavirus quarantines here in North America.
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The video sees a casually-dressed Yusuf accompanied by his acoustic guitar and a lone microphone for the solo performance, which also includes the calming sounds of birds leaked into the captured audio from what looked to be a sunny day outside through the open doorway behind the veteran musician. Anyone with an interest in the American folk styles of the 1960s and 70s will find brief solace in the warm familiarity of Yusuf’s voice alongside his equally-relaxing guitar lines. It even sounds like some subtle keyboard parts were added to the audio in post-production, giving the song a fuller sound.
Though the song’s lyrics aren’t very extensive, one can still hear and connect to Yusuf’s honest and relatable lines when he sings, “I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul/Where I’ll end up, well, I think only God really knows.”
Watch Yusuf perform “The Wind” with the new at-home performance below.
Yusuf/Cat Stevens – “The Wind”
Earlier this year, Yusuf shared a previously-unreleased song entitled, “Butterfly”, which was left off the final tracklisting of 1978’s Back To Earth.