Hear Wilco Cover David Bowie For ‘Mountain Stage’ Compilation

Wilco‘s 2016 cover of David Bowie‘s “Space Oddity” is the first to emerge from Live on Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers, a 21-track compilation of material recorded at the long-running West Virginia Public Broadcasting radio program. The project will be released April 19 on the late John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.

Also featured on Outlaws and Outliers are Prine himself, Jason Isbell, Eric Church, the Indigo Girls, Tyler Childers, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Steve Earle and Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn. Wilco’s take on Bowie was chosen as the lead track in honor of what would have been the late Bowie’s 77th birthday today (Jan. 8). It was played live seven times in 2016 but has not appeared on a Wilco set list since then.

“As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an honor and a challenge to tackle any of David Bowie’s space-soaring arrangements,” the Jeff Tweedy-led band says. “Striving to reach the heights of his freedom and talent is a wise goal for any band. We thank Mountain Stage for letting us give this song another home on Earth.”

Mountain Stage celebrated its 40th anniversary season in 2023 and is the second longest-running nationally distributed performance radio show in the U.S. after the Grand Ole Opry. Upcoming episodes include Leslie Mendelsohn, Madi Diaz and Peter One on Jan. 14 and 92-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Men at Work’s Colin Hay and Chuck Prophet on Feb. 1.