Hear Nicole Atkins and Mark Lanegan Cover Guns N’ Roses’ ‘November Rain’
Americana singer Nicole Atkins has teamed up with Mark Lanegan for a new and radical reinterpretation of Guns N' Roses' classic ballad "November Rain."
As Atkins told Stereogum, where the track premiered, the idea came to her while staying in a Vermont inn a few summers ago.
"I had some really weird dreams during my two nights there," she said. "In one of them, I [dreamed] I was in an old tower and I was singing an old ’60s country-style duet of the Guns N' Roses song 'November Rain,' and it sounded awesome. I immediately woke up and sang it into my phone the way I heard it. When I got back to Nashville, I called a couple friends and went into our friend JD’s home studio and recorded it. Everything came together really quickly."
You can listen to the song below.
From there, she contacted former Screaming Trees singer Lanegan, whom she's known since 2006 and had been wanting to record with ever since. "I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by asking, and it turned out exactly as I’d pictured," she noted.
"The best thing with this cover is that I’ll play it and people don’t realize what they’re listening to until 30 seconds in," she said. "My dad thought it was a Conway Twitty cover. Then they all go, 'Wait, is this "November Rain"? I love that song!'" “Doing this song was a blast," Lanegan added. "It combined two of my favorite things: Nicole’s beautiful voice and GNR.”