Orville Peck honors Kenny Rogers with a cover of 'Islands in the Stream' during stay-home live-stream concert
Canadian-based country artist Orville Peck has honored Kenny Rogers on March 23 with a cover of the Rogers 1983 hit 'Islands in the Stream' which featured Dolly Parton. In keeping with the one-year anniversary of Peck's debut studio album 'Pony', the masked artist performed the solo acoustic rendition of 'Islands in the Stream' with a live-streamed at-home concert.
Kenny Rogers, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur, who was widely accepted and popular with country audiences. He sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Rogers passed away at age 81 due to natural causes on March 20.
Peck has earned wide acclaim for 'Pony', including a spot on the Rolling Stone roundup of 2019’s 40 Best Country and Americana Albums. He performed his lead song 'Dead of Night' from the album on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' in December. The debut LP released in March last year.
In the 71-minute live-stream video, Peck appears in his living room with a cowboy painting on the wall adorned with string lights. Peck performed an intimate set of songs and sang 'Islands in the Stream' with his acoustic guitar. While honoring Rogers, he says, “This is one of my all-time favorite country duets".
The live-stream set also featured several songs from 'Pony', including 'Turn to Hate', 'Hope to Die' and 'Winds Change' and closed with a new song. According to Rolling Stone, a press release stated that Peck will release a new track "in the coming weeks".
In the video, he also welcomed a handful of guests, like comedian Margaret Cho via video chat and repeatedly thanked his fans (or “Peckheads”) for tuning into the live stream. He says, “I just want to remind all of you that we have gotten through a lot of terrible stuff in our lifetime, in our civilization. And I think art and creativity and caring for one another and caring for ourselves and self-reflection — I think those things help us get through all of this.”