On David Huckfelt’s new album, “I Was Born, But…,” releasing on Jan. 16, the singer-songwriter known for his previous work with the band The Pines covers a tune by folk singer Malcolm Holcombe called “Yours No More.”
Holcombe, who died in 2024, wrote the song during the first Trump administration. “It is, in my opinion, one of the most poignant songs for our time,” Huckfelt said. “He talks about Ellis Island being a place for the tired, the weak and the suffering and sick, and then he kind of rips it out from under your feet.”
The song’s message is one Huckfelt is keen for as many people to hear as possible. Rather than featuring his own work, the album celebrates great music penned by others.
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“We’re in this moment where everybody makes little movies about their entire day. It’s all so much of this about me, me, me,” Huckfelt told me. By covering other artists, Huckfelt hopes to move away from our ego-centric moment. “I’m trying to say that maybe there’s some signposts along the path that have been laid out by some really great artists who cared about people.”
Huckfelt’s cover songs – from Bob Dylan to Gordon Lightfoot, plus Tom Petty, Pieta Brown and Bo Diddley — are expressions of admiration.
“In my world, it’s kind of the ultimate compliment if someone thinks that your song is worth learning and singing and performing,” he told me.
He noted that while these days YouTube is filled with people filming themselves from their bedrooms covering songs, “it used to be that artists of great stature would cover each other,” he said. “Jimi Hendrix would cover Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones would cover a lot of the old blues players.”
One of his favorites is Townes Van Zandt’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers,” played at the end of “The Big Lebowski.” He also loves spoken word artist Gil Scott Heron’s cover of famous Delta Blues player Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues.” “You would never know it was written in the 1940s,” he said.
Huckfelt means to compliment every songwriter whose songs he covers — both the ones he knows personally, and the ones he doesn’t.
Among his friends featured on the album is frequent collaborator Keith Secola, whose song “NDN Cars” was written in 1987 and was recently featured on the TV series “Dark Winds”. (Huckfelt’s songs have also been featured on that show). “I’ve sung the song with Keith all over the country,” Huckfelt said. “We’ve played together so often, the song always inspires a certain joy.”
Meanwhile, Huckfelt’s vulnerable performance of Adrianne Lenker’s “Anything” carries a tender yearning. Listening to him perform it over the weekend at the Oak Center General Store in Lake City, Minn., I felt moved.
Built in 1913, the Oak Center is a former farmhouse with six wood-burning stoves. On the heels of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, a man named Steven Schwen bought the place and operated an organic farm. Eventually he and his wife, Susan Draves-Schwen, sold their organic goods in the General Store and held concerts there, hosting the likes of Greg Brown, Charlie Parr and The Pines.
“The first time we played there, they were nursing a baby lamb with a bottle because it was born that morning and got stepped on by a horse in the pen,” Huckfelt recalled. Now run by Hope Schwen, Steven’s daughter, and her partner Cy Benson, the venue has started up a concert series again on the second floor of the building.
At last weekend’s concert, Huckfelt reflected on the ethos Schwen built as a place of community and resistance. “It’s funny that the word ‘radical’ gets thrown around, because honestly, I see more common sense when I come to Oak Center,” Huckfelt said.
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“I Was Born, But…” isn’t Huckfelt’s only album planned for 2026. As he was wrapping up that project, he went to Pachyderm Studios with his Minneapolis band, with Jeremy Ylvisaker on electric guitars and backing vocals, percussionist J.T. Bates and Mike Lewis on bass.
“I’ve never thought of myself as someone who’s gonna release two records in one year, but that looks like it’s gonna happen in 2026,” he said.
The four of them will all be playing at the “I Was Born, But…” release show at Icehouse on Jan. 24, with Channy Leaneagh, of Poliça, opening the night and also singing and playing the fiddle with the band. Misty Boyce, who tours with The Head and the Heart, will also perform with the group. “There just so happens to be a grand piano rented for the weekend at Icehouse, so she’s going to come play that with us,” Huckfelt said.
As for The Pines, Huckfelt said he doesn’t think it’s likely the group will play together again. “We’re pretty much over,” he said. “We weren’t one of those bands that made a big announcement about breaking up, but we were such hopeless romantics about the old ways of making records and touring, and then one day, I think everybody had their fill.”
As a solo artist, however, Huckfelt pushes on with a combination of “blind optimism and controlling panic attacks through mindful meditation,” he said. “I have a 6-year-old son, and as hard as it is to cobble this together, it feels like a responsible and loving way to be on the planet. So I’m inclined to give it my best shot with each new record.”
The post David Huckfelt pays tribute to other songwriters with ‘I Was Born, But…’ appeared first on MinnPost.
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