Gordi has shared a cover of Dolly Parton’s ’90s track ‘The Grass Is Blue’, along with an idyllic music video.
For her cover, Gordi switches out the bluegrass instrumentation from Parton’s original with a soothing piano backing. The music video was filmed on the first weekend out of lockdown in Melbourne, and sees Gordi wander through nature. Watch the clip below:
In a statement, Gordi – real name Sophie Payten – explained how “Dolly Parton keeps popping up in [her] life”, including in her work as a worker on the COVID frontline.
“When the pandemic hit and my tours got cancelled, I went back to working as a medical doctor in hospitals in Melbourne and watched the city get shut down by the virus,” Payten said.
“As it dragged into this year, I started working in vaccination clinics where, eventually, we began administering the Moderna vaccine – partly funded by the queen herself, Dolly Parton. So to pay homage to Dolly, I recorded her song ‘The Grass Is Blue’ in a single day at Phoenix Central Park in Sydney on a beautiful Fazioli grand piano.”
Parton recorded ‘The Grass Is Blue’ as part of her 1999 album of the same name, which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
Gordi released her latest album ‘Our Two Skins’ back in 2020 through Liberation. Since then, the singer has released a live EP ‘Refracted: Live at Phoenix Central Park’ and a collaborative single with Alex Lahey, ‘Dino’s’.