Ilsey and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon have come together to cover Neil Young’s Harvest classic “Heart of Gold.” Prominent Bon Iver collaborator BJ Burton produced, mixed, and engineered the new song. Watch the lyric video for the new track below.
“This song has always spoken to me in a deep, personal way,” Ilsey said in a press statement. “There’s something about the plaintive melody and the simple, evocative lyrics that go straight to the heart of what we all feel. The image of a miner searching for a precious metal—searching for love, connection, something true… it’s a difficult, often frustrating process, but the reward is so worth it. I kept coming back to the thought and the song. I listened on repeat one day before meeting up with Justin and BJ and it just felt right to see if we could play it in a new way, that felt like us, and would do it justice.”
Ilsey is the moniker of pop singer-songwriter Ilsey Juber. She has co-written Beyoncé’s Lemonade song “All Night,” Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus’ “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart,” Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes,” the 1975’s “Looking for Somebody (To Love)” and “Oh Caroline,” Drake’s “Jungle,” and more. Ilsey previously collaborated with Justin Vernon on Big Red Machine’s “Mimi.”
Earlier this year, Bon Iver and Lonnie Holley shared the collaborative song “Kindness Will Follow Your Tears.” Justin Vernon’s old band, DeYarmond Edison, recently announced the retrospective box set Epoch.