Amythyst Kiah Shares Haunting Take On Lead Belly’s ‘In The Pines’

Amythyst Kiah shared a cover of the traditional “In The Pines” popularized by highly influential folk legend Lead Belly. The Butch Walker-produced track is the first release from Kiah this year following her acclaimed 2021 album, Wary And Strange.

As with most traditional folk songs, “In The Pines” is an amalgamation of earlier tunes and has many variations, often linked with a song called “The Longest Train.”

Lead Belly pieced together his definitive take — which inspired Kurt Cobain’s famed performance of the song with Nirvana on MTV Unplugged — from earlier 20th century renditions, according to the renowned late folk curator Alan Lomax.

Amythyst Kiah was also a curator of folk songs during her college days.

“Before I fully embraced a career as a songwriter, I rearranged old time songs in college while studying American roots music. My arrangement of ‘In The Pines’ is a callback to those formative years and my undying love of murder ballads.”

Listen to Amythyst Kiah’s take on “In The Pines” and watch a performance video below:

Amythyst Kiah recently kicked off a headline run before she joins Molly Tuttle and Iron & Wine in the spring and summer respectively. Check out her full tour routing with ticket info below.