When Milwaukee rapper, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and all-around visionary Klassik isn’t busy crafting eclectic and incomparable music of his own, he’s reinterpreting time-tested spirituals, hymns, and anthems. After amassing quite a catalog of aged adaptations—including Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” for Milwaukee Art Museum,” a take on “Amazing Grace” for our Public Domain series, and changing up a number of other aged compositions—Klassik decided it was high time to record his “American Klassiks” and put them on an album.
Prior to Friday night’s American Klassiks live album recording at Cactus Club (and as a prelude to an album of original material he plans to put out sometime next year), the multi-faceted musician released a music video with Nickel&Rose’s own Johanna Rose that finds the dynamic duo doing a duet of Woody Guthrie’s “Ship In The Sky.” The pair performed Rose’s “Guthrie Uncovered” concert earlier this year. Shot and recorded at Chair Company, this video is a reprisal of that ambitious and unique cover of a classic Guthrie cut.
Before Klassik, Nickel&Rose, and SistaStrings take Cactus Club’s stage this weekend for a live recording of this song and other American Klassiks, watch the “Ship In The Sky” video now.