The Cover by Pien
It's great when European singers make a home in London and bring a totally unique way of looking at the world with them.
Today’s song from London-based Pien is a folk-country reimagining The Cover, which she originally released two years ago in an indie-alternative form. As Pien herself says:-
It was always written as a country song, but I first put it out in a different direction. After playing it live over time, the audience reaction has been really consistent. People kept asking for the original version, so I decided to finally release it properly.
This version is a stripped-back folk ballad built around the idea of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” and it features a collaboration with folk/singer-songwriter Ed Tattersall, who brings a really special tone to the track.
There was a lot for me to dig into with this one, because of course I went straight away to listen to the earlier single. I loved them both at first listen, and I love nothing more than following different versions of a song as it evolves through time.
See this girl, she's a woman
Trying hard to make her mark
Don't tell me I'm too young to understand it
I've been down to hell and back
There is a lot of sadness in the song, and perhaps more so in this new country version. I found the saddest idea to be that there are so many people in the world she will never have the time to meet all of them. That’s one of the things that separates a prose writer from a songwriter: that same thought fills me with dread! I’d much rather have a DM parasocial friendship than stumble out into the real world, eyes blinking against a hot sun.
There are so many people out there to meet
There are too many lives that I could live
And so few hours to spend my days
Don’t be fooled by all the numbers
Or by all the words that I write
This makes it even more surprising that I actually ran into Pien IRL at Lil Nashville, Chiswick a few weeks ago. She was sadly not performing that day but there are several opportunities to catch her live this summer. And yes, Pien is her real first name!
Pien is an Indie-Americana artist based between London and the Netherlands, and she would definitely appeal to fans of Ella Langley, Suki Waterhouse, Fleetwood Mac and Kacey Musgraves. So basically everyone in the world, including you. I am also a new fan of Suki Waterhouse, who played the ‘sort-of’ Christine McVie character in Daisy Jones and the Six.
You can get tickets to see Pien this summer here. You can catch her in London several times as well as Isle of Wight, Chichester, Hertford, Worcester and others. Her website is here. You can of course catch her on Instagram and TikTok too!
