José González plays a cover of Nick Drake's "Cello Song" live in concert during his encore set at The Fox Theater in Oakland, California on March 14, 2022. Cello Song appeared on Nick Drake's debut studio album, Five Leaves Left (1969). Before playing it, Gonzalez asked the audience if they wanted to hear a cover by Nick Drake, Paul McCartney, or Al Green.
Gonzalez released a studio version of his cover of Cello Song in 2009 on the Dark Was the Night charity album, recording it with Nick Zammuto and Paul De Jong of the experimental / folktronica duo The Books. Gonzalez also started playing a live cover of the song on his last tour.
José González is a folk singer-songwriter and virtuoso acoustic guitar player from Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also a member of the band Junip, has collaborated with UK duo Zero 7, and contributed several songs to the soundtrack of the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
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Cello Song lyrics:
Strange face, with your eyes
So pale and sincere
Underneath you know well
You have nothing to fear
For the dreams that came to you when so young
Told of a life
Where spring is sprung
You would seem so frail
In the cold of the night
When the armies of emotion
Go out to fight
But while the earth sinks to its grave
You sail to the sky
On the crest of a wave
So forget this cruel world
Where I belong
I'll just sit and wait
And sing my song
And if one day you should see me in the crowd
Lend a hand and lift me
To your place in the cloud
Written by Nicholas Rodney Drake
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Jose Gonzalez live tour dates (2022):
March 9 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
March 10 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
March 11 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
March 12 - Bend, OR @ Tower Theatre
March 14 - Oakland, CA @ The Fox Theater
March 15 - Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall
March 17 - San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
March 18 - Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
March 19 - Phoenix, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre
March 20 - Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater
March 21 - Santa Fe, NM @ Lensic Performing Arts Center
March 23 - Mexico City, Mexico @ Teatro Metropólitan
March 25 - Oklahoma City, OK @ Tower Theatre
March 26 - Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre
March 27 - Austin, TX @ Long Center for the Performing Arts
April 16 - Palma De Mallorca, Spain @ Mallorca Live Nights
April 25 - Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
April 26 - Bristol, UK @ The Marble Factory
April 27 - London, UK @ The Roundhouse
April 28 - Cambridge, UK @ J1, Cambridge Junction
April 29 - Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
May 21 - Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel @ Tel Aviv Opera House
June 9 - Warsaw, Poland @ Palladium
June 10 - Riga, Latvia @ Palladium
June 11 - Tallinn, Estonia @ Alexela Kontserdimaja
June 17 - Aarhus, Denmark @ VoxHall
June 18 - Oslo, Norway @ Pipfest
Aug. 9 - Malmö, Sweden @ Pildammsparken
Aug. 25 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Ford
Aug. 26 - Saratoga, CA @ Mountain Winery
Aug. 28 - Port Townsend, WA @ Thing Festival
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Jose Gonzalez official bio:
José González is in a class by himself. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “someone whose subtle, carefully crafted music delivers rewards to listeners who know how to wait,” González’s stellar career can only be described as a dream. From selling out tours on virtually every continent to headlining prestigious festivals around the world to being asked to perform at 2020’s Nobel Prize Award Ceremony and seeing his recorded music exceed 1 billion streams, González is one of the most exciting and in-demand touring artists working today. Whether appearing alone with his guitar or with a 20-piece orchestra, or with his band The Brite Lites, or choosing between duo and trio formats, his performances are never merely shows - they are events. And González has every intention of continuing this tradition as he prepares his fully solo tour in support of the eagerly awaited release of his fourth studio album, Local Valley.
The visionary singer-songwriter/guitarist’s long-awaited album, and first to contain songs in all of the languages he speaks (English, Spanish and Swedish), Local Valley provides a welcome reminder of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based artist’s understated appeal and unabashed intimacy, a quality Billboard praised as “one of the most recognizable sounds in indie rock.” The album finds González once again armed with just a handful of nylon-stringed Spanish guitars, yet this time, technology did creep into the proceedings. “I allowed myself to loop guitars as I aim to do live with pedals,” González says, “and in my head I was hearing how each track would fit with an orchestra (The String Theory) or my five-piece band (The Brite Lites), with whom I’ve been touring on and off the last decade.” Four albums in, Local Valley finds Jose González, in the words of his new song, “Visions,” still “imagining the worlds that could be/Shaping a mosaic of fates/For all sentient beings.” With Local Valley, Jose González once again proves that music doesn’t need to be loud to be heard.