Margaret Glaspy’s new album The Golden Heart Protector feels like an act of musical communion, featuring seven cover songs, each reimagined through her unguarded voice and a carefully chosen circle of collaborators. Out in mid-September via ATO Records, the record features appearances from Norah Jones, James Bay, Madison Cunningham, Julian Lage, Andrew Bird, and Alam Khan.

If there’s a centerpiece here, it’s “The Book of Love,” Glaspy’s duet with Madison Cunningham. Their voices intertwine like two shades of the same tone. Both warm, dry, and effortlessly expressive. It’s the kind of pairing that makes you stop what you’re doing to listen in. But what truly stands out about The Golden Heart Protector is how naturally each guest fits within Glaspy’s orbit. Every collaboration clicks like a puzzle piece: no voice ever overshadows, no player ever fades away. Each song feels precisely cast.

The collection reinterprets works by songwriters including Wilco (“Jesus, Etc.” featuring Norah Jones), Jackson Browne (“These Days” with James Bay), Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Blake Mills, Magnetic Fields, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. As Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy put it after hearing Glaspy and Jones’s rendition of his song: “Holy shit! That’s all I’ve ever wanted – somebody else to sing my songs in a way that allows me to hear them as something new.”

Glaspy describes the album as “seven of my favorite songs, all played with my favorite musicians,” adding that making it reminded her “music is amazing and community is humbling.” That sense of gratitude radiates through every track. These are covers that don’t simply revisit classics, they ask the listener to feel them differently.

The Golden Heart Protector follows Glaspy’s 2023 LP Echo the Diamond, a raw and luminous record praised by The New York Times, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone for its stripped-down honesty. This new project shows a softer side: not as confrontational, but no less revealing.

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Fall Tour Dates

Margaret Glaspy hits the road this fall, heading east for a string of intimate shows.

• 10/15 – MilkBoy, Philadelphia PA
• 10/16 – Le Poisson Rouge, New York NY
• 10/17 – City Winery, Pittsburgh PA
• 11/1 – Pearl Street Warehouse, Washington DC
• 11/3 – City Winery, Boston MA
• 11/6 – Daily Brew Coffee House, North Falmouth MA

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