Ethel Cain doesn’t do things by half, and her Like A Version debut shows exactly that.
Stepping into the triple j studio for the first time, Ethel Cain wrapped herself in the stillness of “Angels and Fuselage”, delivering a faithful, slow-burning take on the Drive-By Truckers deep cut.
Backed by her band, harmonica in hand and leaning into that unmistakable Southern Gothic drawl, Cain let the song breathe.
The original’s pacing — a deliberate crawl — remains intact, and she resists any temptation to reshape it into something louder or more immediate. Instead, she sits inside it.
It’s a choice that was entirely intentional.
“I just told the band, ‘we gotta do it straight up,'” she said. “I was nitpicking with them, down to the little guitar licks and whatnot — the bends and the chords. Everything in this song is created so perfectly and specifically that it has to be true to the record. We’re just gonna give it our best shot to capture it.
“You really don’t have to mess with perfection.”
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Originally released on Southern Rock Opera in 2001, the track has long held personal weight for Cain. She first stumbled across the album in an antique store during a road trip from Indiana to Chicago, but it was “Angels and Fuselage” — the closing track — that stuck. As the sun set, the song became a kind of fixed memory, one she’s carried with her ever since.
That connection would eventually resurface in her own work: nearly two decades later, Cain sampled the track in her unreleased demo “Wrestling in Dirt Pits”.
Watch Ethel Cain’s version of “Angels and Fuselage” below.
Cairn also performed original track “Thoroughfare”, from her 2022 album, Preacher’s Daughter.
Cain was in Australia in February this year as part of her ‘Willoughby Tucker Forever’ world tour.
