David Huckfelt finds solace, camaraderie and enjoyable on new album, ‘I Was Born, But…’

David Huckfelt’s new album I Was Born, But… arrives at a second when each the artist and his residence of Minneapolis are leaning onerous on music for connection and aid.

His third solo launch, and first in 5 years, is a covers assortment constructed from songwriters and associates he has lengthy admired.

Throughout the historical past of time, music communities all around the world have been concerned in moments of social upheaval, whether or not it’s by way of protest or holding up group. Sometimes, as Huckfelt stated, it’s about making emotional house.

“My favorite artists … they don’t sing at you, they sing to you,” he stated Wednesday, Feb. 4, on Headwaters. “Sometimes … my tendency is to speak directly to what’s happening and call it what it is. But oftentimes what we need is just beauty, escape, intimacy. And so, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. But the musicians I know keep offering the love they have for this community.”

Huckfelt has at all times had a knack for studying songs on the fly and at present is aware of 300-400 songs by coronary heart. He thinks he’s in a position to do that with ease because of his love affair of poetry and music. During the pandemic, he made a rule for himself that if a track introduced him to tears within the automobile, he would be taught that track and play it.

When placing this album collectively, he selected songs from artists he deeply admires together with Bob Dylan (about whom he produced a documentary for KAXE in 2024), Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Adrianne Lenker, Pieta Brown, Howe Gelb and Keith Secola, amongst others. Rather than deal with this like a cautious tribute mission, Huckfelt leaned into reinterpretation. His purpose: Let the performances stand on their very own phrases first.

“If you’ve never heard the song before, it’s not a cover until you know where it’s coming from. So my idea was to throw a bunch of musicians at these songs and then — kind of that Miles Davis thing — play it for you first and then tell you what it is later.”

Huckfelt returned to Tucson, Arizona, to file with a trusted circle of musicians, together with drummer Winston Watson, who toured for years with Bob Dylan. There have been no rehearsals, and on the suggestion of engineer Gabriel Sullivan (and to the chagrin of the blending engineer), no headphones.

“Most people would say that’s insanity. And it kind of is,” Huckfelt stated.

The end result was an album that exudes Fun with a capital “F.”

“Everyone is enjoying in a single room. Energetically, it felt nearly like a live performance,” Huckfelt said. “You’re surprised by what the guy to your right is playing. The parts are being written in real time. And to be honest, it was an absolute blast.”

“It didn’t feel like work and it didn’t feel like science,” he said. “It felt like play.”

As for mixing engineer Adam Krinsky, his job was not Fun with a capital “F.”

“I’m not going to say he had a great time doing it,” Huckfelt said.

Krinsky’s role challenged him to shape those live in-room recordings without losing their raw energy. Something Huckfelt admits required serious patience, though in the end, Krinsky’s masterful work managed to balance those two impeccably well.

“He let me know that if I do that again, that way, we’re gonna have words,” Huckfelt said with a laugh.

The album is his first release with Don Giovanni Records, a label he signed with in 2025. The partnership follows difficult earlier label experiences dating back to his time with The Pines and the collapse and sale of Red House Records, where artists unexpectedly lost control of their masters.

“It was sad, mostly,” Huckfelt stated. “For a label like Red House, which was built, you know, from the songs and music of Greg Brown, had an independent ethos to it the whole way through, it was sad. And at the same time, I understood it.”

He discovered a kindred spirit in Don Giovanni founder Joe Steinhardt, who has proven a DIY ethic with a insurgent renegade angle that Huckfelt appreciates. Steinhardt began the label 23 years in the past for punk bands and has had artists like Mitski and Waxahatchee earlier than they moved onto larger labels.

“When you find one person in the music world who loves what you do, has a little infrastructure to help you support it and really cares, that’s usually who you want to go with,” he stated. “There’s a lot of people who promise they can do things for you, but the person really has to believe in what you do.”

The album’s title, I Was Born, But… comes from a Nineteen Thirties Japanese silent movie. For Huckfelt, the phrase is each arresting and humbling.

“We are not the most fundamental facts of our own existence,” he stated. “In other words, the world is not centered upon us as individuals as much as we would love it to.”

He sees the covers mission as a part of the people custom of carrying songs ahead. During our dialog, he additionally introduced he’s releasing a second new album of authentic materials this yr, not too long ago recorded at Pachyderm Studios with JT Bates, Jeremy Ylvisaker and Mike Lewis. While he’s by no means launched two albums in a single yr, Huckfelt stated he sees these two data working in tandem with one another.

“Cover songs are great, but we live in a world that does not seem to be getting any brighter, any quicker,” Huckfelt stated. “You have to say something in your own voice.”