Bright Eyes, 'Soul Singer in a Session Band' (Sessions)

The band plays seven songs, all of them either from the recently released 'Four Winds' EP or 'Cassadaga.' Even though they play all new material, and joke around in between, they nail every song in only one take.
The few lucky people in the studio are given an added bonus when Oberst's friend, the avant-folk singer-songwriter M. Ward, joins the band for the final two songs. Oberst describes Ward's music as "audio Xanax," and it shows, as everyone in the studio's blood pressure seems to suddenly drop a few points as soon Ward's soft bedroom voice fills the space on the whisper-quiet and folksy duet 'Smoke Without Fire.'

In an interview after the performance, Oberst says he hopes to "please everyone, if possible. And impress them, and tuck them in at night and marry their sister, too."
Even though there's enough sarcasm in there to choke a horse, after his Sessions performance it's clear that while Conor Oberst may never be able to please everyone, he's coming awfully close.