Dixie Chicks Give Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ a Country Makeover at Bridge School Benefit

Each year Neil Young hosts the Bridge School benefit concert in Northern California, which, according to Noisey, raises money for Young's own nonprofit in support of funding (and finding) alternative methods of education for speech- and physically-impaired youth.

These concerts are known to have their fair share of high-profile performances or guest appearances, with the likes of Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke and singer-songwriter St. Vincent having graced the stages in previous years, to name a few.

This year's surprise came by way of country stars the Dixie Chicks, Stereogum reports, who performed a pared-down, folk-inspired cover of Lana Del Rey's breakout hit "Video Games" from her stunning major label debut Born to Die.

Yes, that's right: the Dixie Chicks covered Lana Del Rey! And the results are beautiful.

At this point, "Video Games" isn't just a Lana Del Rey song; it's a historical event. It introduced the world to the heavily-disputed territory that is Lana Del Rey, and it marked her rapid ascent froma short-lived status as indie fans' not-so-best-kept secret to her current reign as one of pop stans' most heavily-admired queens of pop.

What the Dixie Chicks manage to do with their cover of "Video Games" is transport us back to a time before fans' screams drowned Lana out during her live performances. They also strip away what Noisey calls "Lana's doomed starlet veneer" without compromising the track's integrity. Quite the opposite — they deliver a cover that exhibits a generous fidelity to the original, while somehow simultaneously lending it a newfound forthrightness. It's humble in ways that Del Rey's beginnings were: A lovelorn anthem, and a homemade video. Watch the cover above.

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