Photo by Adam Wallacavage

Today, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer Kurt Vile tapped into the inner warmth that gets one through the winter chill with a tender cover of Bob Dylan’s “Must Be Santa.” The artist is joined by his two daughters on the song, who are also featured on the cover art of Vile’s latest LP (watch my moves).

The cover is part of Spotify’s Singles Holiday Collection and see’s Vile direct the song through his trademark drawl, grooving bass accompanied and an effervescent synth. In the spirit of giving, towards the tail end of the set, after bolstering their father’s languid vocals, Vile’s daughters give a sweet shoutout to Sun Ra Arkestra’s Marshall Allen.

“When I was asked to be on this Christmas compilation, they said ‘you can do any Christmas song you want, as long as it’s not repeated by somebody else on this series.’ I thought it was nice of them to invite me, but I didn’t know if I could pull off a Christmas song!” Vile said of being asked by Spotify to add to their Holiday collection. “Then my mind jumped to when John Agnello showed me the Bob Dylan version of ‘Must Be Santa’ while we were making the Smoke Ring for My Halo record. It’s a really hilarious video (he showed me that first), and it shows a rambunctious Christmas party. Bob Dylan has a wig on, and someone goes flying through a window. All this time, I thought it was Bob Dylan’s song. It’s really catchy, and he makes it his own as he usually does. I figured if I can do Dylan’s ‘Must Be Santa,’ if that’s not taken, it’s a sign. I gotta be the next chapter in this version of a Bob Dylan song. Then I realized it was actually a classic Christmas song, and was written however long ago, but I still wanted to do it justice the way Bob did. I wanted to be the guy who attempted to pull it off.”

Vile went on to describe some other blessings the opportunity allotted him: “This was also a great excuse to use my home studio OKV Central again, with my bandmate Adam Langellotti on bass, and Ted Young. Ted moved to Philly (he engineers with me a lot), but he was actually John Agnello’s assistant engineer back when I first heard Bob Dylan’s ‘Must Be Santa.’ It feels like a perfect circle, really. I thought I’d do an acoustic version and have my daughters sing backup, but then it turned into more of a weird synth version with their vocals, which is really the hook. I figured Bob wouldn’t hear it, but I still wanted to do it justice, and once I got my daughters singing with me I hoped he would at least like it. Now I know… he loves it [laughs]. Merry Christmas, Bob Dylan!”

Listen to Kurt Vile’s cover of “Must Be Santa” below.