If We Were Vampires — Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit vs. Noah Kahan & Wesley Schultz

Welcome back to Chillers – Cover Up, where we pit two versions of the same song against each other to see which one reigns supreme. The originals are cold, the covers are warm — so make sure you Cover Up and get ready to dive in.

The Song:

A tender conversation between partners about the only guarantee we get: not enough time. If We Were Vampires turns mortality into urgency — if forever existed, we’d waste it. Because it doesn’t, the small moments matter more. It’s bittersweet, clear-eyed, and devastating in the quiet way truth can be.

The Original:

On 2017’s The Nashville Sound, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit deliver the song like a late-night confession. The arrangement is spare and steady, the guitar chiming through the dark while Isbell names the ordinary details that become holy when time is short. Not jubilant love — attentive love. The kind that treats each minute like a gift.

The Cover:

In 2023, Noah Kahan teamed up with Wesley Schultz (The Lumineers) for a luminous duet. The guitar sits further back while the voices take center stage, intertwining and building toward a final chorus that briefly drops the backing altogether — an a cappella hush that lands like a held breath. Beautiful, star-powered, and vocally rich.

The Verdict:

The cover is lovely, but a shade brighter — a touch faster, more uplift than ache. Isbell’s version feels like poetry carved from the everyday, where the little things become the big things. When the goosebumps vote, they go to Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit.