--- title: Game of Thrones Theme by New Orleans Swamp Donkeys description: The New Orleans traditional jazz band The Swamp Donkeys covered the Game of Thrones theme with some bayou flair at BB King's in New York. canonical: https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-17T14:42:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:51.302Z og:title: WATCH: Game of Thrones Cover Brings Winterfell to the Bayou og:description: The jazzy New Orleans-style remix of the theme song you've gotta hear. og:url: https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WATCH: Game of Thrones Cover Brings Winterfell to the Bayou twitter:description: The jazzy New Orleans-style remix of the theme song you've gotta hear. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # LISTEN: This _Game of Thrones_ Cover Brings Winterfell to the Bayou by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jun 17, 2014 2:42 PM UTC by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jun 17, 2014 2:42 PM UTC Winter may be coming, but it doesn’t feel so cold when listening to the New Orleans traditional jazz band [The Swamp Donkeys](http://neworleansswampdonkeys.com/about/) play a cover of the _Game of Thrones_ theme at BB King’s in New York City. The signature, dramatic opening notes are picked out on a banjo, but when the rest of the instruments kick in, it’s more boogie than bleak. It’s like _Game of Thrones_ traveled to the world and era of Boardwalk Empire, which, now that we think about it, Boardwalk Empire kind of is the _Game of Thrones_ of the 1930s? The Swamp Donkeys’ cover should fit nicely in with the rest of the pantheon of _Game of Thrones_ covers, including this rendition of the theme played with [floppy disk drives](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgfPYetWWJw) and The Hold Steady’s rock version of “[The Bear and the Maiden Fair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgiTB2NFvAM).” Too bad we still have to wait forever until the new season. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/"},"headline":"LISTEN: This Game of Thrones Cover Brings Winterfell to the Bayou","datePublished":"2014-06-17T14:42:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:51.302Z","description":"Hold the… banjo?","url":"https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","Music","new orleans","Videos","Jazz"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2889627/listen-this-game-of-thrones-cover-brings-winterfell-to-the-bayou/","name":"LISTEN: This Game of Thrones Cover Brings Winterfell to the Bayou"}}]}] ```