Tidbit Thursday: Auld Lang Syne
(Ringing in the new, celebrating the old)
Quick but heartfelt kudos to indie label Grinding Tapes for posting this timely in-house take on this classic year’s end carol from The Points North. The flutes, guitar, and ragged vocal harmonies combine exquisitely, revealing a delicious old-school minimalist pubfolk perfect for a snowed-in New Year’s Eve.
Just as potent, in it’s own way, is Sam Billen’s achingly fragile banjo-tinged version of the song, the capstone to stunning 2009 Holiday compilation The More The Merrier Christmas, curated by Sam himself for indie label The Record Machine.
Bonus points for these other, equally pensive folkcovers of the Robert Burns poem from years gone by - the first of which, as far as I know, is a live in-studio rarity unavailable anywhere else. Take your pick for a Happy New Year.
- Cry, Cry, Cry: Auld Lang Syne
(live from the WXPN World Cafe, 1999) - Eliza Gilkyson: Auld Lang Syne
(live bootleg, 2004) - Rob MacKillop: Auld Lang Syne
(from The Healing, 2002) - Tony Trischka: Auld Lang Syne
(from Glory Shone Around: A Christmas Collection, 1995) - El Perro Del Mar: Auld Lang Syne
(single, 2008) - Jack Ingram: Auld Lang Syne
(single, 2006)
Category: Holiday Coverfolk
December 31st, 2009 at 3:22 pm
i’d also recommend a cover of ‘This Could Be our Year’ by the Zombies and Christopher Quinn & One Horse Town’s bluegrass instrumental version of ALS on the ‘Stuck on a Cold Steel Pole’ Canadian comp. Happy newer year.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Posted 2 years ago, but worth revisiting:
Pablo: This Will Be Our Year
Thanks for the suggestion and recommendation, Dan. Enjoy the fireworks!
December 31st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Happy New Year and many thanks for all your hard work on this blog over the year. Thanks also for the Points North, I’ve seen them a few times and they’re terrific.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Happy New Year to you as well (and of course you are right about that Cry Cry Cry version - as far as I know, anyway).
Here’s hoping 2010 outdoes 2009 in every good way, and thanks again for all the hard work you put into this blog - like a lot of people I make a point of visiting regularly.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Oh, BH… the Cry Cry Cry version is a treasure! - I remember hearing it live in Tampa, Florida during their tour… and never thought I’d be graced with it again. Thanks for this - thanks for everything, really… <3
January 1st, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Happy New Year, BH! Thanks for all the great stuff you unearth for us! +3 on the CCC!
January 4th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Great post! <3
January 9th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
2 points for The Points North!!
Chris Bathgate’s Auld Lang Syne needed inclusion as well - the great Michigan folk version.
Nice additions BH.
S.
February 6th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
[...] local indie pubfolkers The Points North when their label Grinding Tapes released their excellent cover of Auld Lang Syne just in time for New Years, their newest free release - a great, fluid, and mystical lo-fi [...]
May 1st, 2010 at 3:05 pm
[...] spectrum, Kansas singer-songwriter Sam Billen - whose “achingly fragile” version of Auld Lang Syne we posted at the New Year - has recently added two more tracks to REMOVERs, an ongoing covers and [...]
June 30th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Lovely post!!
The Jack Ingram track is cut/incomplete though.