Saturday, December 31, 2011

Single Song Saturday: Auld Lang Syne
(On community, friends, folk and hope)




It’s not a new year’s song, per se, though traditionally sung at midnight here and abroad. Rather, its message of friendship everlasting after a life well- and long-lived finds voice in, and brings hope and closure to, a multitude of celebrations throughout the English-speaking world, predominantly funerals and other ceremonies of remembrance.

I posted a set of covers of Auld Lang Syne back in the waning days of 2009, too. But the Robert Burns poem and its various melodies seem particularly apt this year. For we heard its echo in the way our small community come together in the wake of a series of natural disasters – the tornado that tore our town apart, the floods that overflowed our banks, the autumnal blizzard that brought cold and powerless darkness. In the warm feeling of the ensemble, which filled my theater days and nights. In the loving family that comes back each year to build the folk festival from the field, before carefully putting it away.

Even in the virtual spaces we occupy together we live out the dream, tied heart and mind in our waking hours. Kickstarter and Indiegogo work because they double the folk equation, turning ideas into nexuses for collaboration between artist and fan, strengthening and supporting the art which speaks that love and shared understanding into our collective consciousness. And though I am especially proud of the hundreds of dollars this particular community raised to support our town when it was most in need this year, the donations that trickle in just in time to pay the bandwidth bills here at Cover Lay Down remind me that I, too, am a nexus. As are we all, in those places where our own passions find play.

Which is to say it’s been a year of community building together: plays and houses, blogs and albums, environments and experiences. And if I’ve learned anything, it is that the truism holds, even in the Internet age: to act globally, one must think locally. The occupy movement is but the beginning. If we can take what we have learned there, and occupy our own communities, perhaps this world can truly belong to our children, and theirs.

And so, as the lyric says, here’s a hand, my trusty friend, and give me a hand of thine. Our offering comprises 12 takes, to match the months that brought us here again – from pubfolk to the pristine, from celtic to the crooned, from the waltz to the quarter time, from the warm welcoming tones of the singer-songwriter to the sweet and mournful appalachian banjo. May they ring in a year full of cheer and goodwill, for you and yours. And may we meet again in strength and friendship in 2012, to raise the glass for old time’s sake, and for the times to come.


Category: Holiday Coverfolk, Single Song Sunday 5 comments »

5 Responses to “Single Song Saturday: Auld Lang Syne
(On community, friends, folk and hope)”

  1. Leon
    December 31st, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    Cool ! Thanks boyhowdy and happy new year to you and yours!
  2. Berni
    December 31st, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    Best wishes to you for the upcoming year!
  3. colin edmonds
    January 3rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    Joel Rakes, too
    http://joelrakes.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9defd2459fba6478f5e71b591&id=9b36bb52e3&e=6d07b83124
  4. Joel
    January 4th, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    As always, thanks for the shoutout!
  5. Bob
    January 5th, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    “Auld Lang Syne” is also featured nicely in Tom Waits’ song “New Year’s Eve” off of his latest album.

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