Last December, I stumbled on Dan Fogelberg’s This Endris Night. You probably recognize the Christmas carol. The English tune dates back to the 15th century. Fogelberg’s cover reminds me of a lullaby beautifully soothing.
In today’s battle I’m turning your ear to two instrumental renditions of the song. Listen to decide which cover you like the best.
First is a Log Cabin Christmas.
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy the sound of bluegrass, especially instrumental melodies. I have a couple of CDs in my Christmas music collection to prove it.
The second arrangement is an Irish Christmas.
I didn’t realize until after I pulled these two videos into my post that both arrangements feature some of the same musicians. Alisa Jones (both), Ron Wall (first version), Mark Howard (both) John Mock (second version) and Stuart Duncan (second version).
Appalachian bluegrass and Irish folk music is quite similar. I love both of these renditions but are the differences enough to make for an interesting showdown? With that nagging me, I found another instrumental arrangement on YouTube’s sparse collection.
The third entry in this battle is the contribution produced and arranged by Craig Duncan featuring authentic Celtic instruments in a traditional Irish Christmas style.
I’m curious, is Stuart Duncan from the second entry and Craig Duncan from the last video related, if not what a coincidence with using two fellas with the same last name.
Now comes the hard part, which cover version gets your vote, a Log Cabin Christmas, an Irish Christmas or the traditional Irish Christmas arrangement? In my opinion all three are winners. I truly love each version!
I invite you to visit BoTBers with showdowns going on today.
- CAAC (me)
- The Doglady’s Den (Debbie) retired member, active voter
- Jingle Jangle Jungle (Mary) 1st
- Mike’s Ramblings
- STMcC Presents BoTB (Stephen, BoTB Manager)
- StreamPebbles Diedre
- The Sound of One Hand Typing (John)
- Tossing It Out (Lee)
*Unless noted, all other participants will present two battles per month on the 1st & 15th
Polls close noon (EST) on Dec 6th.
Next week, same time slot I’ll be back to announce the winner in this round, so be sure to mark your calendar to see if your favorite artist wins in this showdown. BEEP…BEEP… the following section needs correcting. “Next time on CAAC, beginning this Sunday, I’ll be sharing blog posts from Decembers long ago in a new mini series just for this month, Visiting Christmases Past.” That was my plan originally but I’m not in Blogosphere on the weekends much so I felt that would be a poor decision cutting into my already full schedule. Instead, I set this mini series to launch on Wednesdays this month, so if you’re on the cyberblock, then I hope you’ll hop this way. Meanwhile, you will find me boogieing on the 4M dance floor on Monday all month to Christmas music. Have a bandtastic day, my friends. X💋X💋, Cathy
