"Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg, an acoustic cover by Mike Massé, featuring Kurt Moorehead and Ken Benson.
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Liner Notes:
I remember this song being on a mix tape I made myself around 1990. I was mesmerized by not only Dan's sincerity and story telling, but also his ability to weave a melody through such delicate and intricate harmonies. I never really thought I'd have the chance to record it, but we did it (yay!).
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, y'all! We filmed this video on December 22nd, and I'm releasing it two days later on Christmas Eve. Thanks to Ken for bringing the Santa hats to the studio. :)
So I learned recently that this song is a true story. Because of course it is. It always felt true, and now I know why. Dan wrote it about a chance encounter with his old high school girlfriend one Christmas Eve when they both came home for Christmas, and were both sent on last-minute errands. I will spare you all of the details, but if you want to do a deep dive (like I did!), here are links to three different articles about Dan and Jill, and about this song. Each article contains different interesting details including interviews with Jill.
www.pjstar.com/x1101623574/Lu...
/ dans-jill-st-louis-wom...
www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/ma...
I originally intended to have a friend play the piano part, because I wasn't sure I would have time to learn it in time to release this on Christmas Eve as planned. But I ended up recording it myself, along with the guitar part. It's a really fun part to play. We recorded our cover at 445 Hz, which is the closest I could come to matching the pitch of the original. The original was likely recorded at 440 Hz, and then someone decided it was a little slow and decided to speed up the tape a bit.
Not enough can be said about the brilliance that goes into this song. Dan makes it all sound so effortless here. It was an interesting challenge to reverse engineer those harmony parts, and to put this whole song together. I've loved this song since I first heard it, and I feel it is some of Dan's finest work.
I want to dedicate this to Jill, and also to Dan. Thanks to Dan for immortalizing this memory in a beautiful song, and thanks to Jill for sharing her story about that night, so we can all have a little more insight into the woman and the evening that inspired this beloved song. And Jill, if you ever happen to see this, I hope it brings back some nice memories.
About this audio/video:
(I re-uploaded this video because I noticed a rendering error that had led to some audio distortion in the original upload.)
I edited the audio and video myself, but I had a lot of help with everything else:
Thanks to Kurt and Ken for playing along, and for taking part in the video, as well.
Thanks to Nathan Mitchell for filming.
Thanks to Matt Legge for being our recording engineer for Kurt's flute and sax parts. Matt recorded Kurt's parts at Third and James studio in Denver, where we also filmed the video.
I recorded the vocals, my guitars, and Ken's bass at my home studio. I recorded the piano part using Steinberg's the Grand 3. For the vocals and guitars, I used my Townsend Labs Sphere L22 microphone, the only mic I really use anymore.
Thanks to Wild Dog Stomp for the stomp pedal I'm using: www.wilddogstomp.com/products...
Thanks to Ovation guitars for my Ovation Custom Legend, made in the U.S.A. I'm an Ovation-sponsored artist: ovationguitars.com/artists
Thanks to you for reading, and please remember to Like, Subscribe, and Share. It all helps a lot.
The band:
Mike Massé: vocals, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Kurt Moorehead: flute, saxophone
Ken Benson: bass
Ken is a dear and lifelong friend, so it's always fun to work with him.
Kurt is a member of the Denver-based Mike Massé Band: mikemasseband.com
Love,
-Mike
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