Best modern versions of traditional songs?

Cafe Society
1

I’m not sure if this has been done before. A couple of quick searches didn’t turn up anything.

I’d also like to hear of some songs that may not have traditional lyrics, but use a traditional melody (e.g. “Salty Dog” by Flogging Molly).

Some of my picks:

Pogues (with The Dubliners) - “Irish Rover”

Metallica - “Whiskey in the Jar” (the only Metallica song I like)

Queen - “God Save the Queen” (especially that last note at the end - never fails to give me goosebumps)

Phil Coulter & Rory Gallagher - “Will Ye Go Lassie Go”

Tori Amos - “Home on the Range,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “This Old Man,” “Amazing Grace”

2

Loreena McKennitt: Greensleeves (from The Mask in the Mirror) and The Highwayman (from The Book of Secrets).

3

I tend to like Thin Lizzy’s Whiskey in the Jar over Metallica’s…

4

Lately I’ve really been digging the Real McKenzies’ remake of “Loch Lomond.” It’s a celtic punk version of the old “You tak tha high road, Ah’ll tak tha low road, and Ah’ll be in Sca-lahn, aforrrre ye!”

5

Have you heard Phantom Planet’s “California”? I love it. The chorus is,
“California, here we come, right back where we started from.” Which is an old song from the early part of the 20th century, I think.

6

Glenn Miller -Little Brown Jug. (It’s SORT of modern).

7

Pretty much anything by Steeleye Span, really. Mmmmmm…Steeleye Span…

8

There was a folk trio called The Roches (three sisters) who did an a cappella version of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”. Beautiful and simple[sup]*[/sup].

[sub]* Simple in theory. It takes three great sets of pipes to pull it off.[/sub]

9

I love Gov’t Mule’s version of John the Revelator.

10

Dropkick Murphys do a pretty good version of “Wild Rover” as well as a few other trad Irish songs. MDC does a great cover of “This Land Is Your Land” that would’ve made Woody proud.

Jon

11

Sarah Brightman’s cover of “Gloomy Sunday”.

12

The Blind Boys from Alabama’s recording of “Amazing Grace”, as sung to the music from “House of the Rising Sun”.

13

The Beatles’s “Golden Slumbers” is actually a remake of a song by Thomas Decker, an Englishman from around Shakespeare’s time and I love it. I guess that would count.

14

“Grandfather’s Clock,” written by Henry Clay Work back in the 1800s or therabouts, covered by the Japanese artist Hirai Ken. I’d like it more if they hadn’t played it to death last year. And then elementary kids started doing skits around it…

…never mind.

15

Polish punk vocaliste Kayah and Romanian musician Bregovic teamed up to do a album of supposedly traditional Romanian songs. The album is great, but I can’t vouch for the songs being actually “traditional”. One of them is actually written by Iggy Pop.

16

I’m sorry about my lack of restraint while using the word “actually”.

17

Eric Johnson does a beautiful, wonderful version of “THe First Nowell” on the Merry Axemas: Guitars for Christmas album. He treats the song like a round, making it more complex each time through.

18

No-one has mentioned Scarborough Fair (Simon and Garfunkel) yet?

19

Not to harp about Sarah Brightman, but I thought she also did a nice job with “Scarborough Fair”.

20

Ani DiFranco’s versions of Amazing Grace