You don’t meet nice girls in coffee shops

Hold On – The Cottars (Tom Waits cover)

We’ll find out in a few hours whether my conviction that (all polling data aside) the Dems hold Massachusetts. In the meantime, how about a boisterous Celtic-inspired folk cover of Tom Waits.

I’ve never really ‘gotten’ Waits. I understand why other people like him, and I like some of his songs. But he’s never really connected with me. Except for one song: “Hold On” where the bluesy, perforated voice thing, the haunting melody, and the pure and perfect lyrics all fit together into one amazing package.

And this cover, I’m happy to say, manages to expand my appreciation of the song all that much more. Like all good covers, it’s not an attempt to duplicate the sound. Instead, it takes the kernel of the song and gives it a new context.

Here, what was a soulful lament with a hint of steel turns into an exuberant and full-throated leap into a world of scary possibilities. You’d be hard-put to find two people that sound more opposite but somehow Fiona MacGillivray is able to take this song and make it her own.

And it makes me really, really happy.

Check out the album Forerunner here. Thanks to Cover Lay Down for turning me onto this track.