December, Get Me Through

Four years ago , I wrote about Get Me Through December, with vocals by Alison Kraus, fiddle by Natalie MacMaster.

What I didn’t know at the time, but know now, thanks to MacMaster’s book I Have a Love Story (available at Bookmark), is:

• The tune is Neil Gow’s Lament for His Second Wife, a tune I first heard when Tim Chaisson played it on the piano in 2008, then later arranged by Steven Garrity, and then, most notably, when Roy Johnstone played it at Catherine’s Celebration of Life in 2020.
• The song was cowritten by Gordie Sampson (see Day Without Power from 2007, and Jesus Take The Wheel, which he also cowrote).

MacMaster’s book has contains both the sheet music to Neil Gow’s Lament, and the words to Get Me Through December.