SONG PREMIERE: New Jersey’s Lowlight Offer Spirited Take On Tom Waits’ “New Year’s Eve”

December 19, 2016 by Glidein Audio, PREMIERESNo Comments

Having made a name for themselves in the re-emerging local music scenes in New Jersey, alt-folk band Lowlight released their debut LP, Where Do We Go From Here, earlier this year. The chemistry of the musicians in Lowlight came when Renee Maskin (lead vocals, guitar) and Colin Ryan (drums) came together to record for their now defunct group Seapost. Those sessions were engineered by Derril Sellers (guitar, background vocals) who then brought in his wife Dana Sellers (keyboards, background vocals) to write some new songs after those sessions. The rest, as they say, is history.

Just in time for the holidays, Lowlight have recorded a rendition of Tom Waits’ “New Year’s Eve” off his 2011 album Bad As Me, and today we are excited to share an exclusive listen of it right here on Glide Magazine. The band traded out the song’s accordion for a piano and gave it a full band arrangement, presenting the song in a rootsier light. They recorded this track live on December 3rd at Andy Bova’s Simple Sound Studio in Oceanport, NJ. Andy – who has produced records by Dentist, Rick Barry, and more – recorded, engineered, produced, and mixed everything. “New Year’s Eve” is part of a longer Simple Sound Session, which includes another, brand new Lowlight song and an interview with CoolDad Music’s Jim Appio. The entire session will be available at cooldadmusic.com on Friday, December 30th. This was the first in a planned series of Simple Sound Sessions.

Reflecting on Lowlight’s cover, lead vocalist and guitarist Renee Maskin says, “‘New Year’s Eve’ is a great holiday song because it captures a range of emotions experienced around this time of year. There’s a lot of revelry, but also sorrow and loss. We admire the poignant beauty that Tom Waits often manages to capture in his songs, and does so well in this one.”

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