Martin Praetorius feat. Fiachna Ó Braonáin
This is Martin Praetorius’ Christmas offering, a cover of The Pogues’ iconic anthem “Fairytale of New York”, releasing on Dec. 1st.
A staple of his live repertoire during the Christmas season, Praetorius leans heavily on Christy Moore’s solo version of the song, simply because it works so much better when you are alone with only an acoustic guitar to accompany you.
Prominent help comes from none other than Hothouse Flowers founding member and guitarist Fiachna Ó Braonáin, who started playing Praetorius’ music on Irish radio during the pandemic and continued to do so until his departure from the radio gig.
The two musicians had met on a number of occasions over the past few years and when the call came, Ó Braonáin was more than happy to lend his tin whistle skills to the recording.
The N.Y.P.D. Choir, which appears here for the first time in the history of recorded music, is of course Praetorius himself, drawing on what he learned in more than 20 years as a “choirboy” in the Essen Bach Choir in his birthplace of Essen, Germany.
You can pre-order the song and get Martin’s 2009 seasonal song “At Christmastime” for immediate download by clicking on the cover image above. We would also like to encourage you to help get the word out and share the link on your social channels.