The Dutch–Turkish retro Anatolian psychedelic rock band (YAY!) Altın Gün (“Golden day”; wiki; YouTube channel), headed by singer Merve Daşdemir, have recently been nominated for a Grammy for their arrangements of Turkish songs from the 60s and 70s (see e.g. here and here).

In their albums Gece (2019) and album Yol (2021), Altın Gün pay tribute to great folk musicians of yesteryear such as Aşık Veysel and Neşet Ertaş—both solo bards accompanying their songs on bağlama plucked lute, and both the subjects of several documentaries in Turkish. I hope, perhaps vainly, that Altın Gün’s celebrity will prompt fans to go back to the original songs.

Aşık Veysel (1894–1973) was a celebrated Alevi blind bard (wiki; YouTube topic; see Thomas Korovinis’ chapter here, and note Metin Erksan’s 1952 biopic). Let’s compare some of his original songs with Altin Gün’s versions.

Derdimi Dökersem (“If I pour my troubles into the deep stream…”):

Anlatmam Derdimi Dertsiz insana (“I cannot tell my troubles to one who knows not what trouble is”):

Kara Toprak (“Black earth”)—Aşık Veysel on a 1969 TV programme:

Neşet Ertaş (wiki; YouTube playlists here and here) was an abdal sage from the Turkmen community.

Kesik Çayır:

Bulunur mu:

Some related posts in my mystifyingly extensive series on Turkish culture include Jazz in Turkey, Turkish jazz in London, Some Kurdish bards, New sounds from Anatolia, and Aynur.