A new "Burt" carol

I never got to this story in December about a new carol from a relative of Alfred Burt:

Minnesota composer Abbie Burt Betinis has released a new Christmas carol. It's been a tradition here at MPR since 2001 to feature her new carol, but for Abbie's family, the tradition goes back to 1922.

Her great-grandfather, Bates Burt, was a pastor who sent the first carol out as a greeting card for family and friends and parishoners.

The tradition was picked up famously by his son Alfred Burt. In the 1940s and '50s, he wrote some 15 carols, standards like "some Children See Him" and "O, Hearken Ye."

Alfred Burt died in 1954. But his fresh take on the carol continues to this day in the person of Abbie Betinis.

This year she even was inspired by a sermon of her great-grandfather's. Betinis told John Birge of Classical Minnesota Public Radio that this year, she had Advent on her mind when she wrote the carol "Behind the Clouds."

Go hear to get the story, read the text of the carol, and listen.

Afterthought--How Abbie is related: