I first heard Stan Rogers' song: "Barrett's Privateers" without hearing the whole song or knowing who wrote or sang it. But it was such a solid piece after the one hearing I could recite or sing sections of it. Took years before someone told me what it was and I got a copy of "Between the Breaks".

Then in an Irish Bar in Ballard I heard "The Mary Ellen Carter" performed.

What a genius.

Two years ago I was on a solo hike off Prospect Heights trailhead. Coming down through some brush I found it politic to sing the bears away so I was doing Barrett's Privateers and off an adjoining trail an unseen hiker joined in knowing all the words. We kept the bears away.

And then there was the time I drove up to Halifax and hung out at a bar with a Canadian group who did Barrett's Privateers and paused mid-song to note that we were indeed all on a 'Halifax Pier'!!