The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #82223   Message #4197803
Posted By: Joe Offer
23-Feb-24 - 08:43 PM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Chesapeake Born (Tom Wisner)
Subject: ADD: Chesapeake Born (Tom Wisner)
I think the tongs are for harvesting clams and oysters and crabs - but mostly oysters.
Here are the lyrics from the album notes:

CHESAPEAKE BORN
(Tom Wisner © 1979)

Put down the plow, lad,
And pick up the tong
'Cause you got to be waterin'
All winter long (repeat)



She's the mother of the waters and the people of this land
Forty river children reach to take her by the hand
And flow through Maryland and Virginia to the sea,
She's Atlantic born, Atlantic bound and free. (And I'm...)
CHORUS

I'm the son of the rain, and the brother of the wind
Follow on the water, got tobacco on my chin.
Seen forty years of sunshine, wind and rain.
If I had a chance, I'd do it all again. ('Cause I'm...)



(not in notes)
I hear your song so clearly and I know that down inside
the mother of these waters is flowing deep and wide.
Sons and daughters of the waters life within,
Gentle voices blending with the wind.


    (To chorus...whisper)

    (Repeat chorus ....full voice)




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCQEmm-3Ldc

The song is on Chesapeake Born, a 1978 Folkways album by Tom and Mark Wisner

Also on Made of Water, by Tom Wisner (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mstNZjzR5i0