Hi, Animaterra:

Just got Jean Redpath's CD, "A woman of her time", which is all about women coping and thought you might like to know about it. There's a really poignant poem on it that I posted to the "sad song sung by Jean Redpath" thread, today.

Anyway, the songs on here are really good and include:

Women of Our Time
Why shoudl I a brisk young lassie?,br> The Mistress
A'the week yer man's awar'
Harry's wife (really good!)
The Lodger
Lunderston Bay
Retirement (the poem I mentioned)
False bride
Tecumseh valley
Blue blazin' Blind drunk
Glasgow lullaby
The jute mill song
An auld man cam coortin' me
High Jeanie High
The gardener
Nancy of the Golden hair
Mhairi's song
The guidwife speaks
From the lambing to the wool

Let me know if you want more info. Also, for a fun coping song try Willson & McKee's Calgon Cruise written by them and on their CD Farther Down the Road from Rimsong Music POB 704 Polson, MT 59860. Its all about a mom who goes into the bathroom, locks the door, fills the tub with calgon bubbles, sinks in, and imagines herself on a wonderful getaway "cruise". It's a lot of fun and a great positive example of coping.

Another of theirs which is a favourite of mine is "The Pattern", also the name of their first CD. Kim McKee wrote it after reading how the women in seafring villages would knit an "identifying" pattern in the sweaters for their men. Here are the copyrighted lyrics:

Oh the sea can take the lovers
and the Fathers from our homes
and leave a hole within the hearts
of those who watch them go

So we stitch for them a sweater
with love, to keep them warm
and hidden there within the wool
the pattern for their return

Chorus:

And this man will not be nameless
when they claim him from the swell
There is so much more to this man's life...
That pattern does not tell

This pattern gives his name to him
if he's lost upon the foam
But does not tell much of his life
or those he left at home

Of the loving nights with tallow lights
the laughter and the tears
It speaks his name but does not sing
the song of all our years

Chorus:

I remember all the love I felt
while stitching slow and even
The tenderness he spoke to me
upon his sea-bound leavin'

Now I sit beside this peat fire
dreaming of my lover, gone
And cry and sing a prayer
for the pattern of my son

Chorus:

And this boy will not be nameless
When they claim him from the swell
There is so much more to this boy's life...
That the pattern does not tell