Canoeing and Kayaking songs

Subject: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 07:05 PM

There must be many songs of the Vouyagers (sp?) and wilderness paddlers, Wild Goose by Wade Hemsworth comes to mind, and I have heard a tune Called Paddle-addle-addle in you little canoe while visiting the Adorondack Musem. What paddleing related, canoe and kayak songs do you know of?

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: mg
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 07:38 PM

I have one about Hawiaan voyageurs in PNW. mg

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 08:15 PM

Dip, Dip and Swing

Dani

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 08:19 PM

Can I Canoe You Up The River ??

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,julia L
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 08:32 PM

Paddlin' Madeline home
J

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 07:14 AM

I don't know any but now that you have asked the question I have an idea for one that I can write!

I'll post it here when I can work it all out.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 07:24 AM

Oh Shanendoah has a verse, "With notions his canoe was laden."

Rolf Harris did a song called "War Canoe" which he sung with paddling sounds to a paddling rythm.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,hiding!
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 08:32 AM

Anything you can'oo, I can'oo better
I can'oo anything better than you..

No you can't etc etc

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: DebC
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 09:53 AM

Eileen McGann put a tune to a lovely poem called "Canoe Song at Twilight".

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Black Belt Caterpillar Wrestler
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 10:06 AM

As promised

THE ESKIMO.
© Robin Madge 2011

There once was an Eskimo up near the pole
Who wasn't cut out for that life on the whole.
He shivered all night and he shivered all day
And tried hard to keep warm every way.

He found he could cope in his igloo at night
And the thrill of the chase would warm him all right.
But he just couldn't stand to sit there and wait
For hours on end for a fish for his plate.

He took to his kayak for at least on the seas
The water was warmer by several degrees.
And he paddled around and kept warm for a bit
But still felt the cold although he was fit.

And then he decided to try something new
He fitted a stove inside his canoe.
And set off to try out his brand new idea
Central heating afloat, best seller next year?

Alas, the device made of sealskin soon burned
And so once again a lesson was learned
He found out the hard way what many can tell
You can't have your kayak and heat it as well!

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 10:38 AM

Very clever.

Shenendoah can be paced to provide a good paddling rhythm, as can John Kanaka.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 08:17 PM

Wow very painfull and amusing shaggy dog song there Black Belt

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 08:26 PM

I just figure there has to be a collection of such songs, like a sub section of work shaties, or folk songs about how wonderfull it is to paddle.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 08:42 PM

Deb Cowan noted that Eileen McGann put a tune to a lovely poem called "Canoe Song at Twilight". On the same album, she has another canoeing song, Temagami. The chorus goes And we're singing and travelling across the blue waters/Rapids and whitecaps, hey, bring them on/There's nobody here but the bears and the otters/So we're paddling swift and we're paddling strong.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 09:29 PM

I see fourteen messages in this thread. How can we get to fourteen messages in a canoeing songs thread without getting to Land of the Silver Birch?

-Joe-

dip, dip, and swing....

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 12:44 AM

There are 2 c.d's of canoeing songs put together by Mudcatter Paul Mills in Canada. here is info about the book that accompanies them.
http://ottawafolklore.myshopify.com/products/canoe-songs. these c.d's used to be available form the wooden canoe heritage association.
http://www.wcha.org/ they may be out of print now..

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Bob Landry
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 12:59 AM

My ancestry being Acadian and my first language being French, I have gravitated towards French-Canadian music when it comes to the canoeing theme. Here's my humble offering:

The voyageurs of Quebec and Montreal and later of the Northwest company based in Montreal regularly paddled their way to the rich fur grounds of western Canada usually (but not always) skirting the land controlled by the English via the Hudson's Bay Company. They sang some of their own songs and traditional French folk songs including:
- V'la bon vent
- En roulant ma boule (a variation of v'la bon vent)
- Vive la canadienne
- Les raftsmen
- A la claire fontaine
etc.

"The Irish poet Thomas Moore, who sailed from Kingston to Montreal in August 1804, marvelled at the sight of these men rowing together and singing in chorus against the magnificent panorama of the St Lawrence River. So enthralled was he that he memorized several of their songs in order to teach them to his sister. It was during this journey that he composed his 'Canadian Boat Song'." In http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001243 That article has a very detailed discussion on French-Canadian music

Carol and I had the pleasure, a few weeks ago of attending a conert by the Quebec folk group, Genticorum. They've done a fair amount of research into the lives and music of the voyageurs. Their recent CD, "Nagez rameurs" (swim, paddlers) contains some of their interpretations of the lives of the voyageurs in the sings:
- Tout le long du voyage
- Nagez rameurs
- Grand voyageur sur la drave
- Quand chus parti du Canada
- Les raftsmen

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Bob Landry
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 01:02 AM

I should have tried the blue clicky thing:
Canadian Encyclopaedia

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Seayaker
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 08:01 AM

There was a popular folky type song in the UK quite a few years ago called "Messing About On The River" which contained the lines

"In a one man canoe, you're the skipper and crew,
While messing about on the river"

I can't remember who did it but it was a very pleasant song.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 09:53 AM

The late Josh MacRae took "Messing about on the River" into the British Hit Parade in the 1960s -- but I'm sorry to say that I don't know the writer.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Greg B
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 11:55 AM

"C'Est L'Aviron" seems obvious for canoes, especially big 'uns going up-stream. For kayaking, it'll need time for its own tradition to develop as the non-native (i.e. recreational) use of the double-paddle kayak is a pretty new, albeit welcome, phenomenon.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 07:00 PM

Greg I think that is an interesting point. Canoeing has a commercial and 150 year + tradition. It seems to me commercial use of the Canoe and the days of shanties from the sailing whaling and merchant ships run pretty much parallel and I would expect some more paddleing songs to come out of that. The kayak was used more in a subsistence mode and the lore would not migrate as with commercial traffic I'd guess. Still kayaking for sport and recreation has been around long enough that I chide acoustic guitar strumming, zither plucking kayak paddling dulcimer players for not having done more!

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Nov 11 - 11:46 PM

150 years, Nick? What about the French-Canadian voyageurs? They were well-established in North America by the late 17th century. And what about the Native Americans before them?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 12:22 AM

THE GUM TREE CANOE

1. On Tombigbee river so bright I was born,
In a hut made ob husks ob de tall yaller corn,
An dar I fust meet wid my Jula so true,
An I row'd her about in my Gum Tree Canoe.

CHORUS: Singing row away row, O'er de waters so blue,
Like a feather we'll float, In my Gum Tree Canoe.

2. All de day in de field de soft cotton I hoe.
I tink of my Jula, an sing as I go,
Oh I catch her a bird, wid a wing ob true blue,
An at night sail her round in my Gum Tree Canoe. CHORUS

3. Wid my hands on de banjo and toe on de oar,
I sing to de sound ob de rivers soft roar;
While de stars dey look down at my Jula so true,
An' dance in her eye in my Gum Tree Canoe. CHORUS

4. One night de stream bore us so far away,
Dat we could'nt cum back, so we thought we'd jis stay;
Oh we spied a tall ship wid a flag ob true blue,
An it took us in tow wid my Gum Tree Canoe. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 12:28 AM

google canoe and kayaking songs for a bunch of them

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 05:43 PM

Joe I intentionally put a + after the 150 because Im not great with math or history, not clear when the height of the fur trade was. I should have made it 250 I guess, as for the Indians Im not sure how well I would sing in Cree, was looking for songs of the Euorpean settlers.

My earliest ancestor in North America was a French Jesuit Priest who spread the "word" to the Natives in the 1600s

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nick E
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 06:31 PM

And Im now all wikipediad up on the whole fur trade thing ;)

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 10:03 PM

It is very important for people in U.S. to realize that we had voyageurs here as well. I am reading a book on Kindle about the French influence in America (North America, U.S.A. portion). The whole midwest was rife with them.They made their way south and they made their way west. Voyageurs included French Canadian, Orkney Islanders, Hawaians, Iriqois ?? Indians and Metis. They were all up and down the Missisippi and other rivers..th Ohio. We don't know enough about them. mg

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 19 Sep 13 - 12:55 PM

try this one i found: http://boatertalk.com/forum/BoaterTalk/1428476

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Canada
Date: 19 Sep 13 - 02:05 PM

Another Eileen McGann tune (she's really into the canoe stuff) is Whitewater. It's all metaphor, of course, but what folk song isn't?
Sang this at a "Rivers" themed circle a few months ago.

Whitewater by Eileen McGann

Whitewater's calling, the river's sweet refrain
Sings a chorus to the forest as it's shaking off the rain
The night was passed in thunder but the dawn is breaking clear
Whitewater's calling, and I'm moving on from here

And I'm moving on my way, letting go the rope
Casting off all certainty and reaching for that brightly shining hope

Camped here forever, at least that how it seems
Waiting for a clearer sign, I'm wrestling with my dreams
I thought that they would bind me but now I think I see
Whitewater's calling, may it teach me to be free

And I'm moving on my way, letting go the rope
Casting off all certainty and reaching for that brightly shining hope

I know the current's swift here the water's running deep
I know there's many rocks ahead I've seen them in my sleep
I know that I could founder just around the bend
But I love the water's laughter so I'll see it to the end

And I'm moving on my way, letting go the rope
Casting off dull certainty and reaching for that brightly shining hope

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 19 Sep 13 - 08:19 PM

CANADIAN BOAT SONG: Faintly as tolls the evening chime. Thomas Moore.

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Sep 13 - 05:40 AM

Hey Ho, Anybody home

Subject: RE: Canoeing and Kayaking songs
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 21 Sep 13 - 02:35 PM

Do songs/snippits about the canoeist/kayaker from Seaton Carew count?
Check out the mudcat thread "Song challenge - Not so dead canoeist"
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=106803
-Bob