Lyr Add: Peter Emberlay (from Creighton Collection

Subject: LYR ADD/CORR Peter Emberlay ^^^
From:
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 09:13 PM

There is a version of this New Brunswick/P.E.I song in the database, named Peter Emberly, and I have also e-mailed Dick another version I know. However thinking that it is best to have as many versions as possible, so that we may decide on what verses we'd prefer to sing, I post this one too. There is a long version in the Helen Creighton Collection. Versions have been sung by Ryan's Fancy, Tamarack (to a slower and probably more suitable tune), The Calamity Brothers, and lately Fergus O'Byrne and Jim Payne on their CD Wave Over Wave. The name is sometimes rendered "Amberlay", but it seems that "Emberlay" is correct, and one version says where he is buried in case you want to look up his tombstone.
The Prince Edward Island Music Series Vol. I (whence this comes) states "It is generally accepted that John Calhoun of Boiestown, New Brunswick, authored this song, although some insist that it is from the pen of Larry Gorman. Peter Emberlay died in a logging accident near Boiestown. He was born in Prince County, P.E.I." I have never seen anything which purports to be the author's original version.

Note: "Miramichi," a region of northern New Brunswick so named for the famous salmon river, is pronounced MARE--a--MA--SHEE."

PETER EMBERLAY

My name is Peter Emberlay
As you may understand
I was born on Prince Edward Island
Close by the ocean strand
In eighteen hundred and eighty-two
When the flowers were a brilliant hue
I left my native counteree
My fortune to pursue.

I landed in New Brunswick
That lumbering counteree
I hired to work in the lumbering woods
Just south of the Miramichi
I hired to work in the lumbering woods
Where they cut the tall spruce down
While loading sleds out in the yard
I received my fatal blow.

Farewell to Prince Edward Island,
Cradled in the blue
No more I'll roam your sandy shores
Where my first breath I drew
No more I'll see your gallant ships
As they go sailing by
With banners fluttering in the breeze
Above their masts so high.

Farewell unto my father
It was he who drove me here
I could not get along with him
For his treatment was severe
It is not right to force a lad
Or to try to hold him down
For that will drive him from his home
To a fate of sad renown. ^^^

Subject: RE: LYR ADD/CORR Peter Emberlay
From: svenne
Date: 14 May 00 - 03:33 PM

I ´first heard that tune on an album with the American countrysinger George Hamilton the fourth. Since that time I have been trying to get the lyrics to it and I know now where to find it. Ulf Svennson In Sweden. Also am I unterested in finding the lyrics to Pete.S:T John's wonderful túne " Ringsend Rose.Also the tune "My Lovely Rose of Clare" which has been recorded by the Dubliners. Regards Ulf Svensson in Sweden

Subject: RE: LYR ADD/CORR Peter Emberlay
From: JedMarum
Date: 14 May 00 - 05:34 PM

This is a wonderful song, and an inetersting, if sad story. I just posted a sound file with my version of the song on my website, you may wish to hear. Sorry it takes 3 or 4 minutes to dowload, I will be posting clips of songs in the future, but haven't figured out how to do that yet!