HELP: Canada's Story In Song

Subject: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: maire-aine
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 07:11 PM

Recently I bought a vinyl album called 'Canada's Story In Song' sung by Alan Mills (Folkways Recording FW 3000) at a local used record store. But it did not have the usual booklet of lyrics that I've found in every other Folkways recording I've seen. Does anybody know if they're available, maybe through a library? Or does anybody have a copy that they could, maybe, xerox for me? Thank you.

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: johnross
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 07:44 PM

You can almost certainly obtain a copy of the book for any Folkways record from Smithsonian Folklways.

Their web site is http://www.folkways.si.edu/

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 07:55 PM

Maybe Rick Fielding has it and would xerox. Couldn't find it online.

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: phil h
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:14 PM

Canada's Story In Song - FW 3000 was released as a double LP boxed set, it says on the back of the box "descriptive notes are inside pocket" but I don't seem to have them! There is also a book 'Canada's Story In Song' - Edith Fowke, Alan Mills et al published about 1960 by W J Gage of Toronto which has words music & notes on the songs on the record and more. You might find it in a public library ,I got a copy through a used book search site at www.addall.com/

Phil

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: artbrooks
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:17 PM

I have a copy of a copy of a copy, and its incomplete. PM me a snail-mail address if nothing better shows up.

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 26 Aug 02 - 02:26 AM

If Maire-Anne will PM a mail address, I'll put a photostat of the notes (12 pp.) in the mail.

Jon Bartlett Vancouver Folk Song Society

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: raredance
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 12:26 AM

I have "O Canada, A History in Song", sung by Alan Mills with notes by Edith Fowke (22 page book) if that's of interest. It is Folkways FP 3001 (1956). I don't know how it compares to the two record set described above. The book "Singing OUr History" by Fowke and Mills (1960) was reprinted in paperback in 1984 by Doubleday (isbn 0-385-19499-4)

rich r

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Leeder
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 05:19 PM

Just for the record, "Singing Our History" was a reissue of "Canada's Story in Song", with additional material, from a different publisher. (Edith was on the outs with Gage, so she took it to Doubleday, who changed the title.) If you can find "Singing Our History", there's no need to look for "Canada's Story in Song" unless you're a collector.

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: raredance
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 09:48 PM

Leeder makes a good point. The forward to "Singing Our History" indicates that 18 songs were added, primarily from western Canada. The revised edition also did away with the piano scores that were part of the first. Since Mills had died during the interval, all of the new material was strictly Fowke's. It's a very nice book. I happened on my copy in a UBC bookstore in Vancouver in 1984, the year it appeared. I do not know if it is still in print in Canada.

rich r

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:50 AM

Jon ... I just met Alan (Pres of the Van . Folk Society) and his wife tonight, on Saltspring! Told him about Mudcat ... perhaps we'll have a new member soon! He mentioned your name ... we had a nice chat. This site certainly does "thread" people together!

LL

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 12:47 AM

Lyrical Lady, you're in good company with Alan!

As to the book at hand, I reviewed the reissue ("Singing Our History")in a long article in Canadian Folklore Canadien (Vol 6, Nos. 1-2, 1984, pp. 141-7) and I was not able to be nice. The original book (Canada's Story in Song) had its own problems, notably of a very outdated (even then) notion of "history", and said that I thought Edith's lack of attention to what had been added to the folk song corpus in the previous 24 years was nothing short of scandalous.

Subject: RE: HELP: Canada's Story In Song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 10:49 AM

Thread creep, but I just LOVE Allan Mills! We have his folk songs for children in English and French, and all the real old sea chanteys I know come from his sea chantey album. Anybody know anything about him?