Thank you all for the confirmation of my guess. It was Colin Meloy's spelling of the word that put me off the scent. To a lover of words like me, his songs are full of toothsome expressions and archaic constructions.

Leadfingers, the F&S song you mention is unfamiliar, but it's probably not dissimilar to one recorded by the Smothers Brothers, recounting the trials of those star-crossed lovers Sally the lobster and Herman the crab.

Walter, I didn't know The Decemberists sold out -- pity. How big a pile did they make? I've always thought of "A Cautionary Song" as the type of thing a creative (albeit twisted) father would say to his picky children at the dinner table, to get them to eat their brussel sprouts.

Jerry