The following is transcribed from the CD. Note some wording and tense variation with Fred's text and the transposition of the 3rd and 4th stanzas.

rich r


MARTIN GREIGH (T Whiteside)
As recorded by The Brandywine Singers on "World-Class Folk" (1992)

My father was a fisherman, likewise my brothers too.
They follow in his footsteps with a wooden point of view
While I the black sheep of the lot work safely on the shore.
I keep account of what we've got, find ways to make it more.

Our mother left for Boston town some seven years ago.
We sons receive a letter each Christmas time or so,
And Father takes the dory then, and round the harbor rows
Until the weather drives him in; that's when the sorrow shows.

CHORUS: Four boats in the harbor, where's the Martin Greigh?
She was due to fetch the Cutty Light by 3 o'clock today.
No sail on the horizon, no vessel by the quay,
Four boats in the harbor, where's the Martin Greigh?

Now a man's the master of his heart, as boys we all were told.
He strains to play the hero's part, a captain brave and bold,
But in the end must pay the toll for feelings never shown,
But trapped within this age-old role he finds himself alone. CHORUS

Now Father says that one fine day he'll take the Greigh and go
To an island far beyond the bay that the coasting trades don't know,
And there he'll run the mainsail down and anchor by the shore
And leave behind old fishing grounds and think of her once more. CHORUS TWICE