Liner notes: In 1620, 102 settlers left England for America
on the Mayflower. Fewer than half of those aboard referred
to themselves as "saints" they called the others "strangers."

SAINTS AND STRANGERS (6:18) by Chris Stuart
Back Country Music

On a cold and cloudless English morning
As they led me to the gallows tree
20 shillings had I in my pocket
For to pay the hangman's fee

Then I heard a stranger ask the sheriff
If I'd ever sailed upon the sea
I replied if I should see the morrow
Then a sailor I would be

So they rode me to a ship at anchor
Smaller than the damned South Hampton jail
And the crewman(?) shouted from the fo'castle
For America we sail

        CHORUS
        We are travellers in a fragile vessel
        Ever waiting for the sparrow's call
        Passing only for the moment
        Saints and strangers are we all
        Saints and strangers are we all

As the ship listed from the harbor
And I felt the cold Atlantic spray
Then I knew I had exchanged a coffin
For the ocean's open grave

No gold or spices did we carry
No human contraband or rum(?)
Just a crew and a congregation
Singing hymns and a sacred songs

I preferred the shanties of the sailors
And I learned to haul the mast and jib
They would ask me was I saint or stranger
But no answer would I give
        
        CHORUS

In a dream I walked a barren desert
Til I lost my way upon the land
There i found the broken masted Mayflower
Buried in the sand

On the bow sprit was a faded maiden
Fairer than the western wind was she
But she wept for all the saints and strangers
Til her tears became the sea

Then i felt the ocean close around me
In cold Poseiden's debt,death(?) I hung
Til i woke to the watchman's voice shouting
To america we've come
        CHORUS