The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92154   Message #1759361
Posted By: Severn
13-Jun-06 - 09:06 PM
Thread Name: Logging Songs
Subject: RE: Logging In More Songs
Here's some song suggestions to entertain for your next Logger Rhythmic Function, all cited from LP sources:

Tom Brandon-"The Rambling Irishman" (Folk Legacy FSC-10) A fine singer with experience as a lumberjack/sawyer recorded by Edith Fowke and appears on a few of her Collections of field recordings, such as "Ontario Ballads & Folksongs" (Prestige International INT 25014)
Fowke said, "Just as O.J. Abbott was the finest of the older singers I recorded, Tom is the finest of the younger singers". Sandy Paton may have others on Folk Legacy besides the aforementioned Larry Older and Brandon. Check his catalog.

Any of Edith Fowke's field recordings might yield some goodies. I have no idea how much of the stuff's on CD in Canada, or whether the equivalent of Rounder and Atlantic reissuing the Lomax and the Library Of Congress recordings was ever undertaken up there, but the material was scattered on many different labels in the LP days. Google O.J.Abbott in particular. I hope some Canadian catter can help here, as I'd like to find out more on the Fowke Collections on CD, myself.

Two recordings on Folkways to check out are "Wolf River Songs" (Ethnic Folkways Library FE 4001), field recordings from Wisconson in the 50's made by Sidney Robertson Cowell including some by the excellent Warde Ford.

"Songs Of A New York Lumberjack"-Ellen Stekert (Folkways FA 2354) is by a singer covering collected material and has some good songs on it.

You'll find the material recorded from lumberjacks often includes sea songs and ballads and Civil War songs as well (both areas of particular interest to me, personally). A lot of them would go out on ships in the great lakes or on the coasts in the summer and work in the logging camps in the winter, so songs like "The Flying Cloud" were popular among them. You'll find "The Wild Colonial Boy" collected from loggers, as well as music hall songs, 19th century sentimental ballads, hobo songs and others, as people drifted in and out of the work from various places.

Check within the Folkways catalog further on the subject.

Lastly, there's a great song by Vic Bell that both James Keelaghan (on "Timelines") and Tom Lewis (on "Sea-Dog See Dog"),recorded about the practice of "salvaging" in the coastal Pacific Northwest, where the fishermen, if the halibut catch is down, round up the stray logs that got away from the log drives down river (They still do it the old fashioned way) and have washed ashore somewhere and gather them with their fishing boats and float large numbers of them at a time for much needed money into town.

Hope you can find the appropriate CD versions or the LPs. Folkways and Folk Legacy both keep their whole catalog available for custom orders. Good luck.