Details of another fisherman's jersey song.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PATTERN^^ From: katlaughing Date: 12 Jan 00 - 06:20 PM

Would like to share the following; one of my favourite songs, it has a hauntingly beautiful melody: Kim McKee wrote it after reading how the women in seafaring villages would knit an "identifying" pattern in the sweaters for their men. Here are the copyrighted lyrics:

THE PATTERN

Oh the sea can take the lovers and the fathers from our homes
and leave a hole within the hearts of those who watch them go
So we stitch for them a sweater with love, to keep them warm
and hidden there within the wool the pattern for their return
Chorus:
And this man will not be nameless when they claim him from the swell
There is so much more to this man's life...That the pattern does not tell

This pattern gives his name to him if he's lost upon the foam
But does not tell much of his life or those he left at home
Of the loving nights with tallow lights the laughter and the tears
It speaks his name but does not sing the song of all our years
Chorus:

I remember all the love I felt while stitching slow and even
The tenderness he spoke to me upon his sea-bound leavin'
Now I sit beside this peat fire dreaming of my lover, gone
And cry and sing a prayer for the pattern of my son
Chorus:
And this boy will not be nameless When they claim him from the swell
There is so much more to this boy's life...That the pattern does not tell

Subject: RE: Loss of all hands in the irish sea From: raredance Date: 12 Jan 00 - 07:28 PM

I agree Kat, it is "hauntingly beautiful". Willson & McKee are a wonderful husband/wife duo from Montana who deserve a bigger audience (doesn't everybody). "The Pattern" is on their 1995 CD of the same name on the Rimsong Music label.