A DRAM FOR THE SINGER
(Bob Pegg)

The creels are all set, nets out for drying;
Curtains are closed at the close of the day.
Out on the waters a tempest is gathering;
Here in the hall the lights are ablaze.
Up on the stage we play our first chord
The fiddle, melodeon, drummer and me
And the dancers rise up like a wave of the ocean,
Take to the floor like boats to the sea.

(Chorus)
Here’s joy to the couple who danced the night long,
A kiss for the girl with the blue dress on,
Strength for the fiddler to play us all through,
And a dram for the singer who’s singing for you
The singer who sings just for you.

There’s many a young girl who’s dancing this evening
Who’ll marry a young man who’s dancing here too.
After the children, the tears and the partings,
Sometimes they’ll wonder where their love went to;
Sometimes at night, when storms are abroad,
Through flashes of lightning and thunderous roar
They’ll come to the hall where the lights are ablazin’
Dance like the waves rolling into the shore.

(Chorus)

Now I’m just a singer who’s singing for you
And I play the guitar with the band on the stage
For the dancers who dance like a wave of the sea
In the hall where the lights are always ablaze,
And I sing of the thunder, I sing of the lightning,
I sing of the storms that rage in the night.
When the song’s finished, the dancers crowd round me,
Buy me a dram for the sake of old times.

(Chorus)

Sung by Bob Pegg on his 1996 album "The Last Wolf" and by Debra Cowan on her and Dave Cowan’s 1997 album "A Dram for the Singer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhgjH7vB5fc