The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59093   Message #947195
Posted By: greg stephens
06-May-03 - 03:57 PM
Thread Name: English Canal Songs advice
Subject: RE: English Canal Songs advice
There are lots of historical publications of songs written to commemorate canal openings etc, and countlesss songs written by modern folkies about leggers and all that stuff. But off hand I can only think of one song that you you might call a traditional canal song....in the sense of sung traditionally by a canal person, and actually about canals. And that is Emma Vickers' Leeds and Liverpool version of "The Cruise of the Calibar". There were loads of musicians working on the boats (accordion and fiddle mainly by all accounts), but if they came up with canal songs, they have not come down to us ( as far as I know, I hasten to add. I would be unbelievably delighted if people can pad out my meagre list of one sole song). I love seasongs, and I lived on a canal boat for 15 years playing everywhere, asking everyone and reading loads of books. But I have always drawn a blank.(In England that is).