Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver/River Driver's Lament

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 05:57 PM

mg, please post words, and source if you know it. Still many work songs out there which haven't been collected.

Bob Coltman, it seems that "River Driver" was sung in much of the northeast; I would not be surprised if more verses are found.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver
From: GUEST,Alan Eaton
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 04:35 PM

Dear Bob:
I learned River Driver from the singing of newfoundland-based Great Big Sea. It is on at least one of their albums, and they ended their recent concert in Portsmouth NH with it. We started singing it, and I got the lyrics as they sing it, from a great big sea lyrics website (I've discarded the url, I'm afraid). It should be easy to find with that info. Your inquiry was the first I've found suggesting its origin. I typed out the lyrics in wordperfect, if you'd like them. [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 10:04 AM

Aha, now that I know it's from Newfoundland, I found a version online in the MacEdward Leach collection. (I'd always assumed it was either New England, or non-Maritime Canadian in origin.)

But ... the version I heard differs from both Leach and Peacock, and I don't know how it came to surface in New Hampshire, apparently before the song was published! (A year before Peacock, and Leach's first Canadian collection, 1965's Folk Songs and Ballads of Lower Labrador. Or was it included in Leach's Ballad Book, 1955?).

It was 1958 when a couple of singing friends, Tony Morse and Anne? (Mrs. Peter) Fleming, sang this to me at Hanover, NH (found the note I'd made at the time), and the only verse they had was distinct. It sounds like a first verse that's missing from Peacock AND from Leach:

I am a river driver, and from Charlestown I come,
I never earned a penny but what I called my own,
And if ever I get off of this job, this town I mean to roam,
For I'm a river driver, and I'm far away from home.

Neither Morse nor Mrs. Fleming were Newfoundlanders, or source singers in the usual sense -- a couple of singing friends,one a former Dartmouth College student, the other a student's wife. They never said where they got the verse, or the tune either. Mystery!

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 09:23 AM

It is indeed "The River Driver's Lament" as posted by Q.

Someone should give Q a special award for coming up with so many great songs in answer to queries. Splendid work!

No small thing, finding a song after a half century. Whew! Better go sing it, I guess, huh?

And thanks ...

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Jul 07 - 12:08 AM

Has anyone heard of shingle bolt drivers? They drove the short cuts of cedar in the Pacific NW..very dangerous but they say no one died of it...although many died of the cold from wearing wet clothes. I have words but no tune to a song. mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: Nick E
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:41 PM

Just get a little bluebird for me to sing alone, for I am a river driver and I'm far away from home.

I had never heard the song before, nor would I I expect if it were not for Great Big Sea. (Huge Fan Here) It is on the latest CD "The Hard & The Easy"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:20 PM

Gee, Jeri, I gave you a long time! LOL!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:18 PM

...and I thought I was fast!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:16 PM

Bob, Q posted the lyrics to the River Driver's Lament. Looks like the one you want.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:14 PM

Lyrics posted in this thread by Guest Q 22 Feb 03 - 05:06 PM. If it's the right one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: ClaireBear
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:11 PM

There are some lyrics on Great Big Sea's Web site, and those lyrics seemed to have proliferated across the Web, so I don't think you'd have much treouble finding them if you looked now.

Mind you, I haven't checked the DT. (That's why I'm not posting them here.)

Claire

Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: curmudgeon
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 08:05 PM

Great song, Bob.

I'm forwarding this to my friend Alan Eaton, who sings it, and doesn't come to Mudcat often enough - Tom Hall

Subject: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 07:57 PM

Around 1956 or 57 I remember hearing, probably from outing clubbers in New Hampshire, a lumberman's song with the refrain line (I think it was also the first line of the first verse),

I am a river driver, and I'm far away from home.

.G C D E G A-G E   D   C   D E .A .B    C

is the tune in the key of C -- a brawny tune and a good one.

I have searched off and on for it ever since. Has anyone ever heard it, or seen in printed anywhere?

Thanks!

Bob