Lyr Add: The Harvest Excursion (Joan MacIsaac)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HARVEST EXCURSION (Joan MacIsaac)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 05:24 PM

Lyr. Add: The Harvest Excursion
Music & Lyrics Dan Somers, arr. Joan MacIsaac

"This song was written by my great-great-grand-uncle, Dan Somers, sometime between 1910 and 1914. He was a farmer from King's County, Prince Edward Island, who wrote quite a few poems and songs about local people and events. 'Land of the Golden Pelt' refers to P. E. I. (which was renowned for its fox fur industry, as does 'little island home.' 'Colleen bawn' is an endearment meaning beautiful girl and to 'go a' soar means to travel far away."

1
Oh hark! and listen to the whistle of the train
We're pulling from the station for the land of the golden grain
And when we return again our friends will drink our health
For there's no place here where there is such cheer
As the land of the golden pelt.
2
Oh Molly dear I greatly fear that soon I will be gone
I'm going away on a harvest train to the far Saskatchewan
To reap the grain on the western plain where the buffalo used to roam
And I'll leave you alone in your island home
My dear coleen bawn.
3
Oh Molly dear when night is near and I am far away
With willing heart you'll do your part and for me you will pray
When the pigs are fed they go to bed and the kids play on the lawn
And you'll heave a sigh for your absent boy
In the far Saskatchewan.
4
Oh Molly dear dry up your tears I'll soon be home again
With pockets lined with the gold I find in the fields of the golden grain
And nevermore I'll go a' soar to the far Saskatchewan
And leave you here my Molly dear
In your little island home.
5
Oh! hark and listen to the whistle of the train
We're pulling from the station and we're homeward bound again
And when we return again our friends will drink our health
For there's no place here where there is such cheer
As the land of the golden pelt.

Mad Mansion Music, copyright 1982.
Wintersong Album, Joan MacIsaac, World Records WRC1-2236.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Harvest Excursion (Joan MacIsaacs)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 05:27 PM

Sorry about the 's at the end of her name, MacIssac.
Perhaps a good elf will remove it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Harvest Excursion (Joan MacIsaacs
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 06:18 PM

I'm glad to see this song in the DT, Joan. I know Phil Thomas had an interest in tracking down congeners of this song, since harvest excursions (in the days when harvest required hundreds of men, but only for the harvest) were regularly run from the east to the prairies.

Incidentally, I'm thinking that "a' soar" is perhaps "astore" (i.e. my dear) since "colleen bawn" is also present, and there is also the Irish rhyme for "sigh" = "boy", pron. "b'y" as in "I'se the b'y".

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Harvest Excursion (Joan MacIsaac)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 21 Sep 18 - 04:34 AM

Also recorded as Harvest Train on the James Keelaghan CD, A Few Simple Verses, in 2006.