hunting for: fisherman meets and marries

Subject: looking for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 03:24 PM

I am hunting for a song along the lines of: 'a fisherman meets and eventually marries his lass'
I have thought of 'Just as the tide was flowing', but this doesn't quite fit the bill, as it is about a sailor, rather than specifically a fisherman.
Does anyone have any ideas please?

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Anne Lister
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 04:01 PM

I've written a song based on a Welsh legend about a fisherman who meets and marries a mermaid ... not sure if that's any use to you!

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 04:32 PM

Hi Anne, thanks for the suggestion, but possibly not at the moment!
We are trying to put together a show based on the North Sea herring fishery, using mainly traditional songs, and I just can't find one for the (fisher)boy meets and marries girl scenario to fit into our plot.
However, we are always looking for sea songs, so yours may well be interesting!

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Susan of DT
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 06:04 PM

Not the one I was thinking of, but it came up while I was searching:
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=8989

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 03:59 AM

Thanks Susan, thats a distinct possibility, if I can find a tune.
I see Eliza Carthy has recorded it - have to get it from iTunes.

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 04:29 AM

No song, but tale recorded from Mikeen McCarthy, Traveller from Caherciveen, Co. Kerry.
Jim Carroll

1.   Mermaid of Filemore   (tape one)
Well, back in Kerry, even to this present day, the Murphys, anybody by the name of Murphy, they're supposed to be very unlucky fishermen, d'ye know.    They never go out of a Friday and they never go out of' a Saturday at four o'clock. The reason why is that there was a Dan Murphy one time1 he lived in a place called Filemore. 'Tis back where I came from actually, a town called Caherciveen.   
So their time for fishing back in this town was five-o'clock in the evening.    So Dan was a bit anxious for the money and he hits away about four o'clock.    So he was fishing away near a rock that's out there, the name of the rock now, we used call Over The Water. He was fishing away and he had his nets out and bejay, he found his nets getting very heavy anyway, and he was hauling and hauling and he couldn't lift it in.
So he said, "I've the biggest fish of all times".   
So bejay, what did he do but he tied it on to the stern of the boat and he oared it away into the shore.    And when he opened the nets, what was inside only a mermaid.   He didn't know what to make of it at first.   
"Oh", she said, she spoke to him, she said, "let me go back to the sea", she said, "or I'll curse you for the rest of my life".   
He said, "I won't leave you go back to sea, you'll never go back to sea", he said.
Those mermaids, had a tail, he got the tail off like and he hid the tail inside in the house where he was for years. The shride was the name of the tail.    He'd the shride hid away.    There's a kind of loft back in the old houses long ago, they'd be made out of coarse bags and they'd be whitewashed, and that's where he hid it.   
So she was the best housekeeper in the parish.   For years he was married and all, to her, for seven or eight years.
So bejay, she was quite happy for years and years anyway, but one day, wasn't he out fishing again and bejakers, wasn't she poking around, she was whitewashing the ceiling, and what happens but she comes across the shride.    And the very minute she found it, away back to sea with her.    She met Dan out in the boat anyway.   
She said, "Dan, I'm going to save your life, she said, because", she said, "you're the one to' look after the four children", she'd four children, "but anybody by the name of Murphy", she said, "that ever go out to sea again", says she, "I'll drown them", she said.    "Moreover, a Friday, that's the day you caught me and the day is Saturday you hid the shride, from four o-clock".
Any a man by the name of Murphy could never go out fishing of a Friday or at four o-clock of a Saturday, he would always have to wait to five o'clock.
But bejay, there was 'Murphys went out after that, there was two Murphy chaps, cousins of his own, and they went out fishing.    And bejay, whether it was her that did it or not, they found the boat and it turned upside down.   
That's a hundred years ago now, and to this present day a Murphy will never go out fishing of a Friday until after five o-clock.

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: doc.tom
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 04:46 AM

The Bold Fisherman ? - it's close!

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 08:25 AM

janemick-

I still haven't found anything that fits the bill but are you doing this one:


SCARBOROUGH FISHERMEN
(MCPS/PRS Richard Grainger and Klondike Music)
Lead and fiddle: Peter.
Guitar, harmony, and D whistle: Richard.

Composed by Richard Grainger, a fine singer, songwriter, and guitar player in the Teeside area of Yorkshire. This is Grainger's ode to the fishermen of Scarborough, on Yorkshire's Northeast coast, who fish in the North Sea.

Chorus:

Here's to the fisher lad, bold as can be
Riding the swell on the cold Northern Sea
Ear to the sounder, eye on the scan
Scarborough fishermen on Northern ground

No weather's too rough when the net's never full
A friend of the wind and the old seagull
It's farewell to Mary, love, farewell to thee
Scarborough fishermen out on the sea

Chorus

Southwards to Yarmouth, North past the Tyne
East to the Dogger Bank, the shoals for to find
It's night and day workin', fillin' our hold
The North Sea's the place where we dig for our gold

Chorus

Prices are high, stocks getting low
More work on this deck, boys, than ever before
It's sodden all day, without any sleep
Scarborough fishermen out on the deep

Chorus

Boy on the deck, how do you feel?
With your icein' and haulin', your nerves made of steel
It'll make you a man, you live a hard life
While you dream of your girl, of warm sheets and dark nights

Chorus

Skipper's in the wheelhouse with a mountainous sea
Towering above, looking down upon me
Prepare for the crash, boys, no time to pray
Scarborough lads facing danger each day

Chorus

Now the weeks over and we are done in
It's all back to Scarborough neat as a pin
With beer in our belly, no longer we'll roam
Scarborough fishermen on the way home

Chorus twice

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:14 AM

Then there's always my switcheroo song of the sailor who falls in love with a fisherwoman: Click here for lyrics and MP3 Sample!

There's no reason why "Portland" can't be changed to Yarmouth, Whitby, or Scarborough, and while the "friendship sloop" as a traditional fishing craft doesn't exist there I'm sure you could come up with an appropriate trawler or drifter.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:51 PM

Hi Charley, I have previously found Scaborough fisherman, but we're not going to be using it.
However, Widgery Wharf looks just what we need - Excellent! thanks.
I will, of course, acknowledge you when it gets performed, here in Brittany.
cheers, Jane

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:53 PM

Hey Charley, will you be coming to Paimpol this August?

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:23 PM

Jane-

Well, that's nice to hear. I am fond of that song as a tribute to the Widgery Wharf gang, and as an amusing parody of "Cruisin Round Yarmouth."

I would love to transport to Brittany but it's not in the cards this year. Still, I'm sure wherever I am in August if I listen right well in the evening I'll hear the bombards shrieking away at the Festival.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: scouse
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 08:14 AM

doc.tom I was thinking the same... the Bold Fisherman fits the bill.

As Aye,

Phil

Subject: RE: hunting for: fisherman meets and marries
From: janemick
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 03:49 AM

Yes, Bold fisherman is a beautiful song, and already in our repertoire. However, it doesn't quite fit the bill - we needed something a bit more worldly. We will be using fisher boy and a (modified version of) Widgery Wharf. Had a practice together last night - its going to be a great show to do (and to hear, we hope) heres a link to our site - Many a Mickle is recently formed and hopefully going places! http://www.manyamickle.com/