Songs from Ohio

Subject: Songs from Ohio
From:
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 08:32 PM

As an Ohioan away from home, I've become much more interested in the musical heritage of my home state. Any Ohio Mudcatters (or Mudcatters from anywhere!) who can point me to some good songs about my state? This would include stuff about the Erie Canal, Ohio River, etc. And yes, I DO know about that all-time favorite murder ballad...

Got any ideas? Lay 'em on me!

Nikki

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From:
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 08:51 PM

I got Mary Eddy's 'Folk Songs of Ohio' a few months ago via www.bookfinder.com

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 09:31 PM

Hi Nik...So where you from? First, welcome to the 'Cat. Hope you decide to stay around and join us. It's a great place full of good music, good fun, and good friends.

The book above is available and quite good...got it as a gift awhile back. Search the DT (Database)--@river,@canal,@midwest--and you'll find a few too. Also, I'm sure you're aware Ohio is the birthplace of B.R.Hanby ("Darlin' Nellie Gray") and the boyhood home of Dan Emmett.

Now if you're a native Ahian and you're a bit homesick...well, just CLICK HERE.

Hang around, I need all the help I can get!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Banjer
Date: 12 Oct 99 - 06:08 AM

Oh boy, Catspaw is on the job!!?? Never mind, once he posts I'm sure one of the more normals amongst us, (not me for sure) can translate what he is trying to say!!

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From:
Date: 12 Oct 99 - 09:40 AM

There is a sad love? ballad called Banks of the Ohio. There is also a traditional band named Father Son and Friends based out of Dayton. I could get you more info on them if you want it. Heather

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Cara
Date: 12 Oct 99 - 01:09 PM

This is the only Ohio song you need to know:

Why, why, why oh why-oh
Why did I ever leave Ohio
Why did I wander, why did I roam
When life was so HAPPY at home

I don't know the rest, but I bet someone here does. It's from a Broadway musical, I think(?)

I wish I was in Ohio right now, where the leaves are turning, and every country road has someone selling apples by its side, and every little town is preparing their spooky Haunted Wood/Field/House thing...

(and the police in Athens are stocking up on tear gas and checking their riot gear...a continually amazing story)

Cara from Newark (very very homesick in the fall, and in need of apples)

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Tom on Comfort
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 12:03 AM

It's not a folk song, but how about Randy Newman's "Burn on Big River" (about "Cleveland, City of light, city of magic...")

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 12:23 AM

Among others, you'll want to search for songs by or collected from Pearl Nye, a guy who lived and worked along the Ohio & Erie Canal (which ran from Cleveland to the Ohio River through Roscoe Village/Coshocton).

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 08:42 AM

Roscoe has been restored and is quite historically "touristy" now. Its also home to a wonderful folk music store, Wildwood Music (great selection of guitars,dulcimers, and other folk instruments + music and CD's) and a pretty fair dulcimer fest. (About 60 miles from me)

Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: folk1234
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 10:31 AM

My favorite Ohio songs is "New Harmony" done by our good friends Sandy and Caroline on the Album of the same name.

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: margaret
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 11:35 AM

well, he's from new jersey, but. . . john gorka has a very good, sad song called "the ballad of jamie b." which talks about ohio. when i was in college in ohio lo these many years ago a guy from staten island named sam cherubin wrote a very funny song called elyria, ohio. but then i believe he crawled into his parents' liquor cabinet and i'm not sure he ever came back out again. if you're out there, sam, post those lyrics!

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 11:50 AM

Craig Johnson, who wrote it, would probably insist that "New Harmony" is actually about a place in Indiana, but it's on the Ohio River, and a song that good is too good to quibble about.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Cara
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 11:52 AM

margaret,

Can you post the lyrics to The Ballad of Jamie B. please? Sad songs about Ohio could be just the thing for my next family reunion...

Subject: Lyr Add: The Ballad of Jamie Bee
From: margaret
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 12:18 PM

glad to be of help. i know i need all the help i can get at my family reunions. know any sad songs about NY?!

"The Ballad of Jamie Bee"

Jamie ran aground out in Ohio
Wife left for the great unknown
He says he's gonna take to the high road
And she will find a place alone

He said he just could not make her happy
That he never tried so hard before
He'd wake up first and make the coffee
Now the mornings were like war

There's a barroom for every way the wind blows
And a harness for every mother's son
You pull your own weight or else it pulls you
It gets harder the longer that you run

Jamie's from the last great breed of roadmen
Woody, Jack, and Kerouac and such
But here was a woman he would die for
Beauty no road could ever touch

The town was nearly famous for the glassworks
The factory where they made hoods for the Klan
There's a football hall -of-famer in the phonebook
There's only trouble for an empty man

There's a barroom for every way the wind blows
And temptation in every substance known
You pull your own weight or else it pulls you
It gets harder the older that you've grown

At home in the Harley ridden poolhalls
I guess it's best they never had those kids
Closer to the outlaws than the inlaws
They said Jamie's heart don't break but I know it did
They said Jamie's heart don't break but I know it did

He will find some refuge in his music
And the long shot that they will reconcile
But the meantime is a mean time and he knows it
Till the day he's back up on the pile

Now there's headlights heading from Ohio
And there's teardrops saltier than rain
There's taillights to tell a tale still tender
And a cold wind blowing through the night
There's a cold wind blowing through the night

^^

Well, that's pretty cheery. It's on the album "Jack's Crows."

HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone 19-Feb-2001.

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Cara
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 12:43 PM

Ouch. I wonder what "town... nearly famous for its glassworks" the song refers to? I'd love to hear the tune. I'll look that album up.

Try Jim Croce's "New York's Not My Home". That should send a clear message...unless you still live in NY, of course, in which case it might just confuse some of those relatives you don't see much...:)

Thanks for those lyrics!

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 01:14 PM

He absolutely hated New York and the whole scene there. Jim Croce had a hard time expressing true feelings in conversation, but he could speak the truth in his lyrics ("Have to Say I Love You" says it exactly...he had to say everything in a song).

Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 06:06 PM

The town of New Harmony is actually up the Wabash a few miles from the point where that river joins the Ohio, and Charlie's right, it's in Indiana.

While you're looking for Eddy's collection of Ohio songs, look also for Mary Wheeler's Steamboatin' Days. She was collecting along the Ohio River near (how does one spell) Cincinatti, so the songs in her book certainly could be considered Ohio songs.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: margaret
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 07:49 PM

The Ohio town best known for its glassworks is (or was?) Zanesville. . . I'll check out the Jim Croce, just to confuse the folks from Massachussetts. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Susan of DT
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 08:19 PM

Search for [dillon bustin] He collected and/or wrote several songs about the Ohio River, some of which are fun to sing.

Subject: RE: Songs from Ohio
From: Nogs
Date: 14 Oct 99 - 09:51 AM

A good chorus song that I learned from one of Malcolm Dalglish and Gary Larson's early albums went:

And its hard on the beach oar, she moves too slow
Way down to Shawneetown on the Ohio

with verses about floating the old barges down and (hauling them) back on the river. I can provide the rest of the verses if you are interested.