Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..

Subject: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GUEST,Bobbyofthehedge
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:22 AM

I am a folk singing woodsman and hedgelayer. I would love to know of any songs folk know of about hedgelaying, forestry, logging, sawyer/ woodcutters, coppicers, hurdle makers etc. There must have been a ton out in the states and Canada with the loggers out there!

I may be opening a floodgate here, but I am keen for an exploration!

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:31 AM

Let's get The Obvious One out of the way, and I will get my coat in the meantime.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: cnd
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:32 AM

Your assumption is right, there are tons of logging songs. The Jam on Jerry's Rock is the first that springs to mind for me, while Breakfast In Hell (linked at top of previous page) is another good one.

Both are rather grim. I'll try to think of some cheerier ones as the day goes on.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:50 AM

You're probably familiar with Summer Wages.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:51 AM

...song starts at 3:30.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 11:32 AM

If there's a (something) in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed, now. Not folk.

Down by The Green Bushes he thinks to meet me, Cynthia Gooding, but that's peripheral...

The Frozen Logger! Bang on!

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 11:57 AM

Log Driving Songs is a thread that gives you links to The Frozen Logger (not a folk song, often referred to as a "fake song" because it was written by James Stevens and is a favorite in the US Pacific Northwest) and also gives you a link to The Log Driver's Waltz that was animated by Mudcat member John Weldon (who won a Canadian filmmaking award for the short). Plus links to other ditties in different threads.

This was the full Google search result to bring up that thread I linked - there are other threads and similar songs in the results.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Reinhard
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 02:45 PM

I'D SOONER GO HEDGING
Frank Mansell, Cotswold Ballads (Richard Courtauld, 1974)

I’d sooner go hedging than build a stone wall,
All pick up and place it and hope it don’t fall;
When east winds blows bitter and keen in the trees,
I’d sooner lay blackthorn than dry-wall and freeze.

I’d sooner go hedging—the best thing I know
For anger and anguish and woman-made woe.
No matter how hurt or insulted I feel,
A tussle with blackthorn will help it to heal.

I’d sooner go hedging than read in a book,
For more you get thinking the darker things look;
Since study and weeping are hard on the eyes,
I’d sooner lay blackthorn than learn to be wise.

I’d sooner go hedging than writing of verse,
And weaving and rhyming as if by a curse;
For little men care what a poet may scrawl,
But a blackthorn well-laid is a pleasure to all.

I’d sooner go hedging than seek all my days
For wealth or position or other men’s praise;
Plain bill-hook and axe are the tools of my trade,
Six shillings a chain is the rate I am paid.

I’d sooner go hedging than lie in my bed
With a wench that grows sourer the longer she’s wed;
And much as I grieve for our loving when young,
I’d sooner lay blackthorn than suffer her tongue.

I’d sooner go hedging, but come the next spring,
I’ll be up and be gone like a bird on the wing,
And all I shall miss when I reach my new home
Will be hedges to slash at and blackthorn in bloom.

Sung by Melrose Quartet on their 2023 album Make the World Anew.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Jack Campin
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 08:16 PM

Meeting seven foresters is bad news. As Johnny of Braidislee.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 09:22 PM

A Shantyman's Life. Not about someone who sings on a sailing ship, this kind of Shantyman is a logger. Recording by Dave van Ronk at https://youtu.be/lz79NBjHNkY?si=ZjFkN9DdTIKhZpCJ

Requiem for the Giant Trees, by Eileen McGann. Recording by Herdman, Hills, and Mangsen: https://youtu.be/a6eFvE1m75g?si=QVZ5j8ty1mmLr-ji

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 27 Feb 24 - 08:36 AM

I have a recording somewhere of Keith Kendrick and Barry Coope singing a song called "The shantymen", don't know where it came from.

Robin

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Feb 24 - 09:57 AM

Silly Sisters sing Hedger and Ditcher from Mainly Norfolk

My father’s a hedger and ditcher
My mother does nothing but spin
They say I’m a pretty young girl
But the money comes slowly in

Oh dear, what shall become of me
Oh dear, what shall I do
There’s nobody coming to marry me
Nobody coming to woo


River Driving by Dan Berggren; This traditional Adirondack song is a mix containing six recorded versions. Back in the 1980s, I put a tune to the words that Jeanne Robert Foster remembered her dad singing. She included them in her Neighbors of Yesterday, first published in 1916.

River driving on the Sacondog
Riding on a slippery log
Sleeping in a frozen bog - my girl's waiting for me.

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 27 Feb 24 - 08:40 PM

Lumberjack - Johnny Cash

I lived on a farm out in Iowa
I pulled the corn and I worked in the hay
Got trapped by a girl but I wiggled free
Heard the Oregon timber callin' me

Will you tell me somethin', Mr. lumberjack
Is it one for forward and three for back
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk I don't know

Well I learned this fact from a logger named Ray
You don't cut timber on a windy day
Stay out of the woods when the moisture's low
Or you ain't gonna live to collect your doe

Will you tell me somethin', Mr. lumberjack
Is it one for forward and three for back
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know

Well, you work in the woods from morning 'till night
You laugh and sing and you cuss and fight
On Saturday night you go to Eugene's
And on a Sunday morning your pockets are clean

Will you tell me somethin', Mr. lumberjack
Is it one for forward and three for back
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know

_______

And now for something completely different. . .

Logger's Life - Jake Nicolas

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GerryM
Date: 27 Feb 24 - 09:14 PM

Peter Amberley is a song about a young logger, killed in an accident. Recording by Bonnie Dobson at https://youtu.be/SAzBpHtzXnQ?si=OIlVM4DAAT-4MR3e

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: Bobbyofthehedge
Date: 28 Feb 24 - 01:44 AM

Thank you, these are all great suggestions. I will definitely look into them more and add some to my repertoire… keep them coming!

Subject: RE: Songs of hedges, woodland and craft..
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Feb 24 - 07:12 AM

Old-time shantyboys may be heard singing on the recordings Lumbering Songs from the Ontario Shanties and Folksongs of the Miramichi.

Lumbering Songs from the Ontario Shanties Folkways FW04052, FM 4052

Canadian folk song authority Edith Fowke recorded men who decades earlier had ventured into the North Woods of Ontario to cut timber. Known as lumbermen, shanty boys, or lumberjacks, the men endured both cold and substantial danger. As many lumbermen lost their lives plying their trade, it is not surprising that a number of songs memorialize fallen comrades. Other songs relate everyday life in the lumber camps, the work, or leisure time in town. The songs in this collection are field recordings, many recorded in the lumbermen’s homes.

When the Shantyboy Comes Down
The Jam on Jerry's Rocks
How We Got Back to the Woods Last Year
Johnny Doyle
Jimmy Whelan
Turner's Camp
Hogan's Lake
Johnny Murphy
The Shantyboy's Alphabet
Jack Haggerty
Bill Dunbar
The Basketong
Johnny Stiles
The Backwoodsman
Harry Dunn
The Falling of the Pine
The Chapeau Boys
Save Your Money While You're Young

Shantymen and shantyboys; songs of the sailor and lumberman
by Doerflinger, William Main; Publication date 1951
https://archive.org/details/shantymenshantyb0000doer/page/n9/mode/2up
Topics Lumbermen -- Songs and music, Sea songs, Folk songs, Ballads, English -- United States, Ballads, English, Lumbermen, United States