Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away

Subject: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: fogie
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 05:32 AM

Someone can tell me who the Canadian singer songwriter was who wrote this great logging song. I heard him at Sidmouth some years ago and only remember his name begins with a K. A near perfect cameo of a work song/ shanty, and similar in feel to Stan Rogers. I don't need the words but they're worth someone putting them up if they can.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 07:25 AM

James Keelaghan?

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: MMario
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 08:27 AM

According to this Heitage site the copyright is held by Vic Bell.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 08:56 AM

Tom Lewis BC Canada he has a site you will get it via Google search.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From:
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 11:10 AM

Tom LEwis is actually an ex-patriate Brit.

I suspect the person may be Dan McKinnon. He's a singer/songwriter with a feel like Stan Rogers. (He actuallyl played Stan in a stage production back a number of years ago for Neptune Theatre). He comes in sometimes as Guest: Dan from Dartmouth. Will see if he will stop in soon.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 11:54 AM

I believe that the song occurs on one of Gordon Bok's albums.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 11:56 AM

It's also on one of Keelghan's early recordings

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: MMario
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 12:04 PM

from the site linked above:

"This paean of West Coast fisheries survival, by falling back on the log salvaging industry during the fishing off-season, is mirrored in the CBC television series: The Beachcombers. For me the power of the song lies in the attention it draws to the logging practices of some of the "corporate buccaneers" whose government sanctioned clearcutting is leaving vast areas of British Columbia denuded!

A note from Fraser Union's recording Hello Stranger states: "Vic Bell tells how he made a quick career change from fishing to log salvaging after arriving on the B.C. Coast."

This song has also been recorded by:

James Keelaghan on "Timelines" (TM-1, LP, 1987); Fraser Union with the Vancouver Industrial Writers' Union on "Split Shift: Songs and Poems of the Workplace" (cassette, 1989); Natural Elements on "Winter Moon" (EP102C, cassette); Fraser Union on "Hello, Stranger!" (cassette, 1991); Tom Lewis on "Sea-Dog, See Dog!" (Flying Fish FF70547, CD and cassette). "

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: Devilmaster
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 01:22 PM

Just agreeing with MMario, since no one else seems to be listening, (i am buddy!)

Tom Lewis' liner notes and website state that the song was written by Vic Bell, SOCAN.

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 05:06 PM

Saw it on another CD by Hank Cramer of Seattle. He credits Vic Bell, SOCAN, also.

Bev and Jerryk

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: fogie
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 04:04 AM

Thanks a lot for the info. I thought James Keelaghan wrote it, so I now stand corrected, and I have got into a new website about folk songs in the Pacific Northwest.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: ChanteyMatt
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 04:32 PM

Yep, it's Vic Bell. Hank Cramer does a great rendition, though. He recently performed at the Tall Ships Seattle Festival. Nice guitar.

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 07:33 PM

We never heard of him until we found ourselves in a singing circle with him about a year ago. Bought his CD and we listen to it often.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: Snap the line tight/ haul em away
From: fogie
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:56 AM

Its an interesting thing, but taping the song and being unable to hear everything led to me reconstructing what I couldnt hear, so I sing a different version to the one Vic Bell wrote. The crew left the boat, the whole thing was over, etc. we'll float them downriver and sell them in town, 2nd vs How many thousands etc. She's a six foot thick hemlock fast sunken etc, The back deck's a mess, all kitties and hawsers, sliding and tangling with the anchor and chain, and there in the midstream with winches and pikehauls, we'll bind those logs tight so theyre not lost again. Its 36 hrs we've been without sleep, jes living on coffee we make on the site, It's a 5hr haul but we'll all get our rest then, with a starboard side swell for a bloody rough ride