Lyr Add: Stella / Cannery Shed (Mary Garvey)

Subject: Lyr Add: Stella / Cannery Shed (Mary Garvey)
From: Barbara
Date: 26 May 03 - 07:35 PM

Here's Mary’s other song on the new Gordon Bok CD: Herrings in the Bay. I put several verses in the midi I am shipping to Joe to put up on the Midi page, so you can hear how Mary changes the melody/time each verse, but you'll have to do your own improv for the rest of the verses, I ran out of steam.
Blessings,
Barbara

STELLA (CANNERY SHED)
by Mary Garvey
(copyright 2003)

CHORUS: I've worked all my life in the cannery shed
And if I'm dying or you think I'm dead.
Don't bury my bones but put me instead
In a can in the cannery shed.

Now the cannery shed perches over the river
Where the winter winds blow, you freeze and you shiver
When the boss comes around, I might have to give her
My opinion of the cannery shed

We chop off the heads, and we chop off the tails
Scoop out the guts and throw 'em in the pails
Won't get a rest till the next schooner sails
From the dock at the cannery shed.

There's no time to talk and there's no time to linger
Better move sharp or you might lose a finger
It'd turn your stomach if you knew everything there's*
Been canned in a cannery shed.

Now Fagan went away and he wrote me a letter
I tucked it up high in the sleeve of my sweater
It slipped and I fell and it ended in the shredder
Got canned in the cannery shed.

Now, the cannery boy is a very happy fella
If he gets him a girl from the little town of Stella
I would if I could but I'm not gonna tell ya
What goes on behind the cannery shed.

*for purposes of getting this in on a 16th note at 100=quarter,
you have to sing it "'er's"
Also, I guessed about a few words, so Mary may have corrections when she gets back from Folklife.
B

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Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Stella/Cannery Shed by Mary Garvey
From: GUEST
Date: 26 May 03 - 09:44 PM

'ere 's = here has = here's (pronounce: ears)

'ere 's = there has = there's (pronounce: theres)

Guess it depends on how the author wrote it, eh?

I know what I would do.... :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Stella/Cannery Shed by Mary Garvey
From: Barbara
Date: 26 May 03 - 10:19 PM

When a song clips along like this one does, some of the words and some of the notes vanish in a blur. We'll see what the author says when she gets here. (She's one of our regulars, so it should be soon.)
Also, mary calls this song "Stella", but Gordon calls it "Cannery Shed" so I posted it by both titles, since I figure more people will hear Gordon sing it than mary... though I have already heard at least one person say they like mary's version better.
So, now, about that CD, mary...
I'm also wondering if she meant "schooner" rather than "trawler" but on my tape it sounds like the former.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Stella/Cannery Shed by Mary Garvey
From: mg
Date: 26 May 03 - 10:27 PM

cool...... I sang it at a Northwest panel..it is just a little ditty type song..I never thought anyone would be especially interested in it..the guy's name by the way is LaFaye....I think the lady singing it is French Canadian....thanks BB..should have been at Folklife..it was great..

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Stella/Cannery Shed by Mary Garvey
From: GUEST
Date: 26 May 03 - 11:29 PM

Maybe next year, mary.
The line I have wrong, it's
"Now LaFaye, he went away..."?
Is the rest of it right?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Stella/Cannery Shed by Mary Garvey
From: Barbara
Date: 27 May 03 - 01:15 PM

Oops, the above was me, cookieless. Fixed that.
The midi is posted at the Mudcat Midi site (and you can find a link at the top of this thread). I ran three verses so you can hear some of the variants that mary does, but after that you'll have to make up your own.
Blessings,
Barbara