Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River

Subject: Req: Songs about the Susquehana River
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 08 Jul 04 - 10:50 PM

I will be doing a program later this Summer in conjunction with one of my bus tours. It will feature a boat ride on the Susquehanna River. I need some songs specificly about this river to fill up an hour's worth of time during the cruise. Any suggestions would be welcome. SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 02:00 AM

Hi, Sol - Peter Gray is a good one. Do songs about the Susquehanna Railroad count? We have one or two of those in the Forum or Digital Tradition I Walk the Road Again, for one.
-Joe Offer

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 04:54 AM

I just love that name! (what are its origins?)

"Friends and Neighbours" / "Virginia's Alders" certainly mentions the area ...

Cheers!

R-J

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: cetmst
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 06:27 AM

Folkways Record FTS 32410 "Chesapeake Born" recorded by Tom Wisner contains songs about the Susquehanna and its extension, Chesapeake Bay. Titles include "Susquehanna Down", "Lazy Floating Feather", "Chesapeake Born",""My Sails Are Blowed and Torn", "Wild River", "Southern Maryland", "Winter Morning", "Dredgin's My Drudgery". There's a recent book whose title escapes me about the history and geography of the Susquehanna.

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: cetmst
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 06:37 AM

Jack Brubaker "Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake", Keystone Books

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 07:10 AM

I remember sitting on the banks of the Susquehanna while listening to a lecture on pediatrics...when I was a medical student at Hershey in 1975, doing a rotation at Harrisburg Hospital. I don't know any Susquehanna songs, but I do have one about the Delaware. (Need some line breaks there...)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: GUEST,Flying Scotsman
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 12:31 PM

Martyn Wyndham Read has written and sings a wonderful song about the river which is entitled Susquehanna. In fact the lyrics are based upon the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson which Martyn has altered to fit the music he has written. The song appears on his album "Sunlit Plains".

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 02:48 PM

Virginia's Alders in the Digitrad.

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 10 Jul 04 - 02:31 PM

Flying Scotsman - it's sung by the magnificent Bill Whaley and Dave Fletcher as 'Down By The Susquhanna And Along The Delaware' and they do a superb version of it. I believe it's a poem written by RLS when he had been through a period of depression and general-pissed-offness whilst travelling in the USA. He was so flabbergasted by the sight of the river that he composed the poem.

It's a stunning, stirring opus.

Johnny :0)

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Mudlark
Date: 10 Jul 04 - 02:35 PM

Michael Smith has wrote a wonderful song...Lady Susquehanna. It's on his CD "Time" (which is also a great song).

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Mark Clark
Date: 10 Jul 04 - 03:02 PM

Richard Hood, currently of The Bristol Brothers, wrote a wonderful song called The Flood of ’72 that talks about the Susquehanna River. It was published by the Old Town Folklore Center in 1974 or '75 in a song sheet magazine they put out. The chorus goes:

We huddled on hillside on the dark and muddy ground,
We couldn't see a thing but we could hear a mighty sound,
We could hear the water rushing through our Pennsylvania town,
And we prayed to God for mercy but the rain kept pouring down.

I'll look up the lyrics and post it later.

      - Mark

Subject: ADD: Susquehanna (Adrian Bianconi)
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 11 Jul 04 - 12:20 AM

This is the song I have chosen to open the program with.

                      SUSQUEHANNA
            (written by Dr. Adrian M. Bianconi)

Through the heart of Pennsylvania flows a river
Winding deep between the Appalachians
She is fed by many streams along her pathway
Running clear across the state to Chesapeake

    (CHORUS) Susquehanna you make me proud
             And I'll sing it out and loud
             Let it echo through the valleys and the trees
             Flowing gently to the sea
             Through the mountains' majesty
             Susquehanna mighty river flowing deep
             Susquehanna mighty river flowing deep

There are souls which rest in peace along her hillsides
As she rolls along while memories slowly die
For her history takes us back to all the Indians
Who have dissapeared in time as she rolled by

                           CHORUS

There are times when she will rise above the flatlands
Claiming only what she believes belongs to her
Then she gently settles down, and returns to us her ground
That she conquers for awhile and then sets free

                           CHORUS

So I'll drink to you ole Susquehanna river
Rolling on like many other rivers do
But you're special in my heart, and I never will depart
From your banks I'll gaze upon you peacefully

                            CHORUS

Please note that in the final chorus, the author adds an additional line.
            Susquehanna you're the heart of Chesapeake

This song appears on Dr. B's album "A Pennsylvania Homecoming"

SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 11 Jul 04 - 12:53 AM

Carl Carmer, who wrote the history of "The Susquehanna" for the Rinehart "Rivers of America"series (he also wrote "The Hudson"), edited a collection titled "Songs of the Rivers of America" to wrap up the series. This has become the most difficult to find volume in the series, and fetches outrageous prices in the used book market. Well worth looking for through inter-library loan, however, if your local library doesn't have a copy.
    Good hunting!
    Sandy

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 12 Jul 04 - 10:21 AM

Another song from the Susquehanna River valley is Stephen Foster's "Camptown Races" (Doo-Dah! Doo-Dah!). The races "nine-miles long" from Wylausing to Camptown were along a tributary valley of the Susquehanna. Stephen Foster was a high school student in nearby Towanda, just about 15 miles upriver on the Susquehanna from Wyalusing.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 12 Jul 04 - 11:34 AM

Rabbi Sol, Strollin' Johnny is correct when he tell you the version of this song by Bill Whalley and Dave Fletcher is superb. I have only recently acquired it and am about to learn the words. I will send you a transcribe of them should you wish
Raggy

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 12 Jul 04 - 05:15 PM

Thanks Raggy. The transcribe would be greatly appreciated.
SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 02:52 PM

If I engage in just a slight thread creep, I'd like to say that an autumn drive along the Susquehanna is one of the prettiest trips in America. There is roadway along much of the river, winding through old river towns from another age. At their peak, the fall colors along the Susquehanna are delightful.
And the FSGW Getaway is at Camp Ramblewood near the mouth of the Susquehanna, October 15-17, 2004. There's a wonderful stone mill to visit just downriver from the camp, Just across the river from the camp, the town of Port Deposit looks like it hadn't been changed since the Civil War.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Req: Songs about the Susquehanna River
From: Raggytash
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 07:38 PM

Sol .... not forgotten ....... just work, work,work ........then festival this weekend, might be an idea to pm me just in case ... getting old....memory like a sieve