Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: meself
Date: 05 May 18 - 02:42 PM

I just had a google, and I see what you mean.

I would not be surprised if Clary does not have a website. My impression is that he's not a techy guy, and he's probably busy enough without one!

Having said that - not much sign of what he's up to now. Maybe he's taking a break for one reason or another - he's like the rest of us, not getting any younger ... !

I'll post to Mudcat if I come across anything.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,Barb Hertz
Date: 05 May 18 - 12:51 PM

We will be visiting the Atlantic Provinces this spring and summer. Would love to see a Clary Croft concert, but I can't find his website or any source that would tell about his upcoming concerts. Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Mooh
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 11:30 PM

There's a nice version with atypical chord changes by Dave Gunning. Live, he explains the why and how of his changes too. Very good performer.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 10:22 PM

Sorry folks, the narrator wasn't me. Can't think who that might be.

Cheers,

Clary

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 10:08 AM

Very insightful exigesis of formerly obscure text. And funniest thing I've read all day. (Course it's only 8 a.m. here).

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 08:23 AM

That would explain the tracks entitled "You Blue Nosed Sons Of Bitches Can Kiss My Newfie Ass" & "If I Never Get Booked In Another Halifax Tavern It'll Be Too Soon For Me".











Just kidding. But there might be a song challenge there.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 12:39 AM

Sounds like Mr Coffey had a bad gig in Nova Scotia ...

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Willie-O
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 09:39 PM

"Introduction to Nova Scotia" just does not have the same ring to it... ;)

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 09:28 PM

Enough of this drift. In the latest Music Barn catalogue I notice this on offer: "Eddie Coffey Down East Accordion 27 Live Performances". The first cut is called "Introduction and Farewell To Nova Scotia". Aha! Nytcrawler, did your ancient cassette feature the accordion?

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,James
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 12:50 PM

I certainly prefer the Catherine MacKinnon version, it seems more in keeping with the intent of the song.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 11:57 AM

First of all, you were in PEI, secondly , it is possible that many of those you spoke to did not remember or were not familiar with the Catherine MacKinnon version. I still think that Ian and Sylvia missed the whole point of the song. Hopefully all of those you spoke to knew both versions of the song. Most of the people I know who are familiar with the song feel that Ian adn Sylvias version is an aberration. I love most of what I&S do but they missed the boat on this one.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: GUEST,nameless guest
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 10:53 AM

The other night at the East Coast Music Awards, I asked every person I chatted with whose version of Farewell to Nova Scotia was best, Catherine MacKinnon or Ian & Sylvia?

33 said Ian & Sylvia.

4 said Catherine MacKinnon.

More than 89% picked Ian & Sylvia.

I rest my case.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From:
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 08:43 AM

Anyway, I got the answer as to the first recording of the Nova Scotia Song. It was Diane Oxner. The recording is the one mentioned above, but it originally came out in 1956, as an LP.

I talked to John again. I mis-remembered. It was in Oct/November of 1971 that Miller's Jug formed. They came up with the name in the spring of 1972. One of their first gigs was opening act for the Moon-Minglewood band. I forget the rest of the name of the band.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 07:39 AM

Ian and Sylvia sing this as though it were a pub rant . They have totally misinterpreted the song, whereas Catherine MacKinnon shows some understanding of the true spirit of the song.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 05:16 AM

We're drifting the thread a bit but the McGinty website says that they celebrated 25 years together in 2002. That would give them a 1977 start.
I know that John also played with Sean McCabe in Millers Jug back about then. John also does a lot of solo work and also teams with Buddy MacDonald and Roger Stone at times.
I don't see anything about it on their website but I think that the first time I saw McGinty perform it was not as a pub band, but with Neptune. (live theatre) They were playing Don Messer's Islanders in a play. It was a long time ago so perhaps my memory fails me but that is what I seem to remember. Or could that have been Millers Jug ? In any case John was the fiddler (Messer).
             Slainte,
                  Sandy

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 12:01 AM

A-ha! I thought George or maybe John was off by a year or two - I moved to Halifax in about 1977 - and McGinty was already well established on the circuit of the "Irish" pubs, as I recall.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: GUEST,Sandy lost cookie
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 08:22 PM

George,
McGinty released The Call Of The Sea album in 1978 with Farewell to NS on it. I think that there was some overlap between the two groups.
                Slainte,
                     Sandy

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 06:33 PM

I believe that would be "Black Knight" ...

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Frank Maher
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 06:01 PM

Ryan's Fancy has It on their LP 'Ryan's Fancy'"An Irish Night at the Black Night Lounge"

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From:
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 05:23 PM

Hi Sandy, I don't think that would have been one of the McGinty band doing it. They would have used a track off their tapes/LPs of the time.

Actually I was talking to John last night. He first started in bands in late 1976 when the first members of Miller's Jug first got together. So, McGinty didn't start until around 1980 or so.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 04:15 PM

McGinty also has this on several releases going back to the 1970's up until recent times. See here:
http://www.rcm.ns.ca/mcginty/mcginty_cd-rom.html
The male voice in question may well be John Fergusson or Don Moore.
They also participated in some of the tourist promotion compilations of a few years back and that may explain the mystery tape, but I am unsure what songs were on them. George, you will probably see John sometime soon at The Old Triangle or O'Carrols so perhaps you could ask him.
                Sandy

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: GUEST,nameless guest
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 02:55 PM

Ian & Sylvia released their version in 1964. It is far superior to the stiff Singalong Jubilee version of Mrs. Haron (Catherine MacKinnon).

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 01:12 PM

Diane Oxner "Folksongs of Nova Scotia" 1973 . see here:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002686

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 01:08 PM

Catherine MacKinnon 1964. See here:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~jrice/Discography_comp.htm

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Allan S
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 12:44 PM

I have it on a cassette by Diane Oxner   Rodeo Records Distributed by
Holborne Distributing Co.
P.O. Box 309x Mount Albert ,Ont. L0G 1M0

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 09:22 AM

So who was the first to record it ? Also, did Rita MacNeil ever record it.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From:
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 03:42 PM

Peace, that information probably came from the Mudcat. IF you look at some of the old threads, you will discover that we put it here before any other site had the association or the text. The text was posted here first as I remember.

I had asked about it as I had looked for a while and couldn't find the full text, and someone was able to find the book with it and typed it in. One of the other members had found a site with part of the text though.

I will have to look it up, but I know that Catherine wasn't the first one to record it. Hers may have been the first one to make it up the charts and into people's conciousness because of her association with Singalong Jubilee.

A couple of my friends were on the show so I will confirm whether she knew the song before the show.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 08:17 AM

For more on the Tannahill ballad see the DT Study in the related threads portion at the top of this page.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Peace
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:27 PM

A clue to the origins of "Farewell to Nova Scotia" is the similarity between it and a ballad by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill (1774 - 1810) entitled "The Soldier's Adieu", which reads in part as follows:

The weary sun's gane doun the west,
The birds sit nodding on the tree,
All nature now inclines for rest,
But rest allow'd there's none for me:

The trumpet calls to wars alarms,
The rattling drum forbids my stay;
Ah! Nancy, bless thy soldier's arms,
For ere morn I will be far away.

I grieve to leave my comrades dear,
I mourn to leave my native shore,
To leave my aged parents here,
And the bonnie lass whom I adore.

Adieu! dear Scotland's sea-beat coast!
Ye misty vales and mountains blue!
When on the heaving ocean tost,
I'll cast a wishful look to you.

From

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1505053

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Jon W.
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 12:33 PM

William Shatner and Burton Cummings did a great duet of this song on Star Trek star date 9.1.93....no, just kidding.

Besides other versions mentioned, I have an MP3 of Jim Brannigan doing this song effectively from back when you could get decent stuff for free off of MP3.com.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 09:49 AM

I was going to nominate Tom Kines as well, but to my ear he has a distinctive Atlantic accent. Oscar Brand, though . . . hmmmm. He's just the sort of chap to explain things first. And he had a summer replacement music show on CBC TV in the folk-scare era. I wouldn't compare him to Burton Cummings but then, as a good Canadian, I wouldn't be so mean to anyone, not even to William Shatner.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 07:54 AM

So Who recorded this before Catherine MacKinnon. I thought she made the original commercial recording of it. No?

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 07:00 AM

Contrary to an earlier post, I do not think that Rita MacNiel ever recorded this song. She did write and record a Lovely song entitled "She's Called Nova Scotia".

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: vlmagee
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 12:20 AM

This is highly unlikely to be the version you have on cassette, but there is a bootleg (LP) of Gordon Lightfoot singing it. The record wsa released in 1979, but the recordings are from a live concert in 1965. Gordon sings it in the style of Ian Tyson, who taught it to him.

Another little bit of folk music trivia.

Lightfoot fans generally love his version, and he has done it on and off in concert as recently as the mid-1990s.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Peace
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 10:39 PM

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000839

Google that. Good site re the song's history. (Can't get the link maker to work.) Also, click 'next' in lower-right corner. More info and links on the second page.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Peace
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 10:29 PM

Farewell to Nova Scotia - Thompson, Gordon V.

Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1989/1992), p204 (Nova Scotia Farewell)
Barleycorn. For Folk Sake, Dolphin DOLM 5016, LP (197?), cut#B.06
Bernie and Red. Oh What a Beauty, Crawley --, LP (198?), cut#A.03
Brand, Oscar. Oscar Brand, "Live" on Campus, Kapp KS-3624, LP (197?), cut#A.06
Clam Chowder. For Here or to Go, Clam Chowder, LP (1984), cut#A.01
Croft, Clary. Sun, Moon and Stars, Fiddlehead FA 101, LP (1975), cut#B06
Hamilton, George; IV. Down East Country, Camden CASX 2558, LP (197?), cut#B.05
Ian and Sylvia. Northern Journey, Vanguard VSD 79154, LP (196?), cut# 6 (Nova Scotia Farewell)
Jones, Bill (Belinda). Bits and Pieces, Compass 7 4366 2, CD (2003), cut# 4
Morgans. Second Voyage, Morgan MP-001, LP (1976), cut#A.01
Oxner, Diane. Traditional Folk Songs of Nova Scotia, Canadian Cavalcade CCLP 2011, LP (197?), cut#A.01
Touchstone. New Land, Green Linnet SIF 1040, LP (1982), cut#B.03

from

www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/f02.htm

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,Obie
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 06:27 PM

Good stuff George! Do you know who might have recorded it before Catherine? Perhaps if not you could ask Clary when you cross paths. No doubt it was sung on Singalong Jubilee before she recorded it on Arc.
         Obie

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From:
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 02:35 PM

Clary's thought, which I've passed on to NytCrawler, was that it might be Ed McCurdy. Not for certain, but that was his best guess.

Obie, sorry to correct you, but Catherine didn't do the first recording of the song. She herself didn't sing it until someone brought it up in a Singalong Jubilee rehearsal.

One interesting anecdote captured in a National Film Board vignette on Helen Creighton was that many years after she had collected the song from someone, he had been asked to sing it for a show with Helen Creighton. She asked him why he sang it different now than the way he had sung it for her originally. His reply was "Well, I heard that young lady, Catherine MacKinnon, singing it on the CBC and figured that was the correct version of the song; so I sing it that way now." True story. Ask Clary some time. It's a given, "Folk songs change over time"

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,Bernie
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 01:57 PM

This is not really what you're after,but I'd like to recommend the version by Gordon Bok and Cindy Kallet [on Folk Legacy records,if memory serves me]...slowed down to about half the speed it's been sung by most people,its a darker,sadder version than most that accentuates both the lyrics[the meaning of which is often lost or unrealized in the "pub"versions we usually hear]and the lovely melody...wish more people could hear this particular one......

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Willie-O
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 09:02 AM

As for the Catherine McKinnon debate, I think she was a great singer, if a little mannered. I hear a lot of her airy style in Lucy (Barra) McNeil's singing, and when Lucy is on she is very very good.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Willie-O
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 08:51 AM

Why am I thinking, Oscar Brand? Possibly because the monologue you describe is reminiscent of "Something to Sing About" musical patriotism.

I guess we can take it as a given that the recording could have been a lot older than 1982. Ian and Sylvia weren't much given to speechifying, and anyway that would be a m-f duet, not a male singer...so we're looking for a revival-era male singer with a penchant for educational-type commentary, who recorded before 1982, and might or might not be Canadian...could be:

Ed McCurdy
Alan Mills
Tom Kines (I really think you should look at this possibility)

Pete Seeger
Burl Ives?????
Michael Cooney?

That said, I find the song a somewhat odd example of "the feeling between a man and his country". If Farewell To Nova Scotia has a big theme, it is that we are all bound to our fates until inevitable death...and that the prospects for a sailor are not cheerful, and he might miss the rocks of home but they don't miss him.

Good luck in your quest.

W-O

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,NytCrawlr
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 08:17 AM

Thanks for trying Slimchance, but I contavted Mr. Croft himself, via his website, and he assures me it was not his recording (sigh). Thanx anyways. As to those who have suggested Rita McNeil and/or Ms. McKinnon, while I am sure their versions are nice, I am pretty sure neither would qualify as a male singer (jk). I guess my search goes on.

NC

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 08:08 AM

Hi Nameless Guest, I totally disagree with you about Catherine MacKinnon's version of Farewell to NS. I think she truly understood this song , Ian and Sylvia clearly did not get it at all. Ms. MacKinnon also recorded other traditional songs and her versions are quite good.
    I was not aware that Rita MacNiel had ever recorded this. I would love to hear her version, what album is it on ?

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Effsee
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 09:04 PM

The Battlefield Band included this song in there repertoire from the mid '70s. Can't recall if they ever recorded it though.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 07:27 PM

Rita MacNeil who is from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia also recorded this song which I have in my collection.
                                                    Sol Zeller

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,Obie
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 07:08 PM

I agree with Slim but not with nameless. Catherine McKinnon did the first and defining recording of this song on the Arc label. She sings with fantastic upper range and without her this song would have remained buried in Creighton's collections. Clary Croft has dedicated a good part of his life to bringing Creighton's work into the public eye and he has recorded a lot of her songs. No insult to Ian & Sylvia, as I love their stuff but they recorded this as a cover of McKinnon.
               Slainte,
                Obie

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST,SlimChance
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 05:56 PM

The singer and narrator may well have been Clary Croft, a serious folklorist and folksinger from Nova Scotia,who was also a friend and student of Dr. Helen Creighton and her works. Dr creighton collected the song in several versions.

SlimChance.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: GUEST,nameless guest
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 05:01 PM

Ian & Sylvia did it in 1964, a much better version, IMNSHO, than Catherine MacKinnon, a bland soprano who was ill-suited to folk music and is now largely forgotten. Catherine, or Mrs. Haron as I like to call her, hasn't done anything other than a soup commercial in many years.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific recording
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 04:16 PM

Yes, Ian and Sylvia Did it, Can't Remember When, early seventies Maybe. However, The best version IMHO is still the one done by Catherine MacKinnon. It was the closing song of The CBC series "Singalong Jubilee" which was produced in Halifax.

Subject: RE: Farewell to Nova Scotia - seek specific record
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 03:59 PM

Did Ian Tyson do this one?