Lyr Req: Farewell My Friends I'm Bound for Canaan

Subject: canaan's land
From:
Date: 06 Mar 97 - 04:14 PM

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I heard this song on fashioned in clay an album including several fine singers including Gordon Bok, my apologies to the others who's names I can't remember off hand. I can't understand one line. It goes

Farewell my friends
I'm bound for cannan
I'm travling through, the wilderness
Your compainy has been delightfull
You who does leave my mind distressed
I'm bound away ?behind? to leave you
Perhaps never to meat again
But if we never have the pleasure
I hope we meat, on cannan's land

That one bit has been bothering me I've tried 'its my time' and some other frases, but I can't figure it out. also, is this afragment of a larger song.

Subject: RE: canaan's land
From:
Date: 06 Mar 97 - 08:23 PM

I've learned the tune as one verse, sung twice, with the last half repeated & a clap/foot thud at the end of the line you didn't quite get. It's a really nice way to end a good long evening of singing. The version I know is also slightly different. It goes as the same until:

Your company has been delightful, you do not leave my mind distressed.
I go away behind to leave you, (thump) perhaps never to meet again.
But if we never have the pleasure, I hope we'll meet on Caanans Land.

I hope this is what you've been looking for.

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: belter
Date: 06 Mar 97 - 11:55 PM

Yes I apreciated the help. I woundered if that word might be 'behind', but I doen't understand what it means in this context. Do you get it?

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: belter
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 12:56 AM

I never thought of this as a parting song so much a religious song. I guess it is that too. I thought more of its sence of peice more than of the context of parting.

After a night of singing around the camp fire I often finish up with Parting Glass, of with A Health To the Compainy.

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: LaMarca
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 03:09 PM

The "Fashioned in the Clay" album is by Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir and Ed Trickett, and is on Folk Legacy Records. One nice thing about ALL the Folk Legacy albums is that Sandy and Caroline Paton, who own the company, put out a booklet with lyrics and notes on all the songs with every album, CD or tape.

Folk Legacy is a real small company, and their albums are a labour of love. So if you're listening to home taped copies of the records, you not only lose all the info that comes with the records, but endanger the company's existance, too. I know we all can't afford to buy all the music we like, but try to support the small folk labels that are struggling to put out the kind of music a Sony or Warner won't touch because it's not "commercial" enough...

If you're hearing Bok, Muir and Trickett on the radio, like it and want to hear more, Folk Legacy has re-released a "best of" their older records on 2 CDs...

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: belter
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 08:18 PM

I would love to buy an honest copy of fashioned in clay. It's just to bad the library wouldn't let me keep theirs.

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: belter
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 08:28 PM

p.s. I doen't mean to sound flippant. It's just that giving back a borrowed album for me is like an alcholic tring to put down a bottle. It's to hard to think you might never hear it again, and to easy to keep.

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From:
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 08:34 PM

I was always under the impression that it was a song about death, "I go away behind to leave you" meaning to die, and Caanan's Land meaning the after life. A different perspective. Catfeet

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From:
Date: 07 Mar 97 - 10:04 PM

The song is in the Sacred Harp hymnal (page 267 in the 1991 Denson Revision). The lyrics are as you have them. The arrangement is credited to John G. McCurry and dated 1842. The Sacred Harp hymnal is comprehensively indexed on the Fasola Homepage http://www.fasola.org/ Lots of additional information about this interesting old style of folk hymn singing that is being rediscovered after being in danger of dying out.

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: Bill
Date: 08 Mar 97 - 02:50 AM

Howdy Belter,

Just an extra bit of information, I didn't find Canaan's Land on my copy of Bok, Muir, & Trickett's Fashioned in the Clay. I haven't had a chance to look for it on any of their other recordings yet.

It may not have Canaan's Land, but Fashioned in the Clay is certainly worth listening to and owning.

Allinkausay,> Bill

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: LaMarca
Date: 08 Mar 97 - 04:46 PM

Hi to belter-

Sorry to sound so testy; the Patons, who own Folk Legacy, are friends, and I know how difficult it is for them to keep a small record label afloat. They have a home page:

Folk Legacy Records http://www.folklegacy.com 860-364-5661

Two other good sources for small and indie label folk recordings are:

Camsco Music http://www.camsco.com Wally and Berta Macnow specialize in distributing folk artists' self releases and recordings from Topic, Rounder etc.

Andy's Front Hall http://members.aol.com/fennig/index.html Voorheesville NY, 518-765-4193 Bill and Andy Spence run the Old Songs Festival near Albany, NY, and sell folk books, tapes, CDs and musical instruments by mail

There are lots of other folk mail order companies that advertise in Sing Out!; these are just the ones I've done business with and know are reliable and nice folks, too

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: Ricky Rackin
Date: 08 Mar 97 - 08:58 PM

Yes-Your lyrics are as I sing them,learned From a GREAT Sacred Harp recording by The Word of Mouth Chorus "Rivers of Delight"; this cut featuring my old buddies Peter and Mary Alice Amidon [now on tour in Colo+CA!!]

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From: belter
Date: 17 Mar 97 - 09:22 AM

I've been away on spring break so I haven't replyed in a while. Nathan the sacred harp sight was interesting, I didn't sea these lyrics there, but they had what may be another verse. Catfeet, I know that the song sugjested the possibillity of death, but it doesn't deffinatly say I'm dieing as far as I can tell. I wonder if it might be speeking more of taking a spirichale jurny rather than a phisical seperation. LaMarca, I apreciate the links to folk music sights. Andy's frunt hall moved to http://members.aol.com/fronthal/index.html

I also found a source at http://www.futuris.net/mabels/index.html

Subject: RE: cannan's land
From:
Date: 17 Mar 97 - 11:55 AM

Is this the melody so often repeated in the recent movie, "Geronimo"?