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26 Jul 07 - 07:57 PM (#2112207) Subject: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Around 1956 or 57 I remember hearing, probably from outing clubbers in New Hampshire, a lumberman's song with the refrain line (I think it was also the first line of the first verse), I am a river driver, and I'm far away from home. .G C D E G A-G E D C D E .A .B C is the tune in the key of C -- a brawny tune and a good one. I have searched off and on for it ever since. Has anyone ever heard it, or seen in printed anywhere? Thanks! Bob |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:05 PM (#2112214) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: curmudgeon Great song, Bob. I'm forwarding this to my friend Alan Eaton, who sings it, and doesn't come to Mudcat often enough - Tom Hall |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:11 PM (#2112216) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: ClaireBear There are some lyrics on Great Big Sea's Web site, and those lyrics seemed to have proliferated across the Web, so I don't think you'd have much treouble finding them if you looked now. Mind you, I haven't checked the DT. (That's why I'm not posting them here.) Claire |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:14 PM (#2112220) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: Sorcha Lyrics posted in this thread by Guest Q 22 Feb 03 - 05:06 PM. If it's the right one. |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:16 PM (#2112223) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: Jeri Bob, Q posted the lyrics to the River Driver's Lament. Looks like the one you want. |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:18 PM (#2112227) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: Jeri ...and I thought I was fast! |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:20 PM (#2112229) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: Sorcha Gee, Jeri, I gave you a long time! LOL! |
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26 Jul 07 - 08:41 PM (#2112241) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: Nick E Just get a little bluebird for me to sing alone, for I am a river driver and I'm far away from home. I had never heard the song before, nor would I I expect if it were not for Great Big Sea. (Huge Fan Here) It is on the latest CD "The Hard & The Easy" |
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27 Jul 07 - 12:08 AM (#2112310) Subject: RE: Lyr Req I AM A RIVER DRIVER From: GUEST,mg Has anyone heard of shingle bolt drivers? They drove the short cuts of cedar in the Pacific NW..very dangerous but they say no one died of it...although many died of the cold from wearing wet clothes. I have words but no tune to a song. mg |
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27 Jul 07 - 09:23 AM (#2112563) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver From: GUEST,Bob Coltman It is indeed "The River Driver's Lament" as posted by Q. Someone should give Q a special award for coming up with so many great songs in answer to queries. Splendid work! No small thing, finding a song after a half century. Whew! Better go sing it, I guess, huh? And thanks ... Bob |
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27 Jul 07 - 10:04 AM (#2112609) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Aha, now that I know it's from Newfoundland, I found a version online in the MacEdward Leach collection. (I'd always assumed it was either New England, or non-Maritime Canadian in origin.) But ... the version I heard differs from both Leach and Peacock, and I don't know how it came to surface in New Hampshire, apparently before the song was published! (A year before Peacock, and Leach's first Canadian collection, 1965's Folk Songs and Ballads of Lower Labrador. Or was it included in Leach's Ballad Book, 1955?). It was 1958 when a couple of singing friends, Tony Morse and Anne? (Mrs. Peter) Fleming, sang this to me at Hanover, NH (found the note I'd made at the time), and the only verse they had was distinct. It sounds like a first verse that's missing from Peacock AND from Leach: I am a river driver, and from Charlestown I come, I never earned a penny but what I called my own, And if ever I get off of this job, this town I mean to roam, For I'm a river driver, and I'm far away from home. Neither Morse nor Mrs. Fleming were Newfoundlanders, or source singers in the usual sense -- a couple of singing friends,one a former Dartmouth College student, the other a student's wife. They never said where they got the verse, or the tune either. Mystery! Bob |
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27 Jul 07 - 04:35 PM (#2112861) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver From: GUEST,Alan Eaton Dear Bob: I learned River Driver from the singing of newfoundland-based Great Big Sea. It is on at least one of their albums, and they ended their recent concert in Portsmouth NH with it. We started singing it, and I got the lyrics as they sing it, from a great big sea lyrics website (I've discarded the url, I'm afraid). It should be easy to find with that info. Your inquiry was the first I've found suggesting its origin. I typed out the lyrics in wordperfect, if you'd like them. Alan.Eaton@unh.edu |
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27 Jul 07 - 05:57 PM (#2112923) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Am a River Driver From: Q (Frank Staplin) mg, please post words, and source if you know it. Still many work songs out there which haven't been collected. Bob Coltman, it seems that "River Driver" was sung in much of the northeast; I would not be surprised if more verses are found. |