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Req: Saskatchewan songs

22 Jul 99 - 12:36 PM (#98041)
Subject: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Rick Fielding

Hi, me again. I don't mean to monopolize, but in my post asking for help with some British Columbia songs, I forgot to add that I also feel my repertoire is a little weak on Saskatchewan pieces as well. "Red River Valley" is claimed by a lot of areas, and I'm tired of using it for a Saskatchewan song. As I said in the B.C. thread, the songs don't have to be old. Something totally brand new that describes the province (positively) would be great. Thanks again.
Rick


22 Jul 99 - 12:47 PM (#98046)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Bob Landry

I recently heard a song about Pirates of the North Saskatchewan (or is it the South Saskatcewan?). I don't know who does it or the words, but I liked what I heard.

Bob


22 Jul 99 - 12:51 PM (#98048)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Peter T.

Hi Rick, All songs in flat keys, I presume: (had to get it off the old chest, sorry!)
I seem to recall a Buffy St. Marie song about the Qu'Appelle Valley, which was very beautiful. I'll rack the brain.
yours, Peter T>


22 Jul 99 - 01:15 PM (#98056)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Peter T.

Can't find a lyrics page for her songs. I know you aren't a fiddler, but there is something called the "Qu'appelle Valley Breakdown" as recorded by King Ganam, on the Best of the Country Fiddlers (RCA Camden CL-500027).
yours, Peter T.


22 Jul 99 - 01:50 PM (#98071)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Sheye

Edmonton's own: Captain Tractor, a band described as Celtic Rock, recorded The Last Saskatchewan Pirate.

Is this the one you're thinking of, Bob?

Sheye


22 Jul 99 - 03:21 PM (#98117)
Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN (Tom Connors)^^
From: Sheye

Roll On Saskatchewan

Let my heart sing an old river song
as we journey back where I belong
where the wind comes to say to the river each day
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
From the wheat feilds of my heart
go find your way to the cool Hudson Bay
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
oh river go whisper my preyer
tell mother and dad, I still care
leave this tear that I cried
on the shore that they died
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
From the wheat feilds of my heart
go find your way to the cool Hudson Bay
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
From the wheat feilds of my heart
go find your way to the cool Hudson Bay
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN
ROLL ON, ROLL ON SASKATCHEWAN

Compliments of my guy. Saskatchewanite to the core - still cheers for the Rough Riders!!

Sorry Rick, don't know the tune.

Sheye


22 Jul 99 - 03:53 PM (#98140)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Rick Fielding

Yeah Shey! Now were talkin' Thank you.
rick


22 Jul 99 - 04:44 PM (#98158)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Marion

Arrogant Worms (a Kingston-based musical comedy group) do a song called the Last Saskatchewan Pirate. I thought they had written it, but I may be wrong. I can get lyrics for you, but not for a week or so (my sister is out of town so I can't get at her CD collection). If you're still looking for that song a week from now, let me know.

The chorus:

And it's a heave hey hi ho, coming down the plains Stealing wheat and barley and all the other grains And it's a heave hey hi ho, farmers bar your doors When you see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores.

Marion


22 Jul 99 - 06:36 PM (#98232)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: rich r

There's a bunch of priarie homesteader songs many of which mention Sask. by name including:
"The Little old Sod Shanty"
"Life In A Prairie Shack"
"The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (the boys all went to the priaries
"The Saskatchewan Girl's Lament"
"The Harvest Excursion" (about easterners who went to harvest the grain each year) "Alberta Homesteader" (aka. Lane County Bachelor, Bent County Bachelor, Starving to Death on My Government Claim etc. just pop in the appropriate place name)

In the 9 record set - Canadian Folk Songs A Centennial Collection there is a really neat song called "Saskatachewan" sung by Alan Mills and others about the hardships of drout on the prairie, but still taking a rather light hearted view of it all.

Dakota Dave Hull's "Wicked Winds of Fargo" -
"It starts up in the arctic waste, by the time it hits Moose Jaw,
Saskatchewan's a frozen place, ain't never gonna thaw..."

I can see why Red River Valley is not totally appropriate since it flows through North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba, passing about a half mile from my house on its way north

rich r


22 Jul 99 - 07:14 PM (#98247)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Tim Jaques tjaques@netcom.ca

How about:

"Roll On, Saskatchewan" by Stompin' Tom Conners.
"Field Behind The Plough" by Stan Rogers.

I don't have my Diamond Joe White CD with me (entitled "Honestly", and I highly recommend it -- former cowboy,"real" cowboy -- now in his day job he runs Diamond Joe's Plumbing) and he writes almost exclusively about the Canadian west. I suspect Ian Tyson might have something appropriate too.

The three CD collection "A Folksong Portrait -- Canada" Mercury/Polygram 769748000-2, originally on Smithsonian Folkways, has these Prairie songs:

The Northern Trappers Rendezvous
The Little Old Sod Shanty
O Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie
Barbara Allen [it claims this is a Saskatchewan version of it, I kid you not, that heart-breaking girl gets around]
Johnny Sands
Chanson de Riel [also claims this is from Saskatchewan, although IIRC Riel was busiest in Manitoba; if he counts then Diamond Joe does a great song about him on the aforementioned CD]
Funky Jim [????, so it says, also from Saskatchewan]
A Poor Little Girl In Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan

Please note that this CD is mainly field recording stuff, and therefore for the hard core folkies only. No lovers of slick production need apply. (However, a younger Wade Helmsworth sings The Blackfly Song under the Ontario section, and under the Atlantic section it has the version of False Knight On The Road sung to The Flowers of Edinborough.) There are also some native songs from Saskatchewan, if you are up to it.


22 Jul 99 - 07:27 PM (#98249)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: dick greenhaus

Rick- Try a search on Saskat* (I'm lazy).


22 Jul 99 - 11:23 PM (#98325)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

I was also thinking about Captain Tractor and their song about the river pirate of Saskatchewan. It's a great one!


23 Jul 99 - 01:18 AM (#98361)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Rick Fielding

Thanks all. Damn it I KNOW the Red River runs through Manitoba, but you wouldn't believe how many Saskwatches say that it's theirs. Maybe there's another Red River, but I'll bet it's a tiny one.
rick


26 Jul 99 - 07:18 PM (#99454)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Dale Rose

Not as little as ours here in Arkansas, Rick. In fact, we even call it the Little Red River,

But getting back to the Saskatchewan songs, surely Wilf Carter did something somewhere along the way. I looked at the Bear Family Listing but apparently none of them actually used the word, but that doesn't mean the subject matter is not there. I would think that somewhere in that vast repetoire is at least one song that fills the bill.


27 Jul 99 - 01:09 AM (#99584)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Rick Fielding

So would I, but almost all are transplanted. Thanks Sheye, but after giving Stompin Tom's song due consideration I've concluded that, like most of his songs, it's kind of "formula" and doesn't really do anything for me.


27 Jul 99 - 09:05 AM (#99652)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: harpg.

hey Rick...Do you sing The Streets of Calgary? My greatgrandad was in the British Consular Corp and he lived in Calgary. He was a single parent to my grandma and I have pictures of her as a twelve year old on the muddy streets of Calgary...so I like to sing this song...harpgirl


27 Jul 99 - 10:04 AM (#99671)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Roberto

Tim Jacques already quoted the song "Saskatchewan", from a three CD collection. It was in the Folkways LP "Folksongs of Saskatchewan",collected and with notes by Barbara Cass-Beggs. In the LP, the song is sung by Jim Young of Regina. The tune is a catchy one,from a hymn, "Beulah Land". It is a depression song.

"Saskatchewan,the land of snow, Where winds are always on the blow, Where people sit with frozen toes And why we stay here, no one knows."

Another version is by Alan Mills, in the Folkways LP "O Canada!". I can record them on a tape, if you think they are interesting for your search. Bye. Roberto.


27 Jul 99 - 10:29 AM (#99683)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Mike Billo

There is an old Johnny Cash 45 on Columbia, "The Girl From Saskatchewan". I'm rummaging through my records trying to find it, and if I do I'll post lyrics.


27 Jul 99 - 01:07 PM (#99769)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Sheye

Warning - Thread creep...

Harpgirl, that brings back a memory.

I was out camping in Central Alberta a few summers ago. It was raining hard one day, so I snuck into Rocky Mountain House to spend some time and ended up in the community's museum.

Like many small Alberta museums, you can still touch some of the displays.

One display was a bedroom, and there were letters on the bureau. I sat on the bed, fell back in time, and read the ink marks on the pages that opened the man's soul to the woman he loved. The letters were from the war era. The man was stationed in 'a little town, not much of anything really, called Calgary', and mentioned the loneliness of life in the baracks, away from family and lovers.

Another stack of letters were from a rowdier gent to a different lady. He had confessed to falling off the wagon, and getting into trouble with his commanding officer and a few local gals. He swore that he would never stray again if only he were given a second chance...

(For those not familiar with Alberta, Calgary is our largest, and arguably, most global/commerce-based city.)

Sheye


07 Aug 99 - 04:04 AM (#102990)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Vic in Australia

As a kid in the early 70's, with a radio glued to my ear, I always loved that Guess Who song "Albert Flasher" - never had a clue what they were on about. My brother bought their "Live at the Paramount" LP, and of course we played it to death. Anyway, easing towards the point here, on that album was a song called "Running Back to Saskatoon" - great song, basically just a roll-call of place names, but sounded bloody exotic to a 13 year old in Adelaide, Australia.

..been hangin' round libraries ..........Vic.....


11 Apr 01 - 04:26 PM (#438420)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: GUEST,George L

Has anybody got the words of Field Behind the Plough, I had but I've mislaid them.

Thanks


11 Apr 01 - 05:23 PM (#438470)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: MMario

click here for the words.

But I have to ask ~~~ why are you requesting this in a thread that hasn't had a post in over 18 months?


11 Apr 01 - 05:35 PM (#438483)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: RichM

Here you go, George L:

words to Field Behind the Plow


11 Apr 01 - 06:14 PM (#438518)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: GUEST,George L

Thanks for your help


11 Apr 01 - 09:53 PM (#438669)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: pastorpest

Lots of Connie Kaldor songs are Saskatchewan based. Her best known song (I think it is the best known one)is "Wood River". The little Wood River is in south western Saskatchewan. I am looking for Saskatchewan songs as well, as I move there in two and a half months. Maybe a year from now I can contribute to this thread.


11 Apr 01 - 10:04 PM (#438676)
Subject: Lyr Add: SASKATCHEWAN THE LAND OF SNOW
From: ollaimh

There's always the hilarious "SASKATCHEWAN THE LAND OF SNOW"

To the tune of BEULAH LAND.

Saskatchewan, the land of snow
Where winds are always on the blow.
Sit at home with frozen toes
And why we stay here no one knows.

CHORUS: Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan,
There's no place like Saskatchewan.
We sit and gaze across the plains
And wonder why it never rains.
And Gabriel blows his trumpet sound,
And says the rain she's gone around.

Our pigs are dying on their feet.
Our horses have no feed to eat.
Our hens are old they lay no eggs.
Our cows they eat grasshopper legs. CHORUS

But still we love Saskatchewan.
We're proud to be her native ones.
We count our blessings drop by drop.
Next year we'll have a bumper crop.


This is a depression song--and kinda depressing it is.


11 Apr 01 - 11:11 PM (#438715)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Owlkat

Hi, Speaking of Connie Kaldor, I think she wrote "Saskatoon Moon". It's a lovely song. Cheers, Owl.


11 Apr 01 - 11:21 PM (#438720)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: ddw

Rick,

My memory's fuzzy, but isn't Ian & Sylvia's "Four Rode By" about a Saskatchewan murder and mayhem spree by "Three McLain boys and that wild Alex Hare"? It's been a long time since I read the blurb about the song, so I may be wrong. And the song, as far as I can remember, doesn't mention any place names.

david


12 Apr 01 - 12:44 AM (#438767)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Rick Fielding

Well I'd forgotten about this one.

Sheye, where have you gone to?

Ollaimh, That's the very song I learned, after posting this thread. Thanks.

Rick


12 Apr 01 - 03:42 PM (#439225)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Clinton Hammond

Just to clear it up...

"The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" was written by The Arrogant Worms... Captain Tractor stole it, in true folkie/pirate form...

James Keelaghan has a bunch of general Prairie music to his name... Sweetgrass Moon, Hope Princeton Road, and Number 37, just to name a few...

Hillcrest Mine takes place in southern Alberta... Is that close enough?

LOL!!


30 Jul 05 - 08:29 PM (#1531802)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: GUEST,John Nolan

Marion: Six years on ... still there? The hugely popular Arrogant Worms were one of the stars of this year's (July 2005) Calgary Folk Festival and 8,000 people joined in the chorus of The Saskatchewan Pirate.


30 Jul 05 - 08:57 PM (#1531819)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Peace

http://www.worldmusicstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1545

Also, google

songs about saskatchewan

and have a look-see.


30 Jul 05 - 09:02 PM (#1531821)
Subject: RE: Oops! Also any songs from Saskatchewan?
From: Peace

Saskatchewan
Bird on a Wing
Farewell Saskatchewan
The Girl In Saskatoon
The Fields of Saskatchewan
The Harvest Excursion
I Love My Saskatchewan
Our own Saskatchewan
The Prairies of Saskatchewan
Roll on Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan for me
Saskatchewan girl's lament
Saskatchewan, my home
Saskatchewan sunrise
Saskatchewan today
Saskatoon
Song for Saskatchewan

The above is from this site.