The lumbercamp version of an English labour movement song. Sung by Ron Sisson of West Guilford, Ontario. Recorded by George Proctor in 1960. Original tape in Collection of Canadian Museum of History.

Proctor Edits

You Can't Keep A Shantyboy Down

A song of parting - "Jimmy goes sailing, Nancy goes wailing..." Sung by Joseph Chisholm (b. 1878) of St. Raphael's, Ontario. Recorded by George Proctor in 1960. Original tape in Collection of Canadian Museum of History.

LOVELY NANCY - Joseph Chisholm

A song about the 1849 California gold rush, said to have been composed by an Ontario woman named Annie Young, in about 1854. Sung by Joseph Chisholm (b. 1878)of St. Raphael's, Ontario. Recorded by George Proctor in 1960. Original tape in Collection of Canadian Museum of History.

CALIFORNIA BOYS - Joseph Chisholm

Sung by Joseph Chisholm (b.1878) - St. Raphael's, Ontario. Recorded by George Proctor in 1960. The melody is the well-known Irish tune often called "The Rising of The Moon" or "The Wearing Of The Green". The original words of "Sae Will We Yet" were composed by Scottish poet Walter Watson (1780–1854). They had been considerably changed by the folk process by the time Mr. Chisholm sang them here. "Sae means "so".

SAE WILL WE YET - Joseph Chisholm

Sung by George Howe,  Norland, Ontario. Recorded by George Proctor 1960 for the (then) Canadian Museum of Man. A music hall type song written by John W. Gibbons, Pub. T.Harms & Co. NY 1885
It was recorded by Uncle Dave Macon & The McGee Bros. 1927 with a slightly different melody, and has since become part of the bluegrass repertoire in the US.

POOR OLD DAD - George Howe

Duncan Cameron's arrangement of "My Grandfather's Socks" a parody of "My Grandfather's Clock" from The Wellington Harwood Manuscript. Oxford Co., Ontario Circa 1890.

My Grandfather's Socks - Played by Duncan Cameron

A shape-note hymn from the Old-Order Mennonite choral tradition of Waterloo Region in Ontario. From an 1875 Singing School book called "The Philharmonia". Sung here by Prof. Chalaupka's Celebrated Singing School and Friends. We learned the song from Onias Weber (1921-1995) an Old-order Mennonite singing-school leader and blacksmith. There are some horses at the beginning. We sing the names of the shapes through once, before launching into the words.

Singing in a Strange Land

Zion's Glad Morning

"HURRY UP HARRY"  This song is a good description of life in a lumber camp. The tune is a close relative of the one used for "The Cruise of Bigler" and "Hurling Down The Pine". This version is sung by LaRena Clark from Pefferlaw, Ontario. (Recorded in about 1960)

HURRY UP HARRY

Barbara Allan - Sung By LaRena Clark - Circa 1965

BARBARA ALLAN

Lovely Nancy - Sung by Joseph Chisholm of St. Raphael's Ontario about 1960. Recorded by George Proctor. There's more about this song at: https://ontariotraditionalmusic.ca

A song describing a drunken trip from Arnprior, Ontario to a lumber camp in the Algonquin Park region. Learned from the singing of O.J. Abbott. Performed by Muddy York (1984)

Scatter The Ashes - Music Of Early Ontario

How We Got Up To The Woods Last Year

Ian Bell performs a song from the 1950s by legendary Ottawa Valley singer songwriter Mac Beattie. The Pontiac is the part of Quebec across the river just upstream from Ottawa and Gatineau. With Geoff Somers - mandolin and Denis Rondeau - bass.

My Pious Friends... And Drunken Companions

Little Shack Up The Pontiac

A set of Tunes by George Wade and His Cornhuskers an Ontario dance band and radio act active from the late 1920s to the 1950s. "Warm Stuff" is sometimes known as "Pigtown Fling" or "Stoney Point". "The Crooked Stovepipe" remains an Ontario fiddle standard. Over the years the fiddlers in The Cornhuskers included Jim McGill, Jean Carignan and Tommy McQueston. (among many others)

George Wade & His Cornhuskers - Warm Stuff & The Crooked Stovepipe

A March from the Allan Ash manuscript. It commemorates Nelson's victory over the French fleet off the coast of Egypt in 1798. 
Ian Bell - button accordion, Oliver Schroder - hammered dulcimer, David Travers-Smith - trumpet, from the 1991 recording A Grand Musical Entertainment. (cassette only)

AGME

The Battle Of The Nile

Joseph Chisholm sings "The Man Behind The Plow", a song written by American songwriter Thomas Payne Westendorf in the mid-19th century. This was recorded in Glengarry County, by George Proctor in about 1961. This song seems to have been more popular in Ontario that it ever was un the US. It was absorbed into the oral tradition here, and there are a number of folk versions of it.

The Man Behind The Plow - Joseph Chisholm

Ian Bell sings "The Man Behind The Plow", a song written by American songwriter Thomas Payne Westendorf in the mid-19th century.  This song seems to have been more popular in Ontario that it ever was un the US. It was absorbed into the oral tradition here, and there are a number of folk versions of it.
This version is more-or-less the one on an 1870s piece of sheet music from The Canadian Ten Cent Music Library.
Ian Bell vocal, Anne Lederman - piano, Oliver Schroder - fiddle, Kate Murphy, Don Thurston, Anne and Oliver - chorus.

The Man Behind The Plow - Ian Bell

LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED - This is a bawdy song.
"Square" Jim MacDonald (1888-1970)was a commercial Lake Erie fisherman in Port Dover, Ontario. This song was recorded at a party in Port Dover in about 1960. It is all double entendres and sexual metaphors in the style of earlier songs like "The Weaver", "The Mower" and "Long Peggin' Awl".

Port Dover - Circa 1961

Boring For Oil

Two Songs published in Ontario newspapers prior to The Rebellion of 1837.
Performed by Ian Bell & Anne Lederman From the Muddy York lp "Scatter The Ashes" - 1984

I'll Be A Tory / Up And Waur Them A'

"Square" Jim MacDonald (1888-1970)sings a fragment of an American "stage Irish" music hall song from 1891. Original words and music by J.W. Kelly. Square Jim was a commercial fisherman from Port Dover. This song was recorded at a party there in about 1961.

When Hogan Paid The Rent

Ontario dance band George Wade and His Cornhuskers play The Mason's Apron with square dance calls. Recorded in 1931.

Square Dances

Mason's Apron - Square Dance

Several 19th century sheet metal "dinner horns" from the collection of Black Creek Pioneer Village Museum in Toronto, played by David Travers-Smith. These were blown at mealtimes in lumber camps and on farms to call family and hired hands in from the fields or woods .From the cassette recording "A Grand Musical Entertainment", 1991.

Dinner Horns

When I was a kid, my dad who was from Binbrook, Ontario took me to the former site of an old mill near there, and sang me a few lines from an old song. It was "When You And I Were Young, Maggie".
The words to this song was written Hamilton area school teacher, George Johnson, in 1864, for  Margaret "Maggie" Clark - one of his pupils. 

They fell in love and and while she was ill, George walked to the edge of Hamilton mountain, and wrote the lyrics.  It was published in 1864, in a collection of poems entitled "Maple Leaves", and also appears in the pages of a Hamilton newspaper at about that time. George and Maggie were married that year but she died only a few months later. 

American James Austin Butterfield set the poem to music and it became popular all over the world. In 2005, the song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. It has since morphed into a number of distinct versions and is often thought to be Irish or Scottish.  [IB]

This performance is by Waterford, Ontario musical saw player Allen Givens. He is accompanied on piano by Willard Challand

The Singing Saw

When You And I Were Young, Maggie

The Cobourg Waltz, played by Oliver Schroer - hammered dulcimer, fiddle, Ian Bell - button accordion, string bass, Kate Murphy - Stepdancing (Ontario waltz clog learned from Alec Mulligan.)

The Cobourg Waltz

A setting of the dance tune "La Bastringue". Taken from the Allan Ash Manuscript - Cobourg, Ontario, Circa 1850. Two parts in original manuscript.
Ian Bell - fifes Ken Purvis - drums

French Quick March

Jean Mills sings a song collected from Mrs. Arlington (Grace) Fraser in the 1950s by Edith Fowke. Mrs. Fraser learned the song from her mother in Eastern Ontario. (That's Mrs. Fraser in the photo - not Jean!)
Raftsmen (moving timber down the rivers) seemed to have a reputation as objects of romance - at least in songs!

Little Sparrow

Jolly Raftsmen O - Sung by Jean Mills

Scottish Canadian fiddling from Glengarry County recorded by the late George Proctor in about 1960. I believe the fiddler is Joseph Chisholm. The fiddler breaks into seating clogging briefly at one point.

Strathspey & Reel Medley

Jenny P. King was supposedly a “madame” who operated brothels in various ports on the lower lakes. The timber drogher that bore her name is said to have sported a shapely female leg as a figurehead. These lyrics were assembled from the recollections of a number of old sailors. They seem to go well with the tune I adapted from “The Bigler’s Cruise”. The song’s lyrics give an idea of the varied backgrounds of the crews on a typical Great Lakes vessel.

Forget Me Not, When Far Away

The Jennie P. King - Ian Bell

A lovely local love song from Lake Simcoe.

Bridget From Washago - LaRena Clark

A tune by Jack Hayes (1912-1993) Played by Teilhard Frost and Albert Alexander - twin fiddles.

T Demos

Tony Pettigrew - Teilhard Frost and Albert Alexander

A tune from the Allen Ash Manuscript - Circa 1850 - played by Saskia Tomkins

Battle Of The Nile - Saskia Tomkins

A tune from the Allan Ash Manuscript - Circa 1850

Hornpipe In D - Saskia Tomkins

A tune from the John Buttrey Manuscript - Circa 1800

Hornpipe In G - Saskia Tomkins

Morgiana In England - Saskia Tompkins

From the John Buttrey Manuscript - Circa 1800

No.3 A Retreat - Saskia Tomkins

A tune from The John Buttrey Manuscript - Circa 1800

The Bonny Light Horseman - Saskia Tomkins

The Dusty Miller - Saskia Tomkins

Fireman's Reel is one of the many offspring of the hornpipe "Off The California". The Cornhuskers recorded it before Don Messer made it his theme tune

Fireman's Reel - George Wade and His Cornhuskers

A tune composed by Ontario fiddler/composer and dance caller Jack Hayes. Played by Anne Lederman

Jack Hayes tunes

Dennis Taylor - Played by Anne Lederman

A traditional fife and drum setting of the "Downfall of Paris", by the Fifes and Drums of the 41st Regt. of Foot at Fort George in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario.

Downfall of Paris Fifes and Drums

This reel was composed and recorded by Abbie Andrews of St. Catharines. It has also been played and recorded by many other fiddlers.

Ontario Traditional Music Library

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