Hé, Ho Down Below

Words:  © 1995 Marian Woestenburg; Music: © 1995 Ger Lamerus From the group Drifhout (Driftwood) from the island of Vlieland in the Netherlands. Hear me out you sailor man Try to listen if you can Have you ever wondered noe What makes this lady go?Chorus: Hé, ho down below Dust and coal, dust and coal…

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Fire Down Below

From William Fender, Barry Dock, Wales Sources: The James Madison Carpenter Collection at the Archive of American Folk Culture at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, AFC 1972/001 Cylinder 037 09:03; Disc sides 080 02:05, 392 03:16; MS pp. 00353, 00421 Charlie Ipcar sent me this description of the Midway Plaisance from Herbert Asbury’s book…

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Long Summer Day

From “A group of Andros Island Men”, Andros Island, The Bahamas, 1935 Source: The Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, Zora Neale Hurston, Alan Lomax Collection at the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress AFC 509 A3. When I made this recording I altered and extended the lyrics to honor a great friend, the…

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Ho The Last One

From “Pappie” and a group of Andros Island men, 1935. Source: The Alan Lomax, Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, Zora Neale Hurston Collection at the Archive of Folk Culture in the American Folklife Center at Library of Congress AFS 507A. The marvelous singing of the Bahamian singers is not to be missed. The field recordings have now…

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Down the River of Gambia

Captain Leighton Robinson, California, 1951 Source: Sidney Robertson Cowell Collection at the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, AFC 10,506 A18. Robinson mentioned this song being sung on vessels with ‘checkerboard crews’, that is, one watch white sailors the other black. I modified some verses…

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Nothin’ But a Humbug

From Rees Baldwin, Barry Dock, Wales Sources: The James Madison Carpenter Collection AFC 1972/001 Cylinder 037 05:25; Disc sides 079 02:14, 391 04:44, 392 00:09 MS pp. 00123, 09132 (verses 1-3, additional verses from other shanties and worksongs). Rees Baldwin was an incredible singer. He sang wonderful, unusual songs for Carpenter and this is a…

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Down Trinidad

From: Richard Warner, Cardiff, Wales Sources: The James Madison Carpenter Collection, AFC 1972/001 MS pp. 00137, 09165 (melody and vs. 1-3, 7), MS p. 03575 (from Harry Bowling, Los Angeles, CA, verse 4); Stan Hugill Shanties from the Seven Seas p. 397 (verses 5-6) Oh tell me massa stevedore how you stow your cargo? Way_____…

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