Category: songs

Josephine Douglas 1939

Collected from Josephine Douglas in 1939 at the Parchman Farm Women's Correctional Farm in Mississippi by Herbert Halpert

Chorus:
I’m sittin’ by the river on the levee, Waiting ’til the steamboat come down,
Them cotton bales are rolling mighty heavy, Miles and miles around.
I thought I heard the steamboat when she landed, Landed on the levee below,
I’m sittin’ by the river on the levee, Waiting ’til the steamboat come down.

Noah, Noah, what a foolish man,
Built the ark on the sandy land.

End of every verse:
I said, who built the ark? (Brother Noah, Noah!)
Who built the ark? (Brother Noah, Noah!)
Brother Noah built the ark!

Matthew stood by the Red Sea shore,
Smotin’ at the water with a two-by-four.

Matthew, Martha, Luke and John,
All them sinners is a-dead and gone.

Matthew, Martha sitting in the shade,
Thinking about the money that I ain’t made.

Stan Rogers 1981

"At a concert in Calgary, we performed this song, and when we finished, there were a few seconds of silence, in which I clearly heard someone say 'My God, he's written a new national anthem!' Not quite what I had in mind, but not too far off, either." Inspired to change "savage" in chorus by Jules Peiperl & Annaleah Ernst's workshop at Youth Trad Song 2026.

Chorus:
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and ravaged
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Westward from the Davis Strait ’tis there ’twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his “sea of flowers” began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.

And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again. 

trad

Chorus:
You’re nothin’ but a humbug. So they say, so they say.
You’re nothin’ but a humbug. That’s all I know

Catfish grow on a huckleberry vine (So they say, so they say)
Catfish grow on a huckleberry vine (That’s all I know)

Never seen the like since I been born, Sailor on the fife rail crackin’ out corn.

One day the blackbird said to the crow Why do you love your farmer so?

That’s my trade since Adam was born Scratchin’ and a diggin’ up the farmers corn.

Said the blackbird to the crow Don’t tell those pretty girls all I know. 

Jean Ritchie 1977

Ritchie said "I've written some healing songs too. One is called Now is the Cool of the Day, which is my favorite of my written songs right now."

My Lord, he said unto me Do you like my garden so fair
You may live in this garden if you’ll keep the grasses green
And I’ll return in the cool of the day

Chorus:
Now is the cool of the day (x2)
This earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord
And he walks in his garden
In the cool of the day

Then my Lord, he said unto me Do you like my pastures so green
You may live in this garden if you will feed my sheep
And I’ll return in the cool of the day

Then my Lord, he said unto me Do you like my garden so free
You may live in this garden if you’ll keep the people free
And I’ll return in the cool of the day 

Nancy Kerr 2014

Shortly after she released it, a preeminent online cricket website was describing a boring fourth day of a long cricket match and said: "as Nancy Kerr said in 'Now is the Time', 'Now is that blessed moment'". She has no idea who the writer was. Kerr jokes that was her peak, being quoted on this cricket website.

Nancy Kerr: https://nancykerr.bandcamp.com/track/now-is-the-time

Chorus:
Now is the time, now is that blessed moment
Now is the breath of life sent in turn to weather a gathering rhyme
Be bold and kind, farewell my old discontent
Just ask the heavens’ consent to burn and turn cold days to fine

City of souls blown by the breath of old lovers
Where death’s cold dances hold prisoners so very unkind
Farewell, we sing, dressed in the leavings of others
For guests shall plenty bring and turn cold days to fine

Happy and poor, is that more foolishness, talking?
Will walking Peace’s path preserve your hearth in flame?
Scant seed in store brings feathered visitors flocking
To sing shall comfort bring, for souls are made the same

Sinners, arise and turn your eyes to the waters
For nature’s mortal pool shall bathe all fools in brine
Be not denied when all sure-footedness falters
For earth’s uncertainties have turned our fields to wine 

trad 

Lady Maisery says their tune, basically the one I know, was collected from a Sam P. Bayard of Pennsylvania and included in Lomax 1934. Sandy & Caroline Paton say their version recorded 1966 on “Songs of Beech Mountain, North Carolina” was collected from a Mrs. Buna Hicks, who said that the song was regularly used to end religious services, or “camp meetings”, in her area, years ago, and that her mother was always asked to sing it.

Fathers, now our meeting is over
Fathers we must part
If I never see you anymore
I’ll love you in my heart

Chorus:
And we’ll stand on the shore (X3) And be safe forever more 

Mothers…Sisters…Brothers…

Robert Burns 1775

Dick Gaughan wrote the following in his iconic interpretation: "I learned this, from Geordie Hamilton, an ex-miner from Kirkintilloch who worked with the Post Office in Edinburgh. He used to frequent the Forrest Hill Bar (always known as Sandy Bell's) and was responsible for encouraging and assisting many a young singer. But it was very difficult learning a complete song from him as he had a habit of starting one, singing a verse or two, then saying, "You don't really want to hear that" and launching into something else. The wonderful Ulster singer, Len Graham, sings this to a similar tune. Due to its closeness to the south-west of Scotland, Burns' songs and poetry are very popular in Ulster." "Peggy dear" was Peggy Thomson of Kirkoswald, a coastal town where Burns spent his seventeenth summer

Dick Gaughan: https://dickgaughan.bandcamp.com/track/now-westlin-winds-trad-arr-gaughan

Now westlin winds and slaughtering guns Bring autumn’s pleasant weather
The moorcock springs on whirring wings Among the blooming heather
Now waving grain, wild o’er the plain Delights the weary farmer
And the moon shines bright as I rove at night To muse upon my charmer

The partridge loves the fruitful fells The plover loves the mountain
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells The soaring hern the fountain
Through lofty groves the cushat roves The path of man to shun it
The hazel bush o’erhangs the thrush The spreading thorn the linnet

Thus every kind their pleasure find The savage and the tender
Some social join and leagues combine Some solitary wander
Avaunt! Away! the cruel sway, Tyrannic man’s dominion
The sportsman’s joy, the murdering cry The fluttering, gory pinion

But Peggy dear the evening’s clear Thick flies the skimming swallow
The sky is blue, the fields in view All fading green and yellow
Come let us stray our gladsome way And view the charms of nature
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn And every happy creature

We’ll gently walk and sweetly talk Till the silent moon shines clearly
I’ll grasp thy waist and, fondly pressed Swear how I love thee dearly
Not vernal showers to budding flowers Not autumn to the farmer
So dear can be as thou to me My fair, my lovely charmer 

Rudyard Kipling 1906 / Peter Bellamy 1970

Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.

Chorus:
Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs
All of a Midsummer’s morn!
Surely we sing of no little thing,
In Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day, Or ever Aeneas began;
Ash of the Loam was a lady at home, When Brut was an outlaw man;
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town (From which was London born);
Witness hereby the ancientry Of Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard mould, He breedeth a mighty bow;
Alder for shoes do wise men choose, And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled, Your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need, To Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Ellum she hates mankind, and waits Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him, That anyway trusts her shade:
But whether a lad be sober or sad, Or mellow with ale from the horn,
He’ll take no wrong when he lieth along ‘Neath Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight, Or he would call it a sin;
But-we’ve been out in the woods all night, A-conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth – Good news for cattle and corn –
Now is the Sun come up from the South, With Oak and Ash and Thorn!

C.W. Murphy & Dan Lipton 1908

Chorus:
Oh! Oh! Antonio! He’s gone away
Left me alonio All on my ownio
I’d like to meet him with his new sweetheart
Then up shall go Antonio and his ice cream cart.

In quaint native dress an Italian maid
Was deep in distress as the streets she strayed
Searching in every part for her false sweetheart And his ice cream cart
Her English was bad it cannot be denied
And so to herself in Italian she cried

So sad grew the plight of this fair young lass
She’d faint at the sight of an ice cream glass
She dreamed nigh every day he’d come back to stay But he’d fade away
Her old hurdy-gurdy all day she’d parade
And this she would sing to each tune that it played:

She sought in despair for Antonio,
And looked everywhere that she thought he’d go.
Soon she to pine began as each face she’d scan For her ice cream man.
She faded away, but they say in the street
The ghost of that girl in Italian repeats: 

Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus, and Allan Jeffrey  1957

The original recording by Patti Page sold over a million copies. Wikipedia: "Hailed by Cape Cod natives as the 'unofficial Cape Cod Anthem, if ever there was one,' the song has been credited with 'putting the Cape on the map' and helping to establish Cape Cod as a major tourist destination."

If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there

Refrain:
You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view

Bridge:
Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath the skies of blue
Church bells chimin’ on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born

If you spend an evening, you’ll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay