Charles Jordan, Jean Sullivan; 1:42 [Track 1, side A] file: CFS501.mp3

This is a Newfoundland version of the well-known "dialogue" song about a girl who wanted to marry a soldier, only to discover that the fellow was already married. The song was collected by Maud Karpeles.

See here for partial score, MIDI melody

Yves Albert; 2:28 [Track 2, side A] file: CFS502.mp3

This Acadian version of an old French ballad tells the tale of a soldier who, returning from a long absence at war, goes to the home of his onetime sweetheart in hopes of renewing their old alliance, but he receives a rather cold welcome for she has found other interests. In the dialogue that follows between them, she tells him he is wasting his time, to which he replies by reminding her of the happy days they spent together as young lovers, but it does him no good. The song is sung by Yves Albert, who collected it in New Brunswick.

Diane Oxner; 3:43 [Track 3, side A] file: CFS503.mp3

This is a very fine version of a widely popular love lament, known on both sides of the Atlantic in one form or another. The story concerns a girl who complains of having been deserted by her lover after seven long years of "courting in vain", and she determines to wear a twig of "green willow" (traditional symbol of sadness) around her hat.

The song was collected in Nova Scotia by Dr. Helen creighton.

See here for score, MIDI melody and several variant lyrics;
See here for an Australian variant with audio clip

Raoul Roy; 1:51 [Track 4, side A] file: CFS504.mp3

The title of this song gives no indication of its amusing story, which is about a man who is visiting a female neighbor when they are interrupted by the return of the lady's husband. Hastily, she hides her visitor under an empty wine cask, but her suspicious husband soon finds him there, gives him a sound beating and kicks him out.

The song is sung by Raoul Roy, who collected it in the Gaspé region of Québec.

Charles Jordan 3:53 [Track 5, side A] file: CFS505.mp3

An excellent and very beautiful version of a traditional love lament known in England and Scotland as "O Waly, Waly", and popularized by modern balladeers as The Water is Wide, this song concerns a young man who complains that his "heart lies smothered within my breast" because the girl he loves will not return his love.

Several of its symbolic and highly poetic verses were borrowed from other traditional ballads, but not found in other versions of the song is the surprise ending of the last verse. The more sympathetic companionship, as well as his abrupt final words "I'll sing no more till I get a drink!"

Which is a way that some traditional singers occasionally have of politely indicating their thirst to listeners before continuing with another song.

This version was collected in Nove Scotia by Dr. Helen Creighton.

See here for partial score and MIDI melody

Hélène Baillargeon, Alan Mills; 2:16 [Track 6, side A] file: CFS506.mp3

One of about a dozen Canadian variants of an old French folk song, this lively ditty tells an amusing story of a girl whose father sends her off to sea, and of a sailor who falls in love with her. When the sailor tries to kiss her, the girl timidly refuses for fear that birds would report her misbehavior to her father and she would be punished. "But birds don't speak!"— the sailor scoffs at her. "O yes, they do!"— she replies. "They speak both French and Latin!"— whereupon the young sailor gives up, deploring the world in general, and talking birds in particular.

This version of the song as a "nonsense" refrain about leaping frongs and bumpy roads that have nothing at all to do with the story.

The same story is recorded to a completely different tune as Je Le Mène Bien, Mon Dévidoir in Volume 8 of this Series.

Diane Oxner; 1:34 [Track 1, side B] file: CFS507.mp3

This is one of several Nova Scotian variants of a well-known English folk song that has many different versions on both sides of the Atlantic. It's about an old man who goes to court a not-too-willing young girl, at her mother's invitation, but after spending a miserable evening with the old fellow, the girl decides he's not for her and leaves him "in the lurch" on their way to church.

Yves Albert; 2:25 [Track 2, side B] file: CFS508.mp3

This is one of more than twenty Canadian variants of an ancient French "abduction" ballad, recorded as Blanche comme la niege in Volume 1 of this series. Though the versions are considerably different, they tell the same story of a virtuous maiden who is kidnapped by a young captain, and who "saves her honor" by feigning death and being entombed in her father's garden, where she comes back to life and is released three days later, apparently none the worse for her experience.

The song is sung by Yves Albert, who learned it from a traditional folk-dinger in St. Simeon, PQ.

Joyce Sullivan; 2:27 [Track 3, side B] file: CFS509.mp3

One of the best-loved songs of Canada's prairie provinces, this is a variant of a popular American song of the late 19th Centry called In The Bright Mohawk Valley, which is sung in various forms all through North America and elsewhere. A good example of how Canadians— especially westerners— adopted the songs of their southern neighbours and "regionalized" them to suit their own particular areas, the song tells the sentimental tale of a prairie girl who is "jilted" by her lover and yearns for the happy times they once knew together.

Jacques Labrecque; 1:56 [Track 4, side B] file: CFS510.mp3

This strange little song is believed to have descended from a very old French romantic ballad that seems to have disappeared from the song literature of France itself. It is included mainly because of its superb melody, which deserves survival, although its verses are not without charm, despite their somewhat obscure meaning. The story (vague as it is) concerns a fickle girl whose "favors"— like wind-swept blossoms of an apple tree— were available to all passers-by, and who "drowned her heart" while bathing in a stream against the warnings of an apparently slighted suitor.

The song, which was once popular among French-Canadian lumberjacks, is sung in traditional unaccompanied manner.

Tom Kines; 3:09 [Track 5, side B] file: CFS511.mp3

An amusing lampoon of traditional tragic ballads that end in the death of lovers, this rare Newfoundland song is sung to the familiar tune of another mock tregedy— Villikins And His Dinah— that is widely known on both sides of the Atlantic. It tells the unhappy tale of a girl named Emma Jane (or "Hemmer Jane" as she's called in the song) who went "creezy" and drowned herself when she mistakenly assumed that her sailor lover had been lost at sea. When the sailor returns and learns of her sad fate, he ends his own life at her graveside, and is buried beside her in the shade of a "willer" tree.

The song is sung here in its popular dialect form.

Hélène Baillargeon, Alan Mills; 2:15 [Track 6, side B] file: CFS512.mp3

This lively dialogue song was tranported many generations ago from the Orléans region of France to Canada's Ile d'Orléans, in the St. Lawrence river just below Québec City, and tells the amusing story of a house-keeper who believes she has fallen in love with her employer. While such a development might be acceptable normally, it hardly could be in this particular case, for the employer happened to be the curate, or parish priest! Thus, when he woman confesses her "sin" to him, the priest thinks it better that she leave his employ.

"But, suppose I die of grief", she cries, "won't you weep for me?"
"No", replies the priest, "I'll bury you, and I'll sing requiescat in pace!"