For as long as Adirondackers have been learning songs from others, they too have been creating their own original songs out of everyday experiences in the woods and at home. Often these new creations become “old songs” as they are passed from generation to generation. Many have a known author, while the origins of others are more obscure. Some seem to have been sung only by the author, or a few close friends; others were known throughout the whole Adirondack region, and beyond. According to folklorist Herbert Halpert, all of this local song making is a good sign:
“I believe that the presence or
absence of parodies or local songs is a test of the vitality of a folk song tradition. If singers do not make up new songs, or manipulate the old materials, we have one
indication that the singing tradition in that
area has become fossilized.”
-- Herbert Halpert, Folklorist, 1951
While the region has no shortage of talented songwriters currently writing songs about aspects of Adirondack life (see Contemporary Singer/Songwriters page), this section will focus on local, original songs from Adirondack tradition bearers; that is, songs of local origin in the repertoires of the traditional singers themselves.
Murder,
death, war, lumber bosses and other local characters tend to dominate the
subject matter of these songs, with hardly a mention of romance, nature, the
environment or any sense of home and hearth.
Songs:
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
Lawrence "Larry" Older
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS SONG, SEE BETHKE, Adirondack Voices, pages 127-131, 138
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
Edward Ashlaw
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS SONG, SEE BETHKE, Adirondack Voices, pages 91-96, 98
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS SONG, SEE BETHKE, Adirondack Voices, pages 125-127, 138
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS SONG, SEE BETHKE, Adirondack Voices, pages 134-135, 138
We have the text for another version of this same song from a singer named Albert LaBrake, who was superintendent of Fish Rock Camp on Upper Saranac Lake when he sang his version.
(date unknown, prior to 1977)
LaBrake’s version is essentially the same except for some interesting changes in locale: Cunningham goes “down the Ausable (River)” rather than “back to Saranac” in the first verse, comes to Lake Placid rather than Tupper Lake in the second verse, and charms Jim Hennesee’s daughter instead of Tobin’s in the third. Interestingly, he goes “back to Saranac” in the last verse, just as does Ted Ashlaw’s Cunningham.
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS SONG, SEE BETHKE, Adirondack Voices, pages 96-98, 134
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
- Irishtown Crew
- The
Ballad of Old Lard’s Camp
“The
following relates to my logging operations in 1926 beyond the Jackson place on Mill Stream (Tug Hill
area). The number of men in the small
logging camps generally averaged from ten
to twenty. At the present time this once
beautiful timber land is grown up to
brush”
- Tebo
Songs by Lee Knight:
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
Lee Knight
See "Adirondacks Had Its Own Folk Songs; 'Cold River Line' Recalls Loggers Who Kept Timber Moving a Half-Century Ago," from the Tupper Lake Free Press & Herald, Thursday, December 30, 1965 edition.
• Sheet Music (pdf)
• Scorched (sib)
powered by web marketing worx