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The Pinery Boy

from Spinning Yarns by Norah Rendell

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes with 16-page booklet including lyrics, liner notes written by Brian Miller, photos by Natalie Champa-Jennings and images of yarn from Suzy Brown, woolwench. Designed by Colleen Cody.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Spinning Yarns via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

In the age of old-time, live-in lumber camps, the need for bunkhouse entertainment during the long, isolated winters led to a high demand for lumberman-singers. Many Irish-Canadians carried with them rich repertoires of songs from the old country which were song often. Sometimes, words were changed to adapt an old song to new circumstances. One old song, “The Sailor Boy,” about a woman searching in vain for her drowned lover, passed from singer to singer from the British Isles to the Maritimes and across the Great Lakes before someone in Wisconsin decided to alter it to fit a more local story.

In 1923, Franz Rickaby transcribed “The Pinery Boy” from the singing of Martha Olin of Eau Claire, Wisconsin who had learned it around 1867 from a local boy named Thomas Ward. Norah’s version was inspired by Dáithí Sproule’s singing of the song.

lyrics

Oh a raftsman’s life is a wearisome one,
It causes many fair maids to weep and mourn,
It causes them to weep and mourn,
For the loss of a true love that never can return.

“Oh father, father, build me a boat,
That down the Wisconsin I may float,
And every raft that I do pass by,
There I will inquire for my sweet pinery boy.”

As she was sailing down the stream,
She saw three rafts all in a string,
She hailed the captain as she drew nigh,
And there she did inquire for her sweet pinery boy.

“Oh, Captain, Captain, tell me true,
Is my sweet William among your crew?
Oh tell me quick and give me joy,
For none other will I have but my sweet pinery boy.”

“Oh, auburn was the colour of his hair,
His eyes were blue and his cheeks were fair,
His lips were of the ruby fine,
Ten thousand times they have met with mine.

“O honoured lady, he is not here,
He’s drowned all in the Dells, I fear,
’Twas at Lone Rock as we passed by,
That is where we left your sweet pinery boy.”

She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
Just like a lady in great despair,
She threw her boat against Lone Rock,
You’d have thought this fair lady’s poor heart was broke.

“Dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble slab at my head and feet,
And at my breast a turtle dove,
To let the world know that I died for love,
And at my feet a flowering oak,
To let the world know that my poor heart was broke.”

credits

from Spinning Yarns, released March 17, 2015
Norah Rendell on vocals, Brian Miller on mandola, Randy Gosa on guitar and Adam Kiesling on double bass.

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Norah Rendell Saint Paul, Minnesota

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Norah Rendell is a consummate musician that specializes in the traditional folk songs and dance music of Ireland and Canada. Norah was named "Best Vocalist of the Year" by the Live Ireland Awards in 2011 and 2012 and was nominated for "Best Traditional Singer of the Year" by the Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2009. ... more

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