3753
All spring, now, we’ve been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
3754
Three dives a day in hard-hat suit and twice I’ve had the bends
3755
Thank God it’s only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Aside: Panache, here’s a video you may enjoy:
Found it just recently. Great practice tune for my spoons! How are you on the Barra MacNeils, the Rankin Family, and other Maritime musicians?
3756
Panache, if I recall correctly, you’re a member in a men’s chorus. I don’t know if your choir has ever done these, but you might want to consider them. They’re a capella, and I’ve sung them in a TTBB chorus. The first is “Coaltown Road,” by the Barra MacNeils:
The next is “Vimy,” by Tanglefoot. Again, a TTBB. This one was hard to get through when we sang it, but we had to get through it, just because:
I’d like to hear your chorus sing. Do you have a link to you guys singing somewhere?
Thanks so much, Spoons, for these recommendations. I really like these songs, but I don’t see them fitting into any of our concerts. We generally do three concerts a season: A holiday concert in December, a themed concert in March, and a Pride concert in June. The themed concert can be just about anything, like “Broadway Our Way” or an irreverant version of “The Sound of Music” or with a guest performer like Bernadette Peters. It can also be songs by a specific composer, like Sondheim. Our concerts also contain several dance numbers. We have a professional choreographer.
Another thing about your songs is that they seem to be better suited to a small group like a barbershop quartet. We had this same problem when planning our Sondheim concert. So many of his songs are for a soloist or duet, and they really don’t make sense when sung by a chorus. But with a lot of work we pulled it off. It was the most difficult concert we ever gave.
I wish our chorus had more of an online presence. We’ve put out five CDs (I designed all of them), but they’re not online. Other similar choruses, which you can Google, are The Turtle Creek Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and my favorite, Seattle Men’s Chorus. They sing the same types of songs that we do.
I’ll look into getting our CDs online. I’d really love that.
Oh, and before I forget:
3757
Or I’d never have the strength to go below
Thanks, Panache. I’ll look into those choirs, and I hope you can get some of your stuff online.
Yes, I’m more used to singing in a small group. The largest I’ve sung in was our church choir, which was never larger than 16 people. Other than that, it was SATB and as you know, TTBB, quartets.
Okay, continuing on…
3758
But we’ve patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and porthole down
3759
Put cables to her fore and aft and girded her around
3760
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain
3761
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
3762
Rise again, rise again
3763
That her name not be lost to the knowledge of men
3764
All those who loved her best and were with her till the end
3765
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
3766
For we couldn’t leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale
3767
She’d saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
3768
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
3769
They won’t be laughing in another day
3770
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
3771
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
3772
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain