I’m just listening to a recording (duh) of Stan singing “Lies” and thinking what a huge hole his death left in folk music. He’s done a number of cheery, shout-along songs, but I so adore his mournful stuff - the aforementioned “Lies”, “The Midland (Last Watch)” and “Scarborough Settler’s Lament” are among my many favorites.
I came late to the awareness of Rogers, and though I know he composed a great many of the songs he performed, I don’t know HOW many. So, Dopers, tell me all you know about Stan Rogers.
I love Stan Rogers. One of my favorites is The Lockkeeper. In fact, I think I’m going to find my Stan Rogers CDs. I haven’t listened to them in quite a while.
I was told he died of smoke inhalation from a fire caused by someone smoking in a lavatory on an Air Canada flight.
I think Stan can take credit for bringing Colonel McDonnell’s role at the Battle of Queenston Heights to light. If you search for information on the web (as I did after I heard “McDonnell on the Heights”) most hits will describe the song first, then the battle. “Not one in ten thousand knows your name,” indeed. That statistic was probably true before the song, but perhaps not now.
Not to mention letting people who live nowhere close to the scene of the battle know that it happened at all. I’m sorry, Canada, but us Mericans just don’t know about it. Thanks for the info, Stan.
Other favorites of mine: “The Mary Ellen Carter”, “The Athens Queen”, and “The Flowers of Burmuda.” I love a good sea song.
[Edited to change “O’Donnell” to “McDonnell”. Guess I need to listen to my Rogers discs again.]
I went to Toronto in the spring of 2001 to visit some friends and see the city. One of the evening activities during my trip included a visit to a bar with a band. At the end of the band’s set, they played “Barrett’s Privateers,” and the entire bar erupted in song.
My friend told me that the song was by Stan Rogers, so while I was still in Toronto I bought a best of Stan Rogers CD called Home in Halifax. I listened to it when I got home and I like it so much that it’s been in pretty regular rotation ever since.
I think that my fiance and I may use some Stan Rogers music during our wedding reception: we like it that much.
My favorite songs (that I know of) are “Barrett’s Privateers,” “The Idiot,” and “Forty-Five Years.”
I actually didn’t care much for Home in Halifax, perhaps because I was so used to the original versions of all these favorite songs that the alternate takes on Home in Halifax just seemed off. “The Mary Ellen Carter,” especially, sounds so much better on the album Between the Breaks Live. It’s one of my favorites.
Of his posthumous albums, I really enjoy From Coffee House to Concert Hall. “The Woodbridge Dog Disaster” is hilarious, and “Down the Road” is great conclusion.
I’d heard once that he died after a plane crash, by going back into the burning plane to try to rescue some people who were still inside. Don’t know how accurate that is. The back of *From Fresh Water * album says he died in a fire on Air Canada flight 797 in the Cincinnati airport on June 2, 1983. No other details.
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 savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
Get “Between the Breaks … Live”. It’s required listening. I learned about him in college, soon after he died. I’ve seen his brother Garnet a few times and I really wished I could have seen Stan perform live.
As a regular Ren Faire participant, I’ve seen a lot of artists cover Rogers’ work. There’s an a cappella sea shanty group called Bounding Main that does a sweet version of Northwest Passage, and a couple that goes by the name Tourdion that does a great job with Maid On The Shore. Craig of Farrington regularly performs Witch of the Westmoreland, the Minstrels of Mayhem have covered Barrett’s Privateers, and the Corsairs have done The Mary Ellen Carter and Old Maui. I was amazed when I first heard Rogers - I knew all these songs!
I know he wrote Barrett’s Privateers, and found a site once that took the song apart line by line saying it wasn’t a period song and that the events in the song never took place in reality, but was so accurate in historical terms that MANY people believed it to be an old, “true” song.
I’m partial to “The Field Behind the Plow” myself. How a guy from Toronto and Halifax managed to nail the prairie farm experience so exactly is beyond me, but he did. And I especially like these lines from “House of Orange”:
I loves me some Stan Rogers. I was introduced to him when some folks I used to play music with taught me “The Mary Ellen Carter.” I immediately went out and bought some CDs.
Very little is more satisfying than singing the chorus of “Barrett’s Privateers” at full volume, or singing out the chorus of “Rolling Down to Old Maui.” I also like the poignancy of “Harris and the Mare.”
And after all these years, I still usually get a tear in my eye at the end of “The Mary Ellen Carter.”
The one that tears me up with 100% reliability is “First Christmas”. Happened just now (the thread inspired me to put some Stan on…gotta run, the Woodbridge Dog Disaster is just starting :D).
A tear? I sing it out loud and proud. “Mary Ellen Carter” is one of my theme songs! I was also proposed to once after the gentleman played “45 Years From Now” and I intend to play it for my parents in a few months on their 45th anniversary. Yes, I’m a fan. While the gentleman who proposed to me with Stan Rogers hasn’t been a part of my life for years, I still love Stan Rogers music. My personal favorites, though, are from Home in Halifax – “Pharisee” and – hang it I’ve forgotten the name!
By the way, I lost my copy of Home in Halifax a while ago. Can someone point me to a good place to order it from?
