DESCRIPTION:
From the singing of Capt. Charles Cates, Vancouver, 1959, and learned from his father. The song was popular in the English music halls of the time. Moodyville was the location of Sue Moody's sawmill in what is now North Vancouver. More information below or at www.jonandrika.org

This CD features the collecting work of Phil Thomas, a folklorist deeply attached to the historical and cultural roots of his native province, British Columbia, Canada. The songs in his collection are in the main from logging camps, from fishermen and from the constantly roaming hard rock miners, men who until just yesterday formed the overwhelming majority of the male working population. If there was ever a body of material made by women of their equally hard but much more lonely work, Thomas never found it. The European settlement of British Columbia took place primarily in the nineteenth century. The musical traditions on which songmakers drew were those of that period--popular songs of Tin Pan Alley and religious songs. The songs on this CD reflect that tradition. Many of them have melodies borrowed from well-known songs of the day.