Natchez and Delta Queen Race – This song is my tribute to the steamboat Natchez, based in New Orleans, which has raced and beat the Delta Queen several times. The tune is based on the old blues song Stagger Lee. My wife and I got to take an evening cruise aboard the Natchez in 2014. The Delta Queen is now being rebuilt in New Orleans and they hope to finally beat the Natchez. Good luck! Carter Ruff provides slide blues guitar on this song.
Steamboat Days – This song is my tribute to the small steamboats that used to run the intercoastal waterways between Bath and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. You may imagine the captain describing this route to his new apprentice as they steam along the route. Judy Barrows provides guitar and harmony on this song.
Old Fall River Line – No one has been able to identify the composer of this nostalgic song describing the romance between steamboat passengers traveling the coastal route from New York City to Falls River, Massachusetts. I added the final verse to round out the story. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song and they also provide harmonies.
Mobile Bay – Based on a poem by Cicely Fox Smith (UK), here we have an old sailor reminiscing about his experience in the cotton port of Mobile, Alabama, where something bad evidently went down. This poem contains phrases from the traditional stevedore/halyard shanty Roll the Cotton Down, a version of which the poet collected and published in A Book of Shanties. Judy Barrows provides guitar on this song.
Storm Along Stormy – Based on a minstrel song by John Smith of White’s Serenaders at the Melodeon, 1854. Unfortunately there is no reference to a tune for this song. My own tune is inspired by the traditional Sail Away, Ladies, Sail Away. This minstrel song may in fact be based on an actual stevedore song. It’s also the first published mention of “Stormalong” that I’m aware of; “Stormalong” became a favorite character in many subsequent deep-water shanties. I’ve added a couple of verses and slightly modified the chorus.
Roll Out! Heave Dat Cotton – This is a minstrel song credited to William Shakespeare Hays in 1877 but which may be based on a traditional roustabout song. The tune I use is inspired by the traditional song Waterbound. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song and they also provide harmonies.
De Bad Bob Lee – This is a minstrel song also credited to William Shakespeare Hays in 1877 in tribute to the steamboat Robt. E. Lee. The phrase “Fang morang ohay” may have been an actual roustabout shout for heaving or hauling. The tune I’m using is inspired by the one that Stephen Foster used for When the Glendy Burk Comes Down. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song; Norris also provides harmony along with Kat Logan.
Capt. Jim Rees and the Katy – This is a traditional roustabout song collected by Mary Wheeler and published in her book Roustabout Songs ©1939. Wheeler’s niece Bertha Wenzel recorded the song at the Four Rivers Folk Festival, 1990, and the tune seems a variant of the minstrel song Dance, Boatman, Dance. The steamboat referred to was the Kate Adams. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song and they also provide harmonies.
Riverboat Gambler – I couldn’t find a traditional song about this type of hard-dealing passenger, so I created my own story, modeling the song after the traditional Roving Gambler ballad. My song is also inspired by an anonymous poem fragment about a riverboat gambler. I’m not sure where the Russian dancer appeared from but I think she adds interest. Kat Logan provides keyboard and accordion on this song, as well as harmony.
Katahdin’s Battle with the Gale – I was looking for a steamboat disaster song when I came across this story in the Portsmouth Herald newspaper archives, along with a photo of the badly battered boat which survived the 1886 gale. When I read of the increasingly desperate attempts to fuel the firebox after running out of coal, I knew I should compose a song with a cumulative chorus. The song is modeled after the traditional folk song When I First Came to This Land. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song and they also provide harmonies.
Ballad of Capt. Blanche Leathers – This song is based on a 1927 New Orleans Tribune interview of one of the first Mississippi female steamboat pilots after she retired. Leathers earned her pilot’s license in 1894 and she and her husband took turns piloting the steamboat Natchez, based in New Orleans. Many of the phrases from the interview are included in my song. Eli Dale provides guitar and Norris Dale provides washtub bass on this song and they also provide harmonies.
Where’s an Old Time Riverman Go – Riverboat pilot and singer-songwriter John Hartford composed this song in 1989, used with permission of Harry Fox Agency, and it is now often used for memorial services for contemporary rivermen. Retired Mississippi steamboat Capt. Don Sanders suggested that I add this song to this album. Carter Ruff provides slide blues guitar on this song and Kat Logan provides harmony.
- Charlie Ipcar, May 2019