Sing Round

Led here by John Gawler (Belgrade, Maine) as we stack garlic in the barn in Belfast.

A Maine lumberjack song describing the stages of getting wood to the mill. Each verse follows the timber from forest to mill to payday. Performed for the Library of Congress Homegrown concert series.

Lyrics

When we go into the woods
Sing round brave souls, sing around brave souls
When we go into the woods
Jolly brave souls are we
And when we go into the woods
We're looking for the timber that what's good
Hey, ho sing round brave souls
And jolly brave souls are we

And when the chopper begins to chop
When the chopper begins to chop
And when the chopper begins to chop
He takes the sound and she leaves the rot,

And when the swampers begin to clear
When the swampers begin to clear
And when the swampers begin to clear
They show the teamsters where to steer

And when we load them on the sled
When we load them on the sled
And when we load them on the sled
The oxen pulls the load ahead

And when we get them to the stream
When we get them to the stream
And when we get them to the stream
We'll knock out the fid and roll them in,

And when we get them to the mill
When we get the logs to the mill
When we get those logs to the mill
We'll call for apple cider and drink our fill

And when we get our pay
Sing round brave souls, sing around brave souls
When at last we get our pay
Jolly brave souls are we
The merchant takes us by the hand
Says here are the goods that your command
Hey, ho sing round brave souls
And jolly brave souls are we

Sources

A Maine lumber camp song from the oral tradition of the northeastern woods. Bennett learned this song from the Maine Folklife Center archives.

The Story

Words matter. This one was called "Drink Round" until it wasn't. I changed it to "Sing Round" because I'm more often in singing sessions than drinking sessions, and because I often sing alongside John Gawler, who stopped drinking in 1983. Why not make the song fit the room? Then "brave boys" became "brave souls" for the same reason: we have souls of all genders in our sessions.

The song works beautifully to open a gathering, a fiddle camp campfire, a conference. And of course when you can sing about woods while stacking wood, there's a certain completeness to it. Even works for stacking garlic, as you can see.

It's pretty straighforward and folks get it quickly. The main hitch is that final verse which has a line "The merchant takes us by the hand" which is confusing if people have started singing the call because they caught onto its pattern. No worry, just keep going!