david dalton

Who has recorded the Newfoundland traditional song Sarah, that
has chorus that begins

"Sarah, Sarah, won't you come out tonight?
Sarah, Sarah, the moon is shining bright"

other than Newfoundland's Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers
and Arthur O'Brien and Vancouver's Jiggery Pokery (an
offshoot of The Vancouver Morris Men)?

If you want the full lyrics they are in the online
Digital Tradition (a great resource) at

http://www.mudcat.org

specifically in

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5182

and also on the Newfoundland Songs web page

http://nfldsongs.tripod.com/

and both of those web pages should be of interest to
people on here even if not interested in the song Sarah.

But the Newfoundland Songs web site contains some
songs not of long tradition in Newfoundland that have
been recorded by Newfoundland artists (as well as a
lot of songs of long tradition in Newfoundland and some
of origin in Newfoundland) but could include more from
the big collections by Maud Karples, Kenneth Peacock,
and Genevieve Lehr, Anita Best and Pamela Morgan
though some collected by Gerald S. Doyle are on there.

Also the song Sarah is said to be of Newfoundland origin


province? Plus does anyone in the UK think it might
be of UK origin?

Also I don't mean the song that Newfoundland accordionist
Stan Pickett (originally from Fair Island, Bonavista Bay)
sings I think called Sally, Sally, but that is a good one too.

David

david dalton

I don't mean "sings I think" but rather "I think called" so
that is better written "sings, I think called".

I think he said Fairport Convention's version is called
Sauve' Sauve' or has those words in it anyway, but
he learned the Newfoundland version from an older
relative, I think his aunt, in Fair Island, and not from
Fairport Convention. He is a mainstay
at the http://www.sjfac.nf.net weekly folk nights.

David

abby sale

Hmmm. Even though I am guilty of sending the song to Digital Tradition in
the first place, I never had a good reference to its source. So that's a
dead end.

I think the 'Sauve' is a dead end, too. I'd bet the reference is to
"Sovay" which Martin Carthy cut several times. At least once with Dave
Swarbrick who was later with Fairport. So that's that reference. "Sovay"
(or "Sovay, Sovay") is a full version of "The Female Highwayman" and seems
to have little to do with "Sarah."

You may wish to add to your list of Newfie sites the fine new MacEdward
Leach collection site http://collections.ic.gc.ca/leach/songs/NFLD.htm.

Mac Leach was a great collector there and one of the greatest of the
ballad scholars. And, several centuries ago, the guy that taught me what
folk song & ballad were all about.

Only because of the refrain, I can't help but wonder if it's a
much-processed version of "Keyhole in the Door" (Child #27). Leach does
collect that one there. But that doesn't help you either.


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
I am Abby Sale - in Orlando, Florida
Boycott South Carolina!
http://www.naacp.org/news/releases/c...ag011201.shtml