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A collection of songs full of salt, history, and humor. You'll hear
vocal harmonies and a small fleet of acoustic instruments, including banjo, 6
& 12-string guitar, bodhran, mandola, and tin whistle. This is Shanghaied on the Willamette’s latest recording, released in
2004.
Order from CDBaby
About the cover art.
Track List
- Off to Dutch Harbor listen
- Dreamin' of the Sea listen
- Paddling Down the Willamette River listen
lyrics
- Moby Dick listen
- Coast of Barbary listen
- A Gillnetter's Life listen
- Steamboatin' Jamiesons listen
- What Does the Deep Sea Say? listen
lyrics
- Shawneetown listen
lyrics
- No Banjos in Heaven listen
- Back & Sides Go Bare listen
- Portland County Jail listen
lyrics
- I Can Hew listen
- Valparaiso in a Rowboat listen
Selected Lyrics
Chorus:
(Well its) up in the morning in the early light
The first splash of water makes you shiver
Then stroke to the left and swing to the right
Paddling down the Willamette River
In summer the river is lazy and slow
Sometimes we drift sometimes we paddle
Sometimes we can't see the riverbed below
Sometimes we get out and walk on the gravel
Up ahead and on the right
Is that a blue heron or a driftwood limb?
He takes wing with a choking cry
When we get fifty feet from him
Some people load themselves like mules
And up the dusty trails they totter
I'd rather load up a canoe
And leave the hard work to the water
There's something about a river trip
That clears your thoughts with the current's flowing
And gives your well-worn cares the slip
Because the river always knows just where it's going
Oh where is my sailor boy?
Where is my sailor boy?
He sleeps at the bottom of the deep blue sea
And he can't come back to me
She stood on the beach at dawn
And gazed at the misty blue
Sayin' sea as you hold him to your breast
Does he mention my name to you?
Chorus:
Oh what does the deep sea say?
It moans and groans, it splashes and foams
And rolls on its weary way
Oh please tell me deep blue sea
Is he sleeping peacefully?
For the winds of the north are blowin' icy cold
Can you keep him warm for me?
If only my grieving soul
Some token of love could find
If only the waves could tell me where he sleeps
Then I'd leave this world behind
A beautiful rose one day
She placed on the crest of a wave
Sayin' sea take it please and let it settle far
Above his watery grave
Some rows up, but we floats down
Way down the Ohio to Shawnee Town
Chorus:
And it's hard on the beach oar, she moves too slow
Way down to Shawneetown on the Ohio
Now the current's got her, And we'll take up the slack
Float her down to Shawneetown and we'll bushwhack her back
Whiskey's in the jug, boys; wheat is in the sack
We'll trade them down in Shawneetown and bring the rock salt back
I got a wife in Louisville, and one in New Orleans
And when I get to Shawnnee Town gonna see my Indian Queen
The water's might warm boys, the air is cold and dank
And the cursed fog it gets so thick you cannot see the bank
Some rows up, but we floats down
Way down the Ohio to Shawnee Town
I'm a stranger to your city,
My name is Paddy Flynn
I got drunk the other night
The coppers run me in.
Had no money to pay my fine
No one to go my bail
So I got stuck for ninety days
In the Portland County Jail.
Such a bunch of devils
You never seen before;
Robbers, thieves and highwaymen
Even breakers of the law
They sang a song the whole night long,
The curses fell like hail
Bless the day that takes me away
From the Portland County jail.
Oh, the only friend that I had there
Was Happy Sailor Jack,
He told me all the lies he knew,
And all the safes he'd cracked.
He'd cracked them in Seattle,
He'd robbed the Western Mail.
It'd freeze the blood of an honest man
In the Portland County Jail.
Now the only friend that I have left
Is Officer McGurk.
He says I am a lowdown bum
A no-good and a shirk.
Each Saturday night when I'd get tight
He'd throw* me in the can
Now, you see, he's made of me
An honest working man.
(Repeat first verse)
Rebecca J. Becker, winner of the 2004 Sennelier National Juried Pastel
Contest, applied her pastels to create our cover illustration.
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Two Man Crew