Bygone Ballads of Maine, Vol I     Songbook
Songs of the Sea, Ships and Sailors   2021

Follow this link for midi files of all the tunes
http://castlebaycds.com/bygone_ballads_1_sound.html

Pick this up, you won't put it down. Whether you're a singer or just a lover of lore, you'll find herein a fruitful feast of ballads and broadsides, some familiar (with a local twist), some wholly new, and all with deftly written notes as to the history behind them.

-- Janie Meneely
singer/songwriter
former editor of Chesapeake Bay Magazine

This song book contains 165 songs transcribed from audio field recordings and unpublished manuscripts. These collections were done from the late 1800s up to 1943. The songs have been edited where necessary to add missing verses. Songs which were found without melodies have been set. Each song includes historical or contextual notes.

Our intent is to provide a basic songbook. We have provided the lyrics and basic melody without accompaniment or chords so that singers can interpret the songs in their own way.

The cover price is $39.95 for the hardcover edition; $29.95 for the softcover edition plus tax (where applicable) plus shipping & handling.

We recorded a dozen of the songs which are in the book, giving them our own spin. You can hear them on our CD Bound Away. We have some more songs recorded for another CD tentatively called The Maid on the Shore.

  Here are some more reviews:

Not since Joanna Colcord published Roll and Go in 1924 have we seen such a comprehensive compilation of songs from the sea as this one. Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee have brought forth not just the songs, but so much important contextual information, such as a map of the location of singers, the source of the song, the melody to which the song is sung, and editorial notes that compare songs with other known versions, or similar songs known by different names. This is a book that will be a treasure to singers, but also to folklorists, ballad scholars and historians. The authors have exceeded their goals to create a song book. They have created a volume that will stand proudly on library bookshelves next to books by Phillips Barry, Fannie Eckstorm, Joanna Colcord and other ballad scholars.

---Pauleena MacDougall, Ph.D., Former director Maine Folklife Center, author & editor

One of the very best books on historic songs of the sea. There are many such books, but few achieve such a high level throughout, with such attention to musical detail and such precise writing. The lengthy introduction itself is invaluable to anyone interested in historic music, the sea, and Maine.

---Dr. Stephen Sanfilippo, Ph.D. Maritime History, educator, performer, author & editor

[This book is] the result of extraordinary detailed transcribing and deciphering of songs rescued from obscurity in an all but forgotten archive. The songs are then illuminated by Julia and Fred’s long, deep study of the music and history of the state of Maine and the British Isles... It is filled with surprises and delights. I know it will certainly delight lovers of music and of Maine.

---Van Reid, Award-winning author and creator of The Moosepath League, Viking Press

A profoundly significant and scholarly contribution to the world of folk song, this book should be read by anyone who is interested in the traditional music of rural America. In-depth and clearly presented, these Anglo European folk songs are expertly collected, written and exhibited by folk singers and researchers Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee. This book exhibits a treasure trove of painstakingly collected folk songs that have migrated from Anglo Europe to Maine. The song examples are artfully presented and shown in the context of the culture from which they come.

---Stuart P. Gillespie Jr., Composer, choral director, Maritime Historian and singer at Mystic Seaport (1972–85)