Faith Cormier wrote this review.
The Sharecroppers (Guy Romaine, Mike Madigan and Ed Humber) are three teachers from Pasadena, Newfoundland. Even their Web site doesn’t explain why they chose their name, since sharecropping has never been a way of life in their province. Once you get past that though, this is a fun album.
Five out of the 13 songs (12 plus a “bonus track”) are traditional. “Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor” is one of the most famous Newfoundland songs. “Morning Glory” and “Fine Girl Ye Are” are sea shanties. “Rosin the Bow” is Irish. I don’t know where “You Went for a Walk, Sir” comes from, but it’s a hoot. The rest of the cuts are originals.
“Crowd From Up the Hill” is a love song to their audiences back in Pasadena. “This Island” and “Life In the Outport” talk about the beauty of Newfoundland and the joys of its traditional way of life, and “A Traditional Song” is a tribute to traditional Newfoundland music. The title track is a song about loneliness and the longing to return to their beautiful, desolate province.
The other two cuts are story songs. “Grenfell” tells the story of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought medical care to northern Newfoundland and the Labrador coast. When I was a child in Labrador the Grenfell Mission was still responsible for our medical care, so this song has a personal meaning for me. “Maggie Madigan – Titanic Survivor” is about one of the survivors of the sinking of Titanic and the mystery surrounding her fate after she reached North America.
This recording is “some good, b’ye”, as they say in Newfoundland. The music is strong, the vocals well done and the original lyrics pleasant and interesting. Even better, the Sharecroppers don’t butcher the traditional lyrics the way some groups feel obliged to do.
The Sharecroppers have two previous CDs, Natural and This New Founde Lande. They are hard to find outside of Newfoundland, but ordering information is on their Web site.
(John Harvey Newman Publishing, 2003)
[Update: You can’t order CDs from The Sharecroppers’ Facebook page, but you may be able to by using the contact information you’ll find there. It’s also available on Amazon.]
