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1 | Come and I Will Sing You (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- One of the oldest songs of the English language, dating back at least to Medieval Times. Versions in French and Italian exist, but elder versions come from Hebrew and Arabic. Though the song is associated with Christmas due to it's resemblance to the '12 Days of Christmas', upon writing, it was sung in all seasons. Figgy Duff of St. John's re-wrote it in the 1970s to be shorter and much more elaborate.

2 | Old Polina (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea/Gerald S Doyle Collection)
- A song that came to Newfoundland during the late 1800's, when steamships took over the Sealing and Whaling industries. It quickly became and remained a favorite among Newfoundlanders, being among the most well-known songs of this generation.

3 | The River Driver (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea/Kenneth Peacock Collection).
- This song was derived by the idled Fishermen. Fishermen, until quite recently, worked in the lumbering woods when they were idled by the cold Winter weather. The songs sung and composed by the Fishermen were immensly popular due to their hardy feel, but this song is remarkable for its tinge of regret, and remains part of the school of songs where men sing aloud about their regrets for drinking or otherwise losing their money.

4 | The Mermaid (Phil Hillier/Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- Phil Hillier, a mariner from Long Harbour, Placentia Bay, recieved great praise and cheer at many a party with this funny and unusual song. McCann had heard him sing it, but never came close to remembering the words. Some time later, the other boys heard it by Phil again, but they too were at a loss for the words. So, loving the song so much, they called up Phil, who'd left to be a harbour-master in Signapore, and he called up Doyle's phone, and sang it into the answering machine so they could get all the words right. The song illustrates the humour of Newfoundland music.

5 | Captain Kidd (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea, Kenneth Peacock and Fergus O'Byrne/From Kidd's repentant speech upon hanging)
- William Kidd was a Scottish pirate in the late 1600s. He started his life as a Privateer, but during a planned attack, he commited cold-blooded murder. This led him to more bad desicions, and a wrong move on his part brought him in the hands of the Navy, who had him hung in London in the year of 1701. The song's verses are derived from his Repentant speech, just before the hangman brought the noose to his neck. The hangman's rope broke twice before finally holding, and Kidd's body was dipped in tar to be displayed as a warning to discrourage future stunts of the sort.

6 | Graceful & Charming (Sweet Forget-me-not) (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- A sentimental and beautiful ballad from Newfoundland, and a favorite of the McCann family. The exact history of the song is unknown, but the styles and lyrical approaches are close-knit to poetry of the mid-1800s. Unlike most other Newfoundland love-songs, it's remarkable for the fact that the love in question did indeed last, and both parties were never subjected to death by drowning.

7 | Concerning Charlie Horse (Omar Blondahl/Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- Written in the late 1950s by the Icelandic Canadian, Omar Blondahl. Blondahl became the first successful and professional folk-singer in Newfoundland. The song was a favorite and local hit between 1956 and 1957, and remains today a well-known and wide-spread song. Blondahl's music was known, like many of the period's songs, by it's strong country feel. The solo is 'The Captain and His Whiskers', from the repertoire of Wilf Doyle, an accordionist of the same era.

8 | Harbour Lecou (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea/Gerald S Doyle Collection)
- A dark song in the Newfoundland tradition, found in the Gerald S Doyle Collection. Harbour Lecou itself is on the coast of South-West Newfoundland. The song tells the tale of Jack, a sailor man, enticed by a red-headed beauty on shore. The romance is quickly ripped apart and torn to shreds by Jack's friend, who ultimatly screws up Jack's time with regards to his wife and children in Torbay. Stupidly, Jack feels more regret at having lost the Red-headed lady than having committed adultery.

9 |Tishialuk Girls Set (Father's Jig, Buffett Double and Tishialuk Girls) (Rufus Guinchard/Baxter Wareham/Charlie Lloyd)
- The late Rufus Guinchard, a tide-turning fiddler of Daniel's Harbour, wrote this fast and sprightly tune in his time. The song was later slowed by Kelly Russell, the next great fiddler to bless our ears. The slow song is different in feel altogether. Harbour Buffet, Plancentia Bay's Baxter Wareham kept Buffett Double in his repertoire. This song is locally considered to be one of the most challenging, but Hallett plays it smoothly. Tishialuk Girls is a portion of a longer song by the late Charlie Lloyd, written around 1930. The song tells of Lloyd's love for Sam Cove's daughter, and apparently Cove was awaiting someone better for his dear daughter. The song lays in Dr. Tim Borlases Collection, Songs From Labrador', and the boys first heard a bit at a party. Tishialuk was near Rigolet, on Hamilton Inelt in Central Labrador.

10 | French Shore (Lem Snow/Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- The Late Lem Snow was Deer Lake's songwriter and poet. The many songs he wrote are marked for detailed imagery, and beautiful rhyming verses. The song tells the story of a young boy discovering the wonders of sexuality by spying on a young couple. The French Shore is a Newfoundland area which encompassed a great part of the island's Northern Penninsula and West coast. The fishermen from France held fishing rights in the region until 1904.

11 | Cod Liver Oil (Trad. Arranged by Great Big Sea/Re-writen by Johnny Burke)
- A broadside Irish song in the 1800s, Cod Liver Oil tells the story of intense jealousy and madness between Husband and Doctor. Johnny Burke later re-wrote it to suite Maritime and Newfoundland tastes, and created a much loved shanty in the process.

12 | Tickle Cove Pond (Mark Walker/Arranged by Great Big Sea)
- Written by Mark Walker, who lived in Tickle Cove, Bonavista during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The song itself is loved for the beauty and genius of the verses and lyrics. It's loved by Doyle due to it's illustration of the kind neighbors in Newfoundland, heroically rescuing Kit, the mare. Folklorists find it hard to agree weather Kitty survived the incident, but the boys strongly believe she did. Doyle's father Tom sings along with Kalem Mahoney and Con O'Brian.

Come and I will sing you
What will you sing me?
I will sing you one, O
What will the one be?
One's the one that lives all alone,
forevermore shall be so.

Come and I will sing you?
What will you sing me?
I will sing you two, O
What will the two be?
Two of them are lily-white babes, clothed all in green, O
One's the one that lives all alone,
forevermore shall be so.

Come and I will sing you
What will you sing me?
I will sing you three, O
What will the three be?
Three of them were drivers,
two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green, O
One's the one that lives all alone,
forevermore shall be so.

... Four gospel preachers...

... Five ferrymen under the bush...

... Six, the six pallbearers..

... Seven, seven stars under the sky...

... Eight Gabriel angels...

... Nine bright-eyed shiners...

... Ten, ten Commandments...

... Eleven's the elven that went straight to heaven...

... Twelve, twelve Apostles...

There's a noble fleet of Whalers,
a-sailin' from Dundee.
Manned by Brittish sailors,
to take them o'er the sea.
On a western ocean passage,
we started on the trip.
We flew along, just like a song
on a Gallon-whaling ship.

'Twas the second Sunday morning,
just after leaving port
we met a heavy South-West gail
that washed away our boat.
It washed away our quarter deck,
Our (?) just as well
And so we set the whole shebang*
a-floating in that gail.

(Chorus:)

For the wind was on her quarter,
the engine's working free.
There's not another whaler
that sails the Arctic Sea,
can beat the old Polina.
You need not try me sons (?)
We challenged all,
both brave and small,
from Dundee to St. John's.

Our jackman(?) set his canvas,
Fairweather got up steam,
And Captain Guy, the daring boy
Came plunging through the stream!
Ed Mullens and the Husky
Tried to beat the bloody lot,
but to beat the Old Polina, boys,
was something he could not!

(Chorus)

There's the noble Terra Nova,
a model, without doubt!
The Arctic and Aurora
they talk so much about.
Our jackman's model mailboat(?)
The terror of the sea,
tried to beat the Old Polina
on a passage from Dundee.

(Chorus)

Now we're back in old St. John's,
where rum is very cheap.
We'll drink a health to Captain Guy
who brought us o'er the deep.
A health to all our sweethearts,
and to our wives so fair.
Not another shape can make the trip,
The Polina, I declare! (?)

(Chorus x2)

*Shebang
(Spelling check) A word widely used in the maritimes, and which I'm proud to say a favorite term of my mothers. It litterally means 'thing'.
"The whole shebang"
"The whole thing"

I was just the age of sixteen,
when I first went on the drive.
After six-months hard labour,
at home I did arrive.
I courted with a pretty girl,
'twas her caused me to roam.
Now I'm a River Driver,
and I'm far away from home.

(Chorus:)

I'll eat when I am hungry,
and I'll drink when I am dry.
Get drunk whenever I'm ready,
get sober by and by.
And if this river don't drown me...
It's down I'll need to roam.
For I'm a River Driver,
and I'm far away from home.

I'll build a lonesome castle,
upon some mountain high.
Where she can sit and view me,
as I go passin' by.
Where she can sit and view me,
as I go marchin' on.
For I'm a River Driver,
and I'm far away from home...

(Chorus)

When I am old and feeble,
and in my sickness lie,
Just wrap me up in a blanket,
and lay me down to die.
Just get a little blue bird,
to sing for me alone.
For I'm a River Driver,
and I'm far away from home...

(Chorus x2)

For I'm a River Driver,
and I'm far away from home.

When I was a lad in a fishing town,
me old man said to me;
'You can spend your life, your jolly life,
just sailin' on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls,
'til your eyes are weak and dim.
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son,
if you don't know how to swim.'

(Chorus:)

'Cause her hair was green of seaweed,
her skin was blue and pale.
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart.
But I only liked the upper part,
I did not like the tail.

I signed on to a sailing ship,
my very first day at see.
I seen the mermaid in the waves,
a-reachin' out to me!
'Come and live with me,
in the sea.' said she.
'Down on the ocean floor.
And I'll show you a million wonderous things,
you've never seen before.'

So over I jumped, and she pulled me down,
down to her seaweed bed!
And a pillow made of a tortoise shell,
she placed beneath my head.
She fed me shrimp and caviare,
upon a silver dish.
From her head to her waist,
she was just my taste;
but the rest of her, was a fish!

(Chorus)

But then, one day, she swam away.
So I sang to the clams and the whales.
'Oh, how I miss he seaweed hair,
and the silver shine of her scales!'
But then her sister, she swam by,
and set my heart a-whirl!
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish,
but her bottom part was a girl.

'Cause her hair is green of seaweed,
her skin is blue and pale.
Her legs, they are a work of art,
I love that girl with all my heart.
And I don't give a damn 'bout the upper part,
'cause that's how I get my tail.

Piczo