“The Good Old State of Maine”

Description

The singer tells how lumbering woods are "different from the good old State of Maine." The woods have "alieners and foreigners" and low wages, deep snow, harsh regulations and bad food. "I'll mend my ways and spend my days in the good old State of Maine."

Supplemental text

Good Old State of Maine, The
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

The Good Old State of Mains (Henry's Concern)

From Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson, Songs of Miramichi,
#18, pp. 99-101. From the singing of James Brown of South Branch.
Apparently collected in pieces at folk festivals.

Come bushmen all, give ear recall
  Until I will relate
Of my experience in the lumbering woods
  Within the grandest* State.
Its snow-clad hills and winding rills,
  Its mountains, rocks and plain,
You will find it very different from
  The Good Old State of Maine.

* Listed in the notes as an error for "granite"; New
Hampshire is "the Granite State."

(10 additional stanzas)

Notes

Ives-NewBrunswick: The song is about the J.E. Henry & Co. sawmill and lumbering operations in the Zealand Valley, in New Hampshire. - BS

According to Manny and Wilson, the "correct" title is "Henry's Concern." - RBW

Recordings

• Jim Brown, "The Good Old State of Maine" (on Miramichi1)

References

1. Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 111-114, "The Good Old State of Maine" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Manny/Wilson 18, "The Good Old State of Maine (Henry's Concern)" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. ST IvNB111 (Partial)
4. Roud #1955
5. BI, IvNB111