Green Shores of Fogo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our barque leaves this harbour tomorrow." The singer is leaving Fogo and Katie "my fortune I'm after seeking In a far distant land o'er the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: grief love parting nonballad lyric emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1537, "The Green Hills of Erin" (1 text)
Peacock, p. 522, "The Green Shores of Fogo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHORFOGO
Roud #6335
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Green Shores of Fogo" (on NFKPeacock)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" [Laws H29] (tune)
NOTES [200 words]: Peacock states "This native love lyric is patterned on a much older Irish song entitled The County I'm Leaving Behind." I considered marking this derivative but I have not seen the base text. - BS
Roud does lump them, but Joe Hickerson, in his notes to "Drive Dull Care Away, Volume 1," says merely that it "seems to be based on" the Irish song. That's separate enough for me. - RBW
If Greig/Duncan8 is Peacock's "much older Irish song" then I agree with Roud in lumping them. The Newfoundland song in both Peacock and Digital Tradition has "green shores of Fogo" instead of "green hills of Erin" and leaves out a few verses. Peacock says, "I strongly suspect that she herself [the singer] is the Katie in the song," but the Katie verses are also in Greig/Duncan8. - BS
As additional data, Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997, p. 54, say that local tradition in Fogo says that the girl's name was Kate Miller; the woman Peacock collected it from was "Mrs. John Fogarty," whose own first name is not given. Hiscock affirms that this is related to an IRISH folk song but is native to Newfoundland. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea522

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