This multi-media project features over 50 musicians and songwriters from all over Newfoundland and Labrador, whose songs cover the gamut of work-related experience from the traditional sea-faring, fishing and lumbering trades to the modern industrial oil and mineral sectors, and all manner of work and labour activity in between. Accompanied by extensive liner notes and a variety of archival photographs, you'll find traditional and contemporary songs representing the population and linguistic diversity of the province, including those from Innu, Inuit and MiqMa'q communities, French-speaking western Newfoundland, and a Gaelic song from the Codroy Valley.
The cover photograph comes from the NLFL photo archive and was taken by Greg Locke. The identities of the women were unknown to us at the time of printing, but have since been revealed as (l-r) Stella Follett, Hazel Savoury, Elsie Marsh and Daphne Grandy.
Songs related to work in all its forms have always comprised a significant portion of our traditional music heritage. This project contributes 28 songs not widely heard or recorded--some traditional, some written for or about specific job actions, some especially for this collection--to the repertoire related to the history of work and labour in this province. It is by no means complete or definitive, nor was it meant to be, but the songs and the voices that sing them reflect both historical and contemporary struggles, and celebrate the working people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The production of this double CD collection has been a collaboration between the Greening Memorial Fund of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS, the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, the Research Centre for Music, Media and Place, (MMaP) at Memorial University, St. John's, NL, and SingSong Inc.
It is also part of MMaP's Back on Track audio series.
