Music Monday: Tarrytown

Recorded in the summer of 1976 in Woodstock, NY Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay: Hudson Valley Songs Old & New was released in October of that year. Designed to be a booster for the replica sloop Clearwater, as well as to tap into the national interest in history thanks to the bicentennial, the album includes a mixture of traditional songs and new songs. This album is a recording to songs relating to the Hudson River, which played a major role in the commercial life and early history of New York State, including the Revolutionary War. Folk singer Ed Renehan (born 1956), who was a member of the board of the Clearwater, sings and plays guitar along with Pete Seeger. William Gekle, who wrote the lyrics for five of the songs, also wrote the liner notes, which detail the context of each song and provide the lyrics. This booklet designed and the commentary written by William Gekle who also wrote the lyrics for: Fifty Sail, Moon in the Pear Tree, The Phoenix and the Rose, Old Ben and Sally B., and The Burning of Kingston.

The Hudson River Valley was settled by people who came from many parts of the world. They often brought with them the songs they had known in their homeland and, in time, these songs acquired a local flavor. One of these songs originally came from Ireland in a somewhat different form. John Allison, who wrote “Hudson River Steamboat” adapted and arranged this traditional song – and called it Tarrytown. https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW05257.pdf

TARRYTOWN - LYRICS

In Tarrytown I did dwell
And a lovely youth, I knew him well.
He courted me, my life away,
But now with me he will no longer stay.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With the  wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

There is an inn, in Tarrytown,
Where my loves goes and sits him down.
He takes another on his knee,
For she has gold and riches more than me.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

When I wore my apron low,
He’d follow me through rain and snow,
Now that I wear my apron high,
He goes right down my street and passes by.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grass growin’ over me.

Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grass growin’ over me.

In Tarrytown I did dwell
And a lovely youth, I knew him well.
He courted me, my life away,
But now with me he will no longer stay.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

Wide and deep my grave will be
With the wild goose grasses growin’ over me.

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Thanks to HRMM volunteer Mark Heller for sharing his knowledge of Hudson River music history for this series.

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