Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook

A Collection of 200+ traditional songs & variations with commentaries including Lyrics & Sheet music

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	258          Ballads and Songs of Michigan 103 THE SHANTYMA1SPS LIFE This is only a part of the broadside song of the complaints of the lumberman. For a fragment and references see Mackenzie, p. 362. See also Eckstorm and Smyth, pp. 33-38; Loma.:, pp. 233-236; Sandburg, pp. 390-391; and Shoemaker, pp. 261-263, who carries the song back to 1857. Version A was sung in 1934 by Mr. Charles Muchler, Kalkaska.
	i O the shantyman's life is a drearisome life, Though thousands think it's free from all care, Though we're swinging our axes from morning until night, In the midst of the cold forests drear.
	2    Transported I am from some foreign land To the banks of the Susquehanna stream, Where the wolves and the owls with their terrifying howls Disturb us of our midnight dreams. 3    Now springtime has come, double hardships have begun, And the water is so piercingly cold, Dripping wet is our clothes, and our limbs are nearly froze, And our levers we can scarcely hold.