The Raging Canawl
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-07-04

Day 110 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

Sandburg describes this as a recitative, but upon some research I did find an excellent tune that enables a sort of sing-songie recitative. If in listening to the story you wonder if this could possibly be true, like Red Iron Ore, forget it. It is definitely tongue-in-cheek delivered with great earnestness. ADDED NOTE: The Traditional Ballad Index says, "The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a completely flat, shallow waterway. The barges were drawn along by mules. Thus, apart from getting wet, storms posed little danger. As for needing a distress signal, one could always step off onto dry land....Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 48, mention sheet music of a song, "The Raging Canal!" This was published by C. G. Christman in 1844, and is described as "A Comic Song".

Sandburg writes: "America has no more genuine folk lore than is in the following recitative, Raging Canawl.

"It goes best when delivered for a small company by a performer who knows what he is doing. Drolleries lurk in every line. Only those who understand the perils of deep canal life can untie the  hawsers of foolery here. The word "canal" is to be pronounced "canawl" so as to rhyme with "squall.""