Sunday Singalong - Fire! Fire!

 

Nope, didn't get this written and posted last weekend. But the subject here should explain, sort of. I left my computer in the carry bag because I had no idea what would happen next! Read on.

Where we live, up in wildfire country, we experience (often simultaneously) hot (like 100+ temps), dry, windy (gust up to 40 MPH or higher, on rare occasions), and dried out vegetation. All the necessary components for raging wild fires, which have graced our region over the past few days (when I might have otherwise been writing this post, I was packing for possible evacuation with a fire bordering my street and just 2 miles away . . . but, thankfully, burning in a SE direction - I am NW of the fire's position). Though it continued into the week following its outbreak on 15 July 2023, they managed to surround the fire in an effort to contain it within a predetermined perimeter. It worked! The firefighters are amazing. 

I know that a lot of folks in the region of the state where I live (as well as many, many others) are not as fortunate as I and houses, outbuildings, animals, cars, and more fell victim to the flames and/or smoke of one of the fires that has plagued us so far this season. It's always sad when I see the destruction . . . I'm overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of precious belongings being burned beyond recognition, but even moreso when I learn of people being caught in the event, either suffering horrible burns or succumbing to the conflagration or smoke inhalation.

A favorite song of mine, especially when sung by my friend Stan Shapin (of Orange County, CA) - our association goes back to years in Chicago. I moved to CA in 1973 and he moved out here not long after - he has family nearby. So every now and then I get to see him and request he sing this song: "Baltimore Fire." Now, he didn't write it and, as far as a I know but when he sings it, accompanied by his amazing banjo playing, he "owns" it. So I share it here on a YouTube recording of Stan in the mid-1980s and on the site of another Chicago musician, Paul Goelz (I remember so many great times with these 2 guys - music going on for hours in a living room or the Quiet Knight where our Friends of SING OUT! group would meet a few nights every month). Click the link for the lyrics, below, to hear my old friend show how easy it is to play the long-neck banjo in clawhammer style, playing it at Adler House Museum, Baker City, Oregon.

The lyrics are very hard to make out at the beginning and when I looked up the words, I found at least 3 different interpretations of the first line. I went to my "go to" website for such things - Mudcat Cafe - and believe these are the actual lyrics (also, many recordings I've heard left off the last verse):

BALTIMORE FIRE

It was on a silver falls by a narrow
That I heard the cry I ever will remember,
The fire sent and cast its burning embers
On another faded city of our land.

cho: Fire, Fire, I heard the cry
From every breeze that passes by,
All the world was one sad cry of pity
Strong men in anguish prayed,
Calling loud to Heaven for aid,
While the fire in ruin was laying
Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city

Amid an awful struggle of commotion,
The wind blew a gale from the ocean,
Brave firemen struggled with devotion,
But their efforts all proved in vain.
cho:

The awful news did spread across the wire
Of another sad catastrophe so dire,
That Baltimore City is afire,
And sinking 'neath the foe's relentless hand.


From New Lost City Ramblers; originally recorded by Charlie
Poole, 1929.

Any fire songs in your world?