The Grand Hotel

Nice session tonight, everybody. Thank you.
...the rest of this entire post is ripped off of Jon Bartlett's entry on Mudcat. You can get the midi entry (tune) from that link, too.

THE GRAND HOTEL

There's a place in Vancouver you all know so well,
It's a place where they keep rot-gut whisky to sell,
They also keep boarders, they keep them like hell,
And the name of that place is the Grand Hotel.

In the Grand Hotel when the loggers come in,
It's amusing to see the proprietor grin,
He knows they've got money, he'll soon have it all,
"Come on, boys, have a drink!", you will hear Tommy call.

Oh, the bartender laughs as the money rolls in
They drink beer and whisky, champagne, rum and gin
Till they all get so boozy they can't drink no more,
And the loggers lay scattered all over the floor.

In the morning the loggers wake up from their bed,
Their money's all gone and Oh lord! what a head,
They rush to the bar and they call for a drink,
And Tommy gets busy a-slinging the ink.

"Four bits for your bed, though you slept on the floor,
And the breakfast you've missed will be four bits more,
And a four dollar meal ticket, good at the bar,
And a pass back to camp on the old Cassiar."

Repeat verse 1.

note: coll. from Bennett King Lesley, Shaughnessy Hospital by Phil Thomas and in his Songs of the Pacific Northwest. Another version collected by Ed McCurdy is in Fowke. The building still stands. The song predates 1923, when Tommy Roberts, the proprietor, was shot and killed while gambling. With no banks for "stakey" loggers just arrived in town to use, they were prime targets for robbers of every sort, so Roberts would put their rolls in the hotel safe, and "run a slate" for them, first making sure he'd taken out enough money to pay for their trip back up to the remote logging camps on the coast steamer "Cassiar". JB

The Kettle Valley Line

Having decided to sing more BC songs in the interest of keeping them living (and because they're just plain great songs about our own home!), I thought I should post the words here once in a while. The Kettle Valley Line was the railway that used to run approximately where the Coquihalla highway is, now.

I seem to repeat the first verse in the middle and at the end, but I don't think that's usual.

I always ride upon the roof on the Kettle Valley Line
I always ride upon the roof on the Kettle Valley Line
I always ride upon the roof
I could pay the fare but what's the use
So I always ride upon the roof on the Kettle Valley Line

I order my meals through the ventilator on the Kettle Valley Line (2x)
I order my meals through the ventilator
Costs the same but you don't have to tip the waiter
So I order my meals through the ventilator on the Kettle Valley Line

I buy a sandwich from the cook on the Kettle Valley Line (2x)
I buy a sandwich from the cook
and he pockets the money, the dirty crook
But I buy a ...

Those railway bulls are gentlemen on the Kettle Valley Line (2x)
Those railway bulls are gentlemen
We'll never see their likes again
But the railway bulls...

They tip their hats and they call you sir on the Kettle Valley Line (2x)
They tip their hats and they call you sir
Then throw you into the local stir
But they tip their hats and they call you sir on the Kettle Valley Line

Whiskey Before Breakfast

Brenda starts this tune last night, and it's on the third repetition before I realize that it's "Whiskey Before Breakfast". The guys at Bowen's monthly kitchen junket play this one sometimes, and it's a tune I usually associate with the Old-Time-Canadianized-American tradition.
Maybe we ought to play more of this stuff at the Snug (uh-oh). For instance, here's Mike McGoldrick, Sharon Shannon, Bruce Molsky and a bunch of others that I should know if I listened to American Traditional music more often.
This title of the tune should win a contest. "Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further into the Fire"
Neil, if you'll kindly bring your Tea-chest Bass to the next session please...

One Dark Night at the Snug...

The Star of Munster as a stand-alone set. Fun evening.