category

Song: “Still On Patrol”

Still On Patrol Words and tune (c) April Grant 2018 It may be news to you — I know it was to me — No US submarine Is ever lost at sea. But every Christmas Eve, The Navy reads the roll Of officers and men Still on patrol. (chorus) Still on patrol, Deeper we’ll go, […]

Read

Song: “Constitution and Morgan”

Words: April Grant (c) 2015 Tune: Traditional (“Spanish Lady”/”The Pilots of Tiger Bay”) The Morgan came to Boston harbor under a snowy press of sail, Past Graves Island light, attended with two tugboats at her tail. Anchored by Old Ironsides, which made the Morgan look quite small; I thought I heard an old man say, […]

Read

Song: “Cold Hillside”

Words and tune by April Grant (c) 2020 Where are you bound, bonny bride? Where are you bound on the cold hillside? I’m bound to the hollow and all alone, The moon shines up from under a stone, Among the thorns and briars. What do you hunt, bonny bride? What do you hunt on the […]

Read

Song: “Won’t You Sail Away?”

Words © April Grant 2021 Tune trad. (“Won’t You Go My Way?”), with extras by April. 1. Drinking vodka by the fire, won’t you sail away? With the woman I desire, won’t you sail away? “All my friends and kin, if they saw us here, They would turn us in, and we would disappear.” (chorus) […]

Read

Song: “The Hollow Ship”

Words by April Grant (c) 2015 Tune: Traditional (“The Lish Young Buy-A-Broom”) When we were out a-fishing, a silver boat we found, The top was made of crystal, flat and smooth and round. We pulled it to the shore, its nature for to tell, Inside was a maiden who stepped out alive and well. Chorus: […]

Read

Song: “The Suez Canal Song”

Words: April Grant (c) 2021 Tune: Charles Dibdin (d. 1814), “Tom Bowline” Our crew has sailed the ocean rolling But now we’re out of luck; Turns out the ocean has a colon And that is where we’re stuck. I guess this ship is what we live in, Bust out the booze we shall, And no […]

Read

Song: “The Cricket”

By April Grant (c) 2021 (1st verse, then repeated as chorus:) Sweetly I sing in September Of darkness, my joy and delight. Remember, O human, remember, To live like a cricket at night. The nights will grow longer and longer, My voice will be sweetest of all. O human, if you would grow stronger, Then […]

Read

Song: “Oak Island”

Words and tune: April Grant (c) 2010 I walked along Oak Island’s shore, one cold and foggy summer night; The seals were sleeping in the sand, the moon still cast a milky light. If I told everything I know, I’d be as rich as rich could be — The Downeast sands are full of gold […]

Read

Song: “Robert Smalls”

by April Grant (c) 2019 The Planter sails the harbor, inside the Yanks’ blockade, To bring to the Rebel forts their food and guns and aid. She carries three white officers, she carries eight slave crew, And one of these was Robert Smalls, the age of twenty-two. Rylea told his officers, “Tonight we’ll go on […]

Read

Song: “The Parking Ticket Scholar”

Lyrics (c) April Grant (2010) My countenance is pale, but kind; I haunt that lofty tower, The library, wherein my mind Drinks knowledge by the hour. I watch your cars, like beetles, pass Full many floors below me; They ticket you; you pay UMass; UMass pays what they owe me. If time was always kept […]

Read

Song: “Mercy Wheeler”

Words and music (c) April Grant (2012) Now Mercy Wheeler’s in the grave; they buried her today. And God knows what her folks will do, left up there on the hill, Or how the girls will all get on, with Mercy and their mother gone. The twins stayed home to tend her all the time […]

Read
Art by Lynd Ward

Song: “The Wreckers”

Words and tune (c) April Grant (2017) Me and my old mother, We’re handsome and we’re jolly, We have a little lighthouse, It’s mounted on a trolley. We pull it up the cliffs On a dark and foggy night, And this is what we sing When the ships see the light: (chorus) Bring us tea […]

Read

“Still On Patrol” available on BandCamp (live recording)

I released a song on BandCamp: let’s see if this player embeds properly. Still On Patrol by April Grant

Read
USS Thresher (SSN-593)

Song: “Still On Patrol”

Still On Patrol Words and tune (c) April Grant 2018 It may be news to you — I know it was to me — No US submarine Is ever lost at sea. But every Christmas Eve, The Navy reads the roll Of officers and men Still on patrol. (chorus) Still on patrol, Deeper we’ll go, […]

Read

Song: “Rachel Wall’s Last Good-Night”

(c) 2019 by April Grant A-serving in Boston, I never was content Until to marry James Wall I gave my consent. With five sailors and their lovers, to piracy we went, And for my offense I must die. We beached our old vessel by the Isles of Shoals, Crying, “Oh, Lord have mercy on us […]

Read

Song: “The Concrete Frog Murder” (co-authored with Katherine Nehring)

THE CONCRETE FROG MURDER Words: April Grant and Katherine Nehring 2016 Tune: Traditional (“Five Nights Drunk”) As we walked out one evening All to the church bazaar, To see our friends and neighbors And ask them how they are, We met with Mrs. Johnson A-sitting in the sun, She said, “I just killed my husband,” […]

Read