We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Little Ice Shanty

by Shelley Posen

supported by
Tim Houlihan
Tim Houlihan thumbnail
rvokey
rvokey thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 CAD  or more

     

about

Originally released on LIFE ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN (Lake Champlain Maritime Museum) 2006

© Shelley Posen 1985 Well Done Music BMI
tune: “The Stern Old Bachelor” (trad.) as sung by Loy Gavan, Chapeau, QC

Dedicated to Stan Ransom

For three years in the mid-1980s, when Lake Champlain still froze shore to shore, I researched and curated an exhibition about the ice on Lake Champlain and how it figured in the lives of Lake Champlainers past and present. I also published a book about my findings called, You Hear the Ice Talking, and had a hand in an award-winning local video about ice fishing around Port Henry, NY. This song summarizes everything I learned about ice fishing, put into the mouth of an old-timer like the ones I had such great luck and pleasure talking to. The tune was one I learned from a different “old-timer”—Loy Gavan, the great traditional singer of Chapeau, Quebec—when I did song research in the Ottawa Valley in the 1970s. So the song more or less combines two of my first major projects as a folklorist. I dedicate the performance to yet another “old-timer,” Stan Ransom, Plattsburgh library executive, singer, songwriter, and pillar of local history and culture, whose hospitality and administrative wisdom during the Ice project knew no bounds.

lyrics

I am an old ice fisherman
On Lake Champlain I dwell
At catching icefish, perch, and smelt
There’s none can me excel.

Little ice shanty
Ice shanty dear to me
In winter out on Lake Champlain
It’s home, sweet home to me.

I take my shanty on the ice
When first it forms a skin
I choose my spot most carefully
Before I do begin.

I bank the walls outside with snow
To keep inside the heat
Then I take my Swedish auger in
And bore two holes so neat.

Little ice shanty
Ice shanty dear to me
In winter out on Lake Champlain
It’s home, sweet home to me.

For bait I use a strip of smelt
I skin off by the tail
But if for perch I drop my lines
It’s perch eyes never fail.

And when an icefish takes my bait
And bumps upon my line
I weave my fishpoles back and forth
And land him double time.

By night my bucket’s full of fish
To be carried home and dressed
We eat five pounds at suppertime
Then clean and freeze the rest.

Little ice shanty
Ice shanty dear to me
In winter out on Lake Champlain
It’s home, sweet home to me.

Let heave cracks thunder under foot
Let whiteouts make me blink
I’ll ice fish out on Lake Champlain
Till I have to swim or sink.

And when I die and go to heaven
Where all ice fishers go
I’ll ice fish with the angels there
Till Gabriel’s horn do blow.

Little ice shanty
Ice shanty dear to me
In winter out on Lake Champlain—
Fish with me only on the ice*—
It’s home, sweet home to me.

*Tune for this line: “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes”; resume “Stern Old Bachelor” tune for last line.

credits

released February 2, 2023
Producer: James Stephens.
Recorded at: Stove Studio, Chelsea, QC
Lead vocal: Shelley
Fiddle, string bass: James Stephens
Accordion: Greg T. Brown
Shantymen’s chorus: Shelley, James

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Shelley Posen image

Shelley Posen Ottawa, Ontario

SHELLEY POSEN is a Canadian songwriter and performer of his own and traditional songs. He writes in many styles and on many subjects. His songs are widely recognized for their wit, craftsmanship, and the profound effect many seem to have on listeners.

contact / help

Contact Shelley Posen

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Shelley Posen, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now