Town Common Songs

Organizing
resources
Song
resources
Videos
and media
COVID Transmission and Community Singing
presentation from July 2020

songs we've sung so far in Montague Center include...

1,2,3,4 (Sesame Street version)
9,9,9 (Fantastic Number 9)
22
52 Hertz
500 Miles
900 Miles
(Party Like It's Day) 999
1800 And Froze To Death
Acts Of Creation
Alexander Graham Bell
Alice's Restaurant (2020)
All The Salt
All You Fascists
Alleluia, The Great Storm Is Over
Amazing Grace
American Anthem
Anderson's Coast
Angels Hovering Around
The Antediluvians Were All Very Sober
Anytime You Need A Calypso
Apple Pickers Reel
Aragon Mill
Arise! Arise! (National Anthem)
Arm In Arm
An August Cricket
Auld Lang Syne
Baby Lima
The Bacon Butty
The Ballad Of Sam Lovejoy
Be Like A Bird
Beautiful
A Beautiful Life
The Bee Wassail
Beer That Tastes Like Beer
Bells Of Montague
Benjy Met The Bear
The Bilberry Moors
(Bilbo's Song) I Sit Beside The Fire
Bill And The Bear
The Björk Song
Blue Boat Home
The Bold Librarian
Bold Orion
Bold Riley
Booth
Bread And Roses
Brigg Fair
Bright Morning Star
Bright New Year
Bring Me Little Water Sylvie
Bringing In The Sheaves
Brother Can You Spare A Dime
Welcome In Another Year (Build Up The Bonfires)
By Way Of Sorrow
Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes
Caledonia
Can't Read, Can't Write (Montague)
Canticle Of The Turning
Carrie Belle
The Cherry Tree Carol
Chick-a-la-lee-o
Child Of The Library
Cholera Camp
City Of New Orleans
Coal Tattoo
Cold Pizza For Breakfast
The Colonoscopy Song
Come On Up To The House
The Comfort Of Singing Voices
Cornbread And Butterbeans
Cotton Mill Girls
A Country Life
The Creation of Ea
Crocuses
Crossing The Bar
Crow On The Cradle
Cuckoo (trad.)
Cuckoo In August
Cut The Grass
A Cycle Song
Dancing In The Factory
Dark As A Dungeon
Davy Cross
The Day Is Breaking
Deep Blue Sea
Ding Dong! Trump Will Go
Do-Re-Mi
Dogs At Midnight
Donald Takes The Wheel
Down Below
Down By The Old Mill Stream
Draglines
Drinkin' That Wine
Drive Dull Care Away
The Dutchman
East For The Winter
Edelweiss
Eighteen Hundred And Froze To Death
Listen (Eel River Song)
The Eensie-Weensie Spider
Essequibo River
Everyone I Know
Fall Is Here
Farewell Shanty (It's Our Sailing Time)
The Farmer's Toast
Farther Along
The Farthest Field
Father Had A Knife
Fevers Burning
Fish And Bird
Fol-The-Day-O
Follow The Heron Home
Following The May Pole
Food Glorious Food
Forget Your Perfect Offering
Fresh From The Board
Friends With Tractors
The Froggies Sing (Peepers)
Fun Fun Fun (Montague)
The Garlic Waltz
Garners Gay
Gentle Arms Of Eden
Get Out And Get Under The Moon
Get Up And Go
Gingerbread
Give Light
Give Me Just A Little More Time
The Good Old Way
The Goodnight-Loving Trail
The Goose And The Common
Grace Darling
Grey Funnel Line
Griselda
Guantanamera Bay
Halsway Carol
Hand Me Down
The Happy Wanderer
Hard Times Come Again No More
Hares On The Mountain
Harvest Home
Harvest Of The Moon
Heavenly Aeroplane
Here Is My Home
Hey Ho Nobody Home
Hey Mister Miller
Hey Rain (Montague)
Hobo's Lullaby
Home, Lad, Home
Home On The Range
Homeless Wassail
Homeward Bound
Hope Lingers On
Hope Machine
Hoping Machine
The Housewife's Lament
How Can I Keep From Singing
How Much Is That Doggie In The Window
Howl
Hymn For The Russian Earth
I Can Hoe, Boys
I Come Like A Beggar
I Could Have Danced All Night
I Don't Want To Live On The Moon
I Know This Rose Will Open
I Meant To Do That
I Never Harmed An Onion
I See The Moon
I Sit Beside The Fire And Think
I Will Survive (2020)
I'll Be Seeing You
I'll Fly Away
I'm A Wild One Now
I'm Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 Miles)
I'm Gonna Be (We Have Sung 500 Days)
I'm Just A Bill
Ida Lewis
If I Had A Boat
If I Had A Hammer
Imagine
It's A Long Way To Tipperary (WWI Quodlibet)
January Woman
Jingle Bells
John Ball
Keep On The Sunny Side
Keep The Home Fires Burning (WWI Quodlibet)
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning
Key Workers
King Of The Road
The Land
Last Night I Dreamed The Strangest Dream
The Last Trip Home
The Laxey Wheel
Laziness
Less Than Zero
Let It Be
Let Union Be
The Librarian
Lift Every Voice And Sing
Light Is Returning
Like The Soil (Ripe Fruit)
Listen (Eel River Song)
A Little Bit Of Cucumber
Little Boxes
Little Fishes
The Loco-Motion
Long Is Our Winter
Long Night
Loosen Loosen
The Lost Words Blessing
Lots Of Worms
Love Call Me Home
Love Potion No. 9
Low Gravy
The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side
Magnificence
The Magpie
Mama Earth, Rock Me To Sleep
Maple Sweet
Maple Syrup Time
(Waltz Her Around The Floor) Marie
Martin Said To His Man
The Mary Ellen Carter
Mary Had A Little Lamb
May There Always Be Sunshine
McNeill's Ale
Messing About On The River
Michael Row The Boat Ashore
Mick Ryan's Lament
Mingulay Boat Song
Miner's Lifeguard
Mister Weather
Montague Mummers 2020 Pace-Egging Play
Montague Mummers 2020 Pace-Egging Song
Montague Mummers 2021 Plough Monday Play
Montague Mummers 2021 Pace Egging Play
Montague Mummers 2021 Pace Egging Song
Montana
More Waters Rising
(Steven Levine's) Morris Song
Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry)
My Baby Drinks Water
My Favorite Things
(How Can I Not Love You,) My Kyiv
Napoleon's Farewell To Paris
A Nice Pot Of Tea
Night Is Over
Nine, Nine, Nine
(Party Like It's Day) Nine Ninety-Nine
No Ash Will Burn
Noah Built The Ark
Noah's Ark Shanty
Nothin' But A Humbug
Now The Darkest Time Of Winter
Now Westlin Winds
Ode To The Center Street Bridge
Oh Dear Me (The Jute Mill Song)
Oh Freedom
Oh How Lovely Is The Evening
Oh, Maple Creemee
Oh River / Finding My Way
Oh! That Gorgonzola Cheese
Oh What A Beautiful Morning
Old Jacky Frost
Old Kimball
Old King Cole
Old Tinsley Pots
On A Sunday
On An Evening In Summer
On Yonder Hill
Onaya's Waltz
One Species Are We
One Tin Soldier
Our Life Is More Than Our Work
The Oyster Song
Pack Up Your Sorrows
Papa's On The Housetop
Paradise
Passing Through
Passionate Kisses
Payment For The Plow Guy
The Froggies Sing (Peepers)
People, Look East
Perfect Light (Though My Soul May Set...)
Philadelphia
Pi Day: The Song
Plant A Radish
(All I Want Is A) Proper Cup Of Coffee
Precious Memories
The President Sang Amazing Grace
A Psalm Of Life
Puff The Magic Dragon
Rabbit
The Railroader
RBG Speaks For Me
Red Rocking Chair
Red-Winged Blackbird
Right And Left Grand
Right Said Fred
Rigs Of The Time
The Rising Of The Moon (Over Montague)
River
Roll On Old Sun
Roll The Old Chariot Along
(When We Go) Rolling Home
Rolling Home, Dear Folk Of Montague
Rolling Mills Of New Jersey
Rolling To Cairo Town
Rooty Toot Toot For The Moon
Row On
Run, Kate Shelley, Run
Safe Home
Sandwiches Are Beautiful
Scarborough Fair
Señor Don Gato
Shake These Bones
Shalom Chaverim
She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain
Shove Around The Jug
Simple Gifts
Singing Through The Hard Times
Six Feet Apart
Sixteen Tons
Skipper Jan Rebek
Skunks Are Coming Out
Sleepers Awake
Slut Shaming Geezers
Snow Falls
So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh
Solstice Bells
Solstice Song (Alouette Iselin)
Something So Right
Somewhere To Begin
Somos El Barco
A Song About Pi
Song Of Choice
Sounds Of Solstice
Soy Una Taza
Stand
Step By Step
Stepping Up The Green Grass
Strawb-Rhubarb Pie
Sun Comes Over The Mountain
Sure As The Wind
Swimming To The Other Side
Swing Low / Saints / I'm Gonna Sing
Swinging Along
Tailor Of The Dales
Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Take This Hammer
Thanksgiving Eve
Thank You
(Ye) Thatcherites
There Is A Fountain
There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding (WWI Quodlibet)
They'll Never Keep Us Down
This Is It
This Land Is Your Land
This Little Light Of Mine
This Longest Night
This Pretty Planet
Three Jolly Huntsmen (Cape Ann)
Perfect Light (Though My Soul May Set...)
Thousands Or More
Tide And The River Rising
Time Has Made A Change In Me
The Times They Are A-Changing
Tinni, Lend Me Your Pigeon
'Tis Winter Now
Titanic
To Anacreon In Heaven
To Know The Dark
To My Old Brown Earth
Tobacco
Turn The World Around
Turning Toward The Morning
Turtle Dove
Ukraine's Glory Has Not Perished
Unison In Harmony
Until The Dark Time Ends
Up Above
Up Above My Head
Van Lingle Mungo
Venezuela To Trinidad
The Vermont Farmer's Song
The Vicar Is A Beatnik
Virgin Sturgeon
Wade In The Water
Walk My Boots Clean
Walking On Sunshine
Walking On The Green Grass
Walling
Wandering
The Washington Waddle
Water
The Water Is Wide
We All Come From The Mother Earth
We Do What We Can
We Shall Be Known
We'll Have A May Day Then
Weave And Mend
Wee Pot Stove
Welcome In Another Year (Build Up The Bonfires)
Well May The World Go
When Do The Tracks Show?
What Kind Of A Noise Annoys An Oyster?
When I Was A Boy
When The Sun Goes Down On South Ferry Rd
When This World Comes To An End
When You And I Were Young, Maggie
Where Does Father Christmas Go To
Where Is The Moon?
Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Whole Heap Of Little Horses
Wild Mountain Thyme
I'm A Wild One Now
Will The Turtle Be Unbroken
(When The) Winter (Comes We Gather)
Winter Blues
Winter Song
Witch Hazel
Won't You Play A Simple Melody
The Wool Song
A Wordle Ain't Nothin' But A Word
Work To Be Done
World War I Quodlibet
The Years Grow Tall
Yma O Hyd
You Are My Sunshine
You'll Never Walk Alone
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Back in March 2020, the week schools closed and businesses shut down and group activities suddenly stopped, two dozen neighbors in the village of Montague Center ambled down to our town common where -- standing at great distance from one another -- we took inspiration from social media videos of Italians singing on their balconies. We sought connection, stability, and hope, while balancing these with the safety of being outdoors and spread very far apart, and for an hour we sang together. We weren't some pre-existing choral group with a leader: we were just a bunch of folks living together in a small New England village, singing some widely-known folk songs and "old standards" we all more-or-less knew.

With zero intention of creating some sort of recurring event, and no structure or group leader, several of us showed up again at the same time the next day -- despite the pouring rain. (We had nothing else to do that week!) The next day, in sunshine, more of us did it again. Then one of us created this website, just so we could easily share (without paper) lyrics for the songs we sang that week, since other neighbors had started showing up and it was starting to look like societal isolation might continue for a while.

Then we kept showing up ... and more songs were introduced ... and we kept showing up ... spring into summer into autumn.... We had a motley crew of elementary school music teachers, shape note singers, Gilbert & Sullivan enthusiasts, bilingual music educators, hospice choir members, folklorists, morris dancing pub singers, and folks who had sung in various local folk chorales. We also had folks who had just grown up to the music of the sixties ... or seventies, eighties, nineties, aughts, teens, or twenties! ... and didn't necessarily think of themselves as "singers". We were tied together only by place and community and led only by ourselves.

And we kept showing up, always outdoors, through the winter and beyond, a community standing strong and together through January blizzards, spring thunderstorms, scorching August days, and everything in between.

Our website grew and we added organizing resources including what we'd learned about singing safely during the pandemic and songs that worked well for outdoor communities, in hopes some other communities might be inspired to try this. (Note: these resources are all nearly four years old at this point and not updated. They may be more interesting as an historic record of "life during early Covid" than as practical advice, now.)

Conditions gradually improved, vaccines became available, and in-person work and group activities resumed. But by that point, we had become so much more than a pandemic support group and our daily singing had become part of the fabric of our village.

At this writing (January 2024), there has been singing outdoors on the town common in Montague Center for over 1,400 days in a row. Not "every Tuesday", not "weekends" or "weekdays". Every. Day. (With at least two singers every day, but most often more like six to sixteen singers, various overlapping sets of folks every day from a more-or-less-regular crew of dozens, plus newcomers and visitors and friends.) We can't help but wonder if this has ever happened anywhere else, nor can we stop marveling at how fortunate we are to live here together. (Occasionally, our singing has been documented by graduate students, written about in newspapers, and even featured on PBS!)

As we near our four-year-anniversary (18 March 2024), we've sung thousands of different songs by now. The list to the left is but a fraction of them, now only occasionally updated with particular new favorites or with songs adapted to commemorate community milestones like singing for 500 (or 1,000) days or surviving the year 2020 or our resilient village May Day celebration. Lots of us sing many songs from memory, but many folks read lyrics on their phones, and some new-to-us songs are taught by ear while others are passed around on paper handouts; we don't have any rules.

In our second summer we discovered the songs of Sarina Partridge and Heartwood Trio, whose songwriting is a natural fit for our community. Sarina expresses our ethos perfectly on her website: Singing is the language of grief and praise, wonder and wisdom; we sing the world we want to inhabit, and we sing to understand the world we live in now.

What started as a close-knit group to hold our community together while also prioritizing public health and safety now welcomes visitors from near and far. We've welcomed friends, family, strangers, and some of our favorite songwriting heros, and we'll welcome you any day at 2:00 PM on the Montague Town Common.