Songs of the Sea & Fo’castle

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The American Folk Experience

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

by ~Gordon Lightfoot (sung by Fitz) | The American Folk Experience

~Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Saying, “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.”
[Former version:] At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
[Latter version:] At seven PM it grew dark, it was then
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

[Former version:] In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
[Latter version:] In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment. Thanks for stopping by the site! ~John Fitz

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music. 

I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
Single by Gordon Lightfoot
from the album Summertime Dream
B-side"The House You Live In"
ReleasedAugust 1976
RecordedDecember 1975
StudioEastern Sound Studios, Toronto
Genre
[1]
Length
  • 6:30 (album version)
  • 5:57 (single edit)
LabelReprise
SongwriterGordon Lightfoot
Producers
Gordon Lightfoot singles chronology
"Rainy Day People"
(1975) 		"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
(1976) 		"Race Among the Ruins"
(1976)
Audio
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on YouTube

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a 1976 folk rock ballad written, composed, and performed by the Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to memorialize the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975.

Appearing originally on his 1976 album Summertime Dream, Lightfoot re-recorded the song in 1988 for the compilation album Gord's Gold, Vol. 2. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was a hit for Lightfoot, reaching number 1 in his native Canada in the RPM chart. In the US, it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the Cashbox Top 100.

Following Lightfoot's death, the song had a new peak in popularity that same year, reaching number twenty on the Billboard magazine's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in May 2023.

At an annual memorial service held each November by the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, a bell has been rung 29 times to honor the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald. In commemoration of Lightfoot's writing of the lyrics to the ballad, the memorial service now follows the commemoration bell count of: "29 for the lives lost that day back in 1975 on Lake Superior, once for all lives lost at sea, and once for singer Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote the ballad of the ship’s sinking".[2]

Composition

The song chronicles the final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald as it succumbed to an intense late-season storm and sank in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crewmen. Lightfoot drew inspiration from news reports he gathered in the immediate aftermath, particularly the article "The Cruelest Month" published in the November 24, 1975 issue of Newsweek.[3] Lightfoot could also draw upon his personal experience with recreational sailing on the Great Lakes.[4] Lightfoot himself considered this song to be his finest work.[5]

Recorded before the ship's wreckage had been studied, the song reflects some speculation about how the disaster transpired. In later interviews, Lightfoot recounted how he had agonized over possible inaccuracies while trying to pen the lyrics until his lead guitarist Terry Clements convinced him to do what Clements' favourite author Mark Twain would have advised: just tell a story.[6]

In March 2010, Lightfoot changed a line during live performances to reflect new findings about how the ship had foundered. The original words, "At 7 p.m. a main hatchway caved in; he said...", Lightfoot began singing as "At 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then he said...." Lightfoot learned about the new findings when contacted for permission to use his song for a History Channel documentary that aired on March 31, 2010. Lightfoot stated that he did not intend to change the original copyrighted lyrics; instead, from then on, he simply sang the revised lyrics during live performances.[7] Lightfoot also changed the words "musty old hall" (referring to "the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral", in fact the Mariners' Church of Detroit) to "rustic old hall".[8]

SS Edmund Fitzgerald (1971)

Melody

The song follows 6
8 time with a straightforward arrangement described by Adam Perlmutter in Acoustic Guitar as "pretty simple—just five open shapes in the key of A major (sounding as B, due to a second-fret capo). Instead of an A chord (A C♯ E), there’s an Asus2, a type of suspended triad in which the third (C♯) is replaced with the second (B). Then there’s the G6/A, or a G6 chord (G B D E) with an A as the lowest note, used only in the intro/interlude section".[9] The melody for the song was later adapted by Bobby Sands for his song "Back Home in Derry". When asked about the similarity and why he did not pursue copyright infringement, Lightfoot said that the melody was "just an old Irish folk song; an old Irish dirge. I think I took it from that. It's all folk music and it's all out there for everyone to enjoy."[10]

Lyrics

The song narrates the final and difficult journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald through the storm and the frantic moments before the shipwreck. The seven stanzas of the song are written with eight lines each, with the first line of the first stanza reading: "The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down". The lyrics were strongly inspired by the article "The Cruelest Month", which appeared on 24 November 1975 in Newsweek magazine, which in addition to reporting the disaster also illustrated the legends of the Ojibwe Native Americans (termed "Chippewa" by white Europeans) on Lake Superior, which are in fact mentioned in the song. A recurring theme of the song is the violence of the bad weather in the late autumn season on the Great Lakes in November, which would ultimately lead to the catastrophe of the Fitzgerald. For example, one of the central laments in the lyrics of the song speaks of the nearness of safe harbor in the presence of imminent disaster, stating:

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.

Lightfoot, unable to know exactly how the tragedy had unfolded, by his own admission took some artistic liberties in recounting the sequence of events, for example by describing a collapse of a hatchway prior to the wreck.[11] Over time Lightfoot made slight modifications to the lyrics as more information about the disaster became available.

During the following years the composer, who was surprised by the enormous success of the song, was open to rework the lyrics in light of new developments in the investigations into the disaster and the public's sensitivity.[11] Although he declared that he did not want to modify the original lyrics of the song officially, often during live performances Lightfoot varied some verses to "update" them or to meet the requests of the public and the families of the victims.[12] For example, in the original lyrics the church that commemorates the shipwreck is "a musty old hall"; after the complaints of a parishioner, Lightfoot changed the passage to "a rustic old hall". The song was written with no choruses, and no lyrical bridge or change of key; it was written without any lyrical intro or outro.

Production

The song was recorded in December 1975 at Eastern Sound,[13] a recording studio composed of two Victorian houses at 48 Yorkville Avenue in a then-hippie district of downtown Toronto. The studio was later demolished and replaced by a parking lot,[14] which has since been replaced with a garden, the Mist Garden.[15] Pee Wee Charles and Terry Clements came up with "the haunting guitar and steel riffs" during the evening session.[16] According to an article in The Toronto Star, the final version of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was indeed the first take of the song, and it was the first time Lightfoot and his band had ever played it together, and the album's recording engineer, Kenny Frieson, fortunately decided to record the performance down on tape because the band was playing the song through for the first time. The band rehearsed other attempts at recording it for two weeks afterward, but they were unable to capture the magic of that initial, unrehearsed performance, so the first take was used for the recording. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, bassist Rick Haynes recalled Lightfoot initially only thought "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" to be a short, unfinished song, but it was recorded when they had studio time left for the Summertime Dream album.[17][18]

Chart success

Lightfoot's single version hit number 1 in his native Canada (in the RPM national singles survey) on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster.[19] In the United States, it reached number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 for two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 (behind Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night"), making it Lightfoot's second-most successful single, behind only "Sundown". Overseas it was at best a minor hit, peaking at number 40 in the UK Singles Chart.[20]

Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics recorded a cover of the song for their album Melville in 1991,[32] and included the song in their concerts to promote their 2025 album The Great Lakes Suite, though not included in the album release itself. Another cover of the song was done by the Indianapolis hard rock musicians Simon Bar Sinister in 1997 for Sage records which includes a lead guitar rock solo after the end of the fourth stanza; in the closing verses of the song the cymbals are intoned in the background 29 times at half-second intervals to honor the 29 dead sailors lost at sea.[33] The Cantus vocal ensemble did a pensive cover of the song in 2006 accompanied by acoustic guitar, cello and fife.[34] In 2018 the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club recorded a live performance of the song featuring a baritone soloist and accompanied by two acoustic guitars, cello and piano.[35] In 2019, the Canadian rock group Headstones covered the song and released a single of their cover.[36] The American band Punch Brothers did a cover of the song in 2022 with a solo tenor voice accompanied by a mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and acoustic guitar.[37] The song was covered in 2023 by the English folk group The Longest Johns with an associated music video.[38] The song was also covered in 2025 by the a cappella group Home Free with an associated music video.[39] American bluegrass artist Billy Strings performed a 12-minute cover of the song in August 2025 featuring a 3-minute extended instrumental introduction to the song played on acoustic guitar, and a second 4-minute acoustic guitar solo at the end of the fourth stanza.[40]

Although the lyrics of the song memorialize the 29 lives lost, since Lightfoot's death in 2023 the sinking has been commemorated with 31 rings of the memorial bell at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy: "29 for the lives lost that day back in 1975 on Lake Superior, once for all lives lost at sea, and once for singer Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote the ballad of the ship’s sinking."[2][41][42][43] Following the singer-songwriter's death, the song had a new peak in popularity that same year, reaching number twenty on the Billboard magazine's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in May 2023.

Personnel

Original version from 1976 on Summertime Dream (5 min, 58 sec):

The 1987 version released on the 1999 Songbook album updated the Personnel notes for the re-recorded version (6 min, 28 sec):

  • Drums, Percussion: Barry Keane
  • Synthesizer: Gene Martynec
  • Guitar, Vocals: Gordon Lightfoot
  • Producer: Gordon Lightfoot
  • Drums: Jim Gordon
  • Engineer: Ken Friesen
  • Mixing Engineer: Lee Herschberg
  • Producer: Lenny Waronker
  • Pedal Steel Guitar: Pee Wee Charles
  • Bass Guitar: Rick Haynes
  • Acoustic Guitar: Terry Clements
  • Electric Guitar: Terry Clements
  • Writer: Gordon Lightfoot

See also

References

  1. ^ Person, James (January 1, 1998). "Gordon Lightfoot". In Knopper, Steve (ed.). MusicHound Lounge: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 294.
  2. ^ a b "Edmund Fitzgerald memorialized with 31 rings of its bell at Great Lakes Maritime Academy". 910News.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
  3. ^ Jennings, Nicholas (2016). Lightfoot. Viking. p. 148. ISBN 9780735232556. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
  4. ^ Weiss, William R. (1979). "This Goose Is Golden". Yachting. Archived from the original on March 30, 2024. Retrieved October 17, 2025 – via Lightfoot.ca.
  5. ^ DeYoung, Bill (March 2, 2010). "If You Could Read His Mind: A Conversation with Folk Music Legend Gordon Lightfoot". Connect Savannah. Archived from the original on March 7, 2010.
  6. ^ Casey, Chris (November 10, 2000). "25 Years Later, Lightfoot Content with Popularity of Fitzgerald Ballad". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 31, 2023. [Clements] said Mark Twain would say, 'Tell a story'.
  7. ^ Stevenson, Jane (March 26, 2010). "Lightfoot Changes 'Edmund Fitzgerald' Lyric". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  8. ^ Balunda, George (November 2011). "Mariners' Church of Detroit". Hour Detroit. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  9. ^ Perlmuter, Adam (September 22, 2023). "Learn to Play Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"". Acoustic Guitar. Retrieved November 5, 2025.
  10. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot & Bobby Sands | Bobby Sands Trust".
  11. ^ a b Heather Sparling, Disaster Songs as Intangible Memorials in Atlantic Canada, New York, Taylor & Francis, 2023, ISBN 978-1-032-11120-9.
  12. ^ Heather Sparling, Disaster Songs as Intangible Memorials in Atlantic Canada , New York, Taylor & Francis, 2023, ISBN 978-1-032-11120-9.
  13. ^ "Album Recording Notes". Lightfoot!. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  14. ^ "Recording Studios used in Toronto: Eastern Sound". Bruce Cockburn & Toronto: A Historical Tour. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  15. ^ "Yorkville Avenue Plaque Walk: Exploring Yorkville's rich history through heritage plaques". ArcGIS Story Maps. Maximum City. Retrieved November 23, 2025. The Mist or 'Rose' Garden in front of the Four Seasons Residences is the former site of the Eastern Sound Studio.
  16. ^ Charles, PeeWee (November 10, 2012). "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald....37 years ago today!!". The Steel Guitar Forum. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  17. ^ https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/no-chorus-no-problem-the-improbable-story-behind-gordon-lightfoots-beloved-hit-the-wreck-of/article_99885686-2a9d-4d04-b9c0-4f3e1ce437ac.html
  18. ^ https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/brian-mccollum/2025/11/09/wreck-edmund-fitzgerald-gordon-lightfoot-anniversary/87125454007/
  19. ^ a b "Item Display. RPM". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
  20. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 50: 23 January 1977 - 29 January 1977". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  21. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  22. ^ "RPM Adult Contemporary - Volume 25, No. 26". Library and Archives Canada. July 17, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  23. ^ "RPM Country Singles - Volume 26, No. 6". Library and Archives Canada. July 17, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  24. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  25. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  26. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  27. ^ "Cash Box Top Singles - 1976". Tropicalglen.com. December 20, 1963. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  28. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  29. ^ "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  30. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
  31. ^ "The CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1976; TOP 100 POP SINGLES (As published in the December 25, 1976, issue)". Archived from the original on August 25, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  32. ^ Rheostatics . Cover for "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald". 1991. [1]
  33. ^ Simon Bar Sinister. Cover for "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald". 1999. Sage Records. [2]
  34. ^ Cantus (vocal ensemble). Cover for "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald". 2006. [3]
  35. ^ University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. Cover for "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald". 2018. [4]
  36. ^ Headstones (band). Cover for "The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald". 2019. [5]
  37. ^ "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Punch Brothers. 2022. Boston, Mass. [6]
  38. ^ "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The Longest Johns. February 2023. [7]
  39. ^ "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Home Free. October 2025. [8]
  40. ^ Billy Strings. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". August 2025
  41. ^ "Detroit Church Broadens Its Scope Marking Edmund Fitzgerald Anniversary". USA Today. Associated Press. November 13, 2006. Retrieved January 18, 2011.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  42. ^ Bulanda, George (November 2010). "Great Mariner's Church Remembers Edmund Fitzgerald on 35th Anniversary of Sinking". Hour Detroit. ISSN 1098-9684. Archived from the original on November 6, 2010. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  43. ^ Mackay, Hannah (May 2, 2023). "Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society Pays Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.

Further reading

Rauch, Alan (June 2023). "'Fellas, it's Been Good to Know You': Gordon Lightfoot's Edmund Fitzgerald". The Newsletter of the Charlotte Folk Society. 28 (6): 4.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald

Source: Songfacts.com

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

  • This is a factual retelling of a shipwreck on Lake Superior in November 1975 that claimed the lives of 29 crew members. On November 10, 1975, the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald broke in half and sunk in Lake Superior. The storm she was caught in reported winds from 35 to 52 knots, and waves anywhere from 10 to 35 feet high.

    She was loaded with 26,116 tons of taconite pellets at the Burlington Northern Railroad, Dock #1. Her destination was Zug Island on the Detroit River. There were 29 crew members who perished in the sinking.

  • In the US, this was held out of the #1 spot by Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s The Night.”
  • This was nominated for the Song of the Year Grammy, but it was beaten by Barry Manilow’s “I Write The Songs.” >>
  • Paul Gross hoped to use this tune for his episode of the TV show Due South, “Mountie on the Bounty.” He discreetly tried to secure the rights to use the song, but out of respect for the families who wished not to be reminded of the tragedy he didn’t pursue the option aggressively. He instead wrote the similarly themed song “32 down On The Robert MacKenzie.” >>
  • Ohio-based Great Lakes Brewery produces a beer called Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. >>
  • In 1970, baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s co-founding partner in the Brewers was fellow Milwaukee businessman Edmund B. Fitzgerald, a patron of Milwaukee arts and civic projects, and the son of a family that owned Great Lakes shipyards. In 1958, the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald was named for Edmund B.’s father. Fitzgerald later became a professor at Vanderbilt University.

  • An initial investigation suggested that the crew was partly to blame for the disaster by not securing the ship’s hatches. Lightfoot’s song reflected the original findings in the verse, “…at 7 p.m. a main hatchway gave in.” However, in 2010 a Canadian documentary claimed to have proven the crew of the ship was not responsible for the tragedy. It concluded that there is little evidence that failure to secure the ship’s hatches caused the sinking.

    Lightfoot said he intended to change it to reflect the new findings. “I’m sincerely grateful to yap films and their program The Dive Detectives for putting together compelling evidence that the tragedy was not a result of crew error,” he said in a release. “This finally vindicates, and honors, not only all of the crew who lost their lives, but also the family members who survived them.”

  • Lightfoot recalled the story of the song during a Reddit AMA: “The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself,” he said. “And it was quite an undertaking to do that, I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old.”

    “I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music,” he continued. “That’s where the melody comes from, from an old Irish folk song.”

  • Lightfoot wrote the lyrics after coming up with the melody and chords. He recalled: “When the story came on television, that the Edmund had foundered in Lake Superior three hours earlier, it was right on the CBC here in Canada, I came into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and saw the news and I said ‘That’s my story to go with the melody and the chords.'”
  • In a 2015 interview with NPR’s Scott Simon, Gordon Lightfoot explained that the article he read in Newsweek about the tragedy was, “Short shrift for such a monumental event.” Lightfoot says the song came about when he discovered the newspaper writers kept misspelling the name of the ship, rendering it as “Edmond Fitzgerald” rather than “Edmund Fitzgerald.” Though he didn’t say whether or not the misspelling was deliberate, he was quoted as telling Scott, “That’s it! If they’re gonna spell the name wrong, I’ve got to get to the bottom of this!” >>
  • This is referenced in the Seinfeld episode “Andrea Doria,” when Elaine mistakenly believes Gordon Lightfoot was the name of the ship and Edmund Fitzgerald was the name of the singer. Jerry quips: “Yeah, and it was rammed by the Cat Stevens.”

Here is a cool video of the song with underwater footage…

Here is a history of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald…

 

Performances, Workshops, Resources & Recordings

The American Folk Experience is dedicated to collecting and curating the most enduring songs from our musical heritage.  Every performance and workshop is a celebration and exploration of the timeless songs and stories that have shaped and formed the musical history of America. John Fitzsimmons has been singing and performing these gems of the past for the past forty years, and he brings a folksy warmth, humor and massive repertoire of songs to any occasion. 

Festivals & Celebrations Coffeehouses School Assemblies Library Presentations Songwriting Workshops Artist in Residence House Concerts Pub Singing Irish & Celtic Performances Poetry Readings Campfires Music Lessons Senior Centers Voiceovers & Recording

““Beneath the friendly charisma is the heart of a purist gently leading us from the songs of our lives to the timeless traditional songs he knows so well…”

 

Globe Magazine

Join Fitz at The Colonial Inn

“The Nobel Laureate of New England Pub Music…”

Scott Alaric

Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground

On the Green, in Concord, MA Every Thursday Night for over thirty years…

“A Song Singing, Word Slinging, Story Swapping, Ballad Mongering, Folksinger, Teacher, & Poet…”

Theo Rogue

Songcatcher Rag

Fitz’s Recordings

& Writings

Songs, poems, essays, reflections and ramblings of a folksinger, traveler, teacher, poet and thinker…

Download for free from the iTunes Bookstore

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Master of Folk…”

The Boston Globe

Fitz’s now classic recording of original songs and poetry…

Download from the iTunes Music Store

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Masterful weaver of song whose deep, resonant voice rivals the best of his genre…”

Spirit of Change Magazine

“2003: Best Children’s Music Recording of the Year…”

Boston Parent's Paper

Fitz & The Salty Dawgs Amazing music, good times and good friends…

Listen here

TheCraftedWord.org

Writing help

when you need it…

“When the eyes rest on the soul…that’s Fitzy…”

Lenny Megliola

WEEI Radio

A New Beginning

by | November 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

 I guess if there is any constant in my life, it is new beginnings.  This blog--and this website--is another new beginning starting here late on a cold night on my back porch. I've been keeping a blog (in fact several blogs) since the first blogs made their way on to...
Read More

Superman

by | August 12, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

There’s a little blonde boy in a superman cape
Racing around the back yard;
Sayin’, “Daddy don’t you know I can fly to the moon;
I’m gonna bring you back some stars.
And after that I’m gonna save the world”
Cause I’m superman today.”
I scoop that boy right into my arms,
And this is what I say:

You don’t need a cape to be a hero
You’ve got all the special powers that you need
Your smile’s enough to save the world from evil
And you’ll always be superman to me

Read More

Weeds

by | August 8, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

  Somewhere locked in this choke of weeds spread like a mangy carpet is the hardened vine of Pipo’s Concord Grape he planted in an eager spring three years ago. Gasping for air and sun and water perhaps it has found some way to hide from my flailing hoe and the...
Read More

Why Trump Is Not Flipping Me Out

by | March 18, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

I wonder why Trump is not flipping me out? I wonder if there is some bigoted, ignorant and right-wing element that lurks inside this folk-singing, poem writing, neo-socialist shell of mine. Maybe it is not that hard for me to make the empathetic reach to feel at least...
Read More

The Right Side of the Inevitable

by | July 27, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

  Like birds of a feather, we gather together, 'Cuz they're feeling exactly like you... ~John Prine   I am not afraid of being a white minority. I had lunch today with a Jamaican drummer, a Ugandan farmer, and a Senagalese potter. I don’t say this out of...
Read More

The English Soldier

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

There is a soldier dressed in ancient English wool guarding the entrance to the inn. He is lucky for this cool night awaiting the pomp of the out of town wedding party. He is paid to be unmoved by the bride's stunning beauty or her train of lesser escorts. He will not...
Read More

Essex Bay

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

This house makes funny noises
When the wind begins to blow.
I should have held on and never let you go.
The wind blew loose the drainpipe.
You can hear the melting snow.
I’ll fix it in the morning when I go.
I’ll fix it in the morning when I go.

Read More

The Farmer, The Weaver & the Space Traveler

by | June 26, 2020 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     Words matter. Words carefully crafted and artfully expressed  matter infinitely more. There is something compelling in a turn of phrase well-timed, arresting image juxtaposed on arresting images; broad ideas distilled into clear, lucid singular thought. For the...
Read More

Chores

by | May 15, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The day sometimes slip away from me, a huge pine half-bucked in the backyard, the kids old tree fort cut into slabs, a ton of coal waiting to be moved in a train of buckets to the bin. Sipping cold water on the back deck, sharpening the dulled teeth of a worn...
Read More

Kampuchea

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I stutter for normality across the river from black men fishing for kibbers and horned pout. Barefoot children rounded bellies curled navels stalk the turtle sunning on a log. lonely in the field grass lonely on the curbstones I stutter for normality. Not a mother...
Read More

Once Burned. Twice Shy.

by | April 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Just because no one understands you,  it doesn’t mean you are an artist ~Bumper Sticker        I sometimes wonder why when you give a group of teenagers a video camera, the first impulse is to shoot something stupid. It’s as if there is some jackass switch...
Read More

Don’t Let Go of Your Soul

by | August 11, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

Sometimes yeah.
Sometimes no.
Sometimes it’s somehow somewhere in between.
Sometimes it’s somewhere that no one has been–
no, nobody, nowhere, no nothing can end.
So don’t you let go and hope you’ll find it again.
Don’t you ever let go–

Read More

Get Back in the Game

by | January 16, 2022 | Journal | 0 Comments

Out on the back porch, not as cold as earlier today, waiting for the storm to arrive in a few hours--curious if I will get that call at 2:00 AM to head out and plow the Concord streets. Most of me hopes for the call; another side of me wants a day stuck at home,...
Read More

The Old Tote Road

by | July 25, 2019 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

I clabber down the old tote road towards the red pine forest, leaning on my staff, skirting boulder-strewn ruts and small gullies carved out by two days of heavy rain. It is only a mile or so from our cabin, still, my wife makes me wear a pouch with an iPhone and an...
Read More

Thanksgiving

by | July 30, 2014 | Poetry | 0 Comments

I am surprised sometimesby the suddenness of November:beauty abruptly shedto a common nakedness--grasses deadenedby hoarfrost,persistent memoriesof people I’ve lost.It is left to those of us dressed in the hard barky skin of experienceto insist on a decorumthat rises...
Read More

Raccoon

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I’ve stopped the chinks with newspaper and rags wedged tightly against the wind blowing cold three days now. I feed the fire and curse its hissing and steaming mixing green oak with sticks of dried pine calling myself Raccoon grown fat in the suburbs sleeping in...
Read More

Fenn Speaks…

by | May 11, 2019 | Essays, Journal, Poetry, Teaching | 0 Comments

I am You, and You are me... Give a damn & figure it out        I feel like one of my students: it’s the night before my big presentation at All-school-meeting, and I still don’t know what I am going to talk about. I just know I am supposed to talk about me......
Read More

When the same thing happens again

by | October 7, 2017 | Crows and Swallows, Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

I wonder if God is testing me, giving Me some affable warning Or, perhaps, a more Stern rebuke, replaying A foolish mistake, Rehashing and reminding me Of a harsher possibility. It is only a small 10 mm wrench tightening A loose bolt on the throttle body, slipping...
Read More

Let It Snow, Let It Snow…

by | February 2, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

You can't kill time without wounding eternity. ~Henry David Thoreau       Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...but don't let it totally define your day. Most of us see a snow day as an unexpected vacation day, though really what it is could be called "a day of...
Read More

The Litter in Concord

by | July 12, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

I have been following a Facebook thread about the movement in my beloved hometown of Concord to ban plastic water bottles, plastic bags and styrofoam cups. I am trying to discern whether or not my initial responses are pure and true and not simply reactionary and...
Read More

Guns, Me, and Rural America

by | February 27, 2018 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

     Sometimes I start writing without knowing where I stand—unsure of even where I stand. I have to trust some innate wisdom or audacity will cull through the bullshit we are all heir to in what Hamlet laments is “this earthly coil” we are forced to face when we wake...
Read More

Frumzi Casino – Quick‑Hit Slots and Live Games for Fast‑Paced Players

by | March 25, 2026 | Journal | 0 Comments

When you’re looking for a bite‑size gaming experience that still packs a punch, Frumzi is the go‑to destination. The site offers more than 6,500 titles from top providers such as Pragmatic Play, Evolution Gaming, and Quickspin, and it’s optimized for both desktop and...
Read More

The Storm of Fallibility

by | October 29, 2017 | Journal | 0 Comments

       One good cigar is better than two bad cigars, or so it seems right now. It is a beautiful and stormy night--pouring rain and howling wind, and I thought a good smoke would be a fitting end to a busy and over-booked week. As it goes, I bought a couple of cheap...
Read More

Hallows Lake

by | August 2, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

Foreward Thanks for taking a look at this "work in progress. It originally started out as an experimental one-man play. Maybe it still will be. Later I thought of making it into a novel, but it's hard to see it happening as there is (intentionally) no real plot, and...
Read More

Yesterday did not become a poem

by | July 9, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Nothing became something else; No thoughts filled my head With wonder or wisdom. Listless sky. Jumbled frames. Fleeting images: Chattering squirrels, Distant rumbling Of rush hour traffic. Today I am more determined, But all that is left Is the promise Of tomorrow.
Read More

Molting

by | July 10, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I am always molting; leaving my hollowed skin in awkward places, scaring people and making them jump. They touch me and think I’m real; then laugh and say things like “What a riot.” I’m tired of this changing of skins. I’d rather stumble on myself and be fooled; and...
Read More

Nurture Passion

by | December 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

How about we all take the bull by the horns and make this blog thing work! Your job this week is to do something with your blog that is powered by the passion that is in you. Passion is the one thing you have some control over. There are plenty of smarter, more...
Read More

Weekend Custody

by | August 21, 2014 | Out of the Forge, Songs | 0 Comments

Jesse calls up this morning—
“You can come downstairs now;
You see the grapefruit bowl?
Well, I fixed it all;
I fixed everything for you.”

Everything’s for you…

“Let me help you make the coffee,
Momma says you drink it too.
I can’t reach the stove,
But I can pour it, though—
What’s it like living alone?”

Read More

Practice Doing

by | April 26, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Someday, someone might fire you for not doing what you should have done.    There are some days when a teacher might wonder whether it is worth giving the extra effort if the students are not giving the extra effort. I am lucky--and cursed--that I get to live and...
Read More

Life Ain’t Hard; Its Just a Waterfall

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

You say, hey,
who are you to say that you’re the one
to go telling me just where I’m coming from.
You can have your cake
but don’t frost me ‘til I’m done.
I can’t be fixed and I can’t afford to stall;
because life ain’t hard it’s just a waterfall.

Read More

Busy…

by | September 17, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

The start of the school year, and I have literally spent every free moment working on what is ostensibly pretty cool stuff, methinks...but it is work in every sense of the word, so I do miss those long summer mornings when  could literally write to my heart and heads...
Read More

Out of the Forge: March 30, 2017

by | March 31, 2017 | Journal, Out of the Forge | 0 Comments

Every Thursday Night at The Colonial Inn On the Green, in Concord, Massachusetts This is my first attempt at trying to record a night at the inn, so please forgive my engineering errors as a producer. I simply used the Bose Tonematch into Garageband and called it good...
Read More

The Fisher

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

To cast far is to cast well. I’ve always believed that the biggest fish are just beyond my range and lie in dark water I could never swim to. But experience is the wisdom that has me now casting closer to shore, nearest the reeds and overgrowth — a subtleness geared...
Read More

A Priori

by | May 24, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

How do I know what I know? The sharp angles of this simple cottage perfected  in every board sawn, shingle split and beam hewn into place goes together placed, splined, slid together, bound more by intuition than knowing.
Read More

Ring of Fire: The Power of Simplicity

by | March 28, 2017 | Journal, Songs, Teaching, The American Folk Experience | 0 Comments

In fifth grade my mother finally let me go to the Concord Music store and buy a "45" single.  I bought Johnny Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore, a noted country songwriter of his day. There was no doubt in my...
Read More

Welcome

by | August 12, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land... ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden I’ve...
Read More

I have been here before

by | September 9, 2017 | Crows and Swallows, Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Trying to pull a final day Back into the night, execute Some stay of time, Some way to wrap The fabric of Summer Around the balky, frame of Fall, sloughing My skin, unable to stop This reptilian ecdysis— This hideous morphing Into respectability. My students, tame As...
Read More

Ghetto of Your Eye

by | November 11, 2015 | Fires in the Belly, Journal, Songs | 0 Comments

A Veteran's Day Remembrance I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989 in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a...
Read More

What’s in a Song

by | May 4, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ~Plato         Writing a song is not just an exercise in seeking some kind of future fame. It is...
Read More

Out of the Forge: April 6, 2017

by | April 11, 2017 | Journal, Out of the Forge | 0 Comments

Some nights I feel like I am singing in a mall. Tonight--in a fun way--it felt a bit like I walked into the Natick mall at Christmas time and pulled out my guitar in front of the Apple store and started to play, but like every night down at the inn it evolved into a...
Read More

Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!