Omar Blondahl Listings at GEST Songs Of NFLD [1923-1993] (V)=video

All Around Green Island Shore ~ Traditional Concerning Charlie Horse Feller From Fortune ~ Traditional The Half Door ~ Traditional (V) The H'Emmer Jane ~ Traditional The Huntingdon Shore ~ Traditional (V) If I Were A Blackbird ~ Traditional Jack Was Every Inch A Sailor ~ Traditional (V) Kitchie-Coo Bill Wiseman The Master-Watch Dan Carrol The Moonshine Can ~ Pat Troy My Father's Old Sou'Wester ~ William (Bill) Hollett (V) My Little Blue Hen ~ Johnny Burke The Norfeld And The Raleigh ~ George Williams The Petty Harbour Bait Skiff ~ John Grace Prison Of Newfoundland ~ Johnny Doyle The Roving Newfoundlander ~ Traditional The Sealer's Song ~ Traditional Sig-i-nal Hill (Citadel Hill) ~ Traditional The Ship That Never Returned ~ Henry Clay Work (V) The Southern Cross ~ Traditional The Southern Shore Queen ~ Gertrude Carew Cahill (V) Tickle Cove Pond ~ Mark Walker Trinity Cake ~ Johnny Burke Twin Lakes ~ Traditional We'll Rant And We'll Roar ~ Henry Le Messurier When Paddy McGinty Plays The Harp ~ Cavanaugh, Redmond, Weldon (V)

Biographical Notes

Omar (Sagebrush Sam) Blondahl [1923-1993] was born in Wynard, east of Saskatoon, in the province of Saskatchewan of Icelandic parents. Folk singer and guitarist, he studied piano and violin in his youth, and voice later in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Taking the name Sagebrush Sam around 1944, he sang country music on radio throughout western Canada until 1951, then worked as a folk singer until 1953 in Hollywood, California. He lived from 1955 to 1964 in St John's, NL, where he developed a repertoire of island folk songs, some of which he collected himself. Adopting a Newfoundland accent and employing a simple vocal and guitar style, Blondahl performed locally and, in broadcasts on national radio and television from Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto, ON, popularized Newfoundland songs throughout Canada. Under his own name and as Sagebrush Sam he made several 33-1/3 rpm LPs of Newfoundland material for Rodeo, Arc, and Melbourne records. He also edited Newfoundlanders Sing!: A Collection of Favorite Newfoundland Folk Songs (St John's, 1964). Blondahl subsequently lived in the Arctic, and in 1979 settled in Vancouver. ~ From Omar Blondahl's Contribution To The Newfoundland Folksong Canon, by Neil Rosenberg, Canadian Folk Music Journal, Vol 18, 1991.

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