Flowers of Bermuda - Michael Kelly - (Stan Rogers cover)

My cover of the Stan Rogers song, telling the tale of the fictional ship 'Nightengale', a coal-carrying vessel that departed from Scotland en route to America in the 19th century. Just
five hours of travel from their destination, the ship runs aground on a reef and sinks. When it is discovered that there isn't room enough for everyone on the one remaining lifeboat, the captain sacrifices his own life by staying on the ship so that the rest of the crew is able to make it safely to shore.

This is the third in the series of Canadian content songs this month. It's the odd one out, in that it doesn't directly reference anything Canadian, but is one of the more popular songs of an iconic Canadian songwriter. There is another reason why I chose this song out of all of the many wonderful songs by Stan Rogers..

I hadn't actually planned to record this one at all, as it is nightmarishly difficult to play at speed and I knew that it would take many, many hours of recording to get a decent take. However, it's among the favourite songs of one of my dearest and closest friends in all the world, who had been asking me to bring the song back into my live playing repertoire for a while. So I decided to record and release it this week as a birthday present. Happy birthday! :D

The chorus at the end of the song is probably the most involved bit of multi-track recording that I've done to date, with a total of 13 vocal parts (4 distinct harmony lines, each sung 3 times to achieve a choral effect, plus the main melody line).

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"FLOWERS OF BERMUDA" - Written by Stan Rogers

[Chorus:]
He was the Captain of the Nightingale
Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
When he died on the North Rock shoal

Just five short hours from Bermuda,
In a fine October gale
There came a cry "Oh, there be breakers dead ahead!"
From the collier Nightingale

No sooner had the Captain brought her round,
Came a rending crash below
Hard on her beam ends, groaning, went the Nightingale
And overside her mainmast goes

"Oh, Captain, are we all for drowning?"
Came the cry from all the crew
"The boats be smashed! How then are we all to be saved?
They are stove in through and through!"

"Oh, are ye brave and hardy collier-men
Or are ye blind and cannot see?
The Captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound,
It shall carry all o' we."

[Chorus]

But when the crew was all assembled
And the gig prepared for sea,
'Twas seen there were but eighteen places to be manned
Nineteen mortal souls were we

But cries the Captain "Now do not delay,
Nor do ye spare a thought for me.
My duty is to save you all now, if I can.
See ye return as quick as can be."

[Chorus]

Oh, there be flowers in Bermuda
Beauty lies on every hand,
And there be laughter, ease and drink for every man,
But there is no joy for me

For when we reached the wretched Nightingale
What an awful sight was plain!
The Captain, drowned, was tangled in the mizzen-chains
Smiling bravely beneath the sea

[Chorus x3]