The waters of Georgian Bay have inspired songwriters, surely, beyond recorded history. Its deep waters can be blue and inviting and a summer playground… or turn on you without warning. As Stan Rogers wrote in “White Squall”,

Now it’s a thing that us old-timers know, in a sultry summer calm
There comes a blow from nowhere, and it goes off like a bomb!
And a 15 thousand tonner can be thrown upon her beam
While the gale takes all before it with a scream.

That song, about a laker heading north on either Georgian Bay or Lake Huron proper after losing one of its crew to the “fury of the blow”, reminds us that a “red-eyed Wiarton girl” is left behind – and the liner notes explain that more than “30 percent of the Captains and First Mates employed in shipping on the Lakes came from this quiet fishing town in the Bruce Peninsula.”

Across the Bay to the east, Gordon Lightfoot’s “Christian Island (Georgian Bay)” paints a sunnier picture of our waters.

I’m sailing down the summer wind
I got whiskers on my chin
And I like the mood I’m in
As I while away the time of day
In the lee of Christian Island
Tall and strong she dips and reels
I call her Silver Heels
And she tells me how she feels
She’s a good old boat and she’ll stay afloat
Through the toughest gales and keep smilin’
But for one more day she would like to stay
In the lee of Christian Island

When Kevin Moyse, an Owen Sound songwriter, read tales of Georgian Bay shipwrecks written by Scott Cameron (Meaford resident and former principal of our high school) – he was inspired to create an entire album and DVD package called “Songs of Georgian Bay”. Visit here to learn more.

Other songs of Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay by Laura Ranieri
The Georgian Bay Suite by D. Bain
“Georgian Bay Sunsets” by Evan Paul (among other songs inspired by the Bay). Hear the CBC podcast.
Paul Motian’s “Georgian Bay”, featuring Keith Jarrett. Listen to a sample here.

And now for some shameless self-promotion. Back in 1994, the communities ringing the Bay from Owen Sound to Midland held the Georgian Bay ’94 Marine Heritage Festival, which featured numerous events and visits by tall ships to many of the ports, including Meaford. Organizers held a song contest, calling for songs that celebrated marine heritage, and your faithful blogger got to work on a lyric – “The Dance of Georgian Bay” – asking Sean Keating and Maureen Keating to join in to write the music and perform the song.

“The Dance of Georgian Bay” won the contest. If you’d like to listen, here’s the original contest demo. (Right-click to download the song or left-click to play.)

THE DANCE OF GEORGIAN BAY
© 1994 Maureen Keating, Sean Keating and Vic Michener

Cedar and birchbark sewn taut as a drum skin
Whispering paddles wove spells in our lees
Lost in the wake of the timber and iron
Rolling like thunder from over the sea.

We’re born to the slap of the waves on the pilings
And someday we’ll rest as our bones are picked clean
Stranded on sand like our poor sister Nancy
Or rotting in drydock for want of a dream

But for one sparkling moment
We’ve lived on this water
We’ve weathered her anger and dreamed through her calms
Passing on secrets
From daughter to daughter
As long as she’s here then our dreams will live on.

Sing us a song to the wind in the rigging
Sway like a bride to the beat of the waves
Sweep us away on the breath of a storm cloud
Dance the dance of Georgian Bay

The turtlebacks challenged the old wooden schooners
And now their own nets lie there dry and unused
Even trusty old freighters rust sooner or later
Each weary side wheeler limps through her last cruise

So drive deep your paddle and fire your engines
Cast for your luck in the old fishing hole
Ride on the wind till the land dips astern
Oh, your voyage may end, but they can’t sink your soul

And for one sparkling moment
We’ll live on this water
We’ll weather her anger and dream through her calms
Passing on secrets
From daughter to daughter
As long as she’s here, then our dreams will live on.

Sing us a song to the wind in the rigging
Sway like a bride to the beat of the waves
Sweep us away on the breath of a storm cloud
Dance the dance of Georgian Bay