Local author and musician Bill Hullfish has researched and played the folk music of the Erie Canal and other waterways for over 40 years with the Golden Eagle String Band, which he started at The College at Brockport in 1978. In his new book with musician Dave Ruch, The Erie Canal Sings: A Musical History of New York’s Grand Waterway, Hullfish takes readers on a musical journey along the historic Erie Canal.
“I love the folk music from the 19th century,” Hullfish said. “The height of the canal era is probably 1830 to 1880, a wonderful era that Stephen Foster and Mark Twain wrote about.” The waterways were key in building the United States. “The railroads took over,” he said, “but the early development was almost solely through the canals; all of upstate New York grew because of the canal.”
Life working along the banks of the Erie Canal is preserved in the songs of America’s rich musical history. This book explores the background of canal songs, including when written, who wrote them and their place in the culture. There is focus on the people behind the songs – those who wrote them and those who sang them.
Thomas Allen’s “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” has achieved iconic status in the American songbook, but its true story has never been told until now. Hullfish participated in a New York Folklore Society panel discussion of the song back in 2012. Shocked by what little information the other three panelists had to offer on the piece, Hullfish was inspired to learn more about the iconic song. “I knew there had to be more information somewhere,” Hullfish said. “I have looked at all aspects of the piece: When written, why written, the man who wrote it, and the musical style it was written in.” One of the mysteries solved was why a Boston composer would write a song about the Erie Canal. He found that Allen did visit Rochester when the canal was switching to the barge system and being re-routed past Rochester. “That’s when he wrote the nostalgic song.”
Beyond the Erie, this book covers a whole network of connecting canals, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and New Jersey. For example, songs such as “The E-ri-e Is a-Risin’” would transform into “The C&O Is a-Risin’” as the song culture spread among a network of other canals, including the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Pennsylvania Main Line. As motors replaced mules and railroads emerged, the canal song tradition continued on Broadway stages and in folk music recordings.
With his belief that “performing the songs is the only way to excite people about history,” Hullfish has appeared across the northeast with the Golden Eagle String Band at a vast array of regional festivals, universities and museums, and community historic celebrations. The band recorded for Smithsonian/Folkways, toured under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and received a gold medal from the Smithsonian Institute.
Hullfish is a life member of the American Canal Society. He taught music at The College at Brockport from 1963 until his retirement in 2012. He has published articles in American Canals and is the author of The Canaller’s Songbook (American Canal and Transportation Center).
The Erie Canal Sings is available at Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport.
