Singers at the Youth Traditional Song conference. Photo by Lorelei Erisis.
Photo by Lorelei Erisis
Country Dance & Song Society > Publications > Listen > Song of the Month

Song of the Month

Join us each month in song!

Since 2016—our designated Year of Song—CDSS has featured a traditional song each month. Lorraine Hammond spearheaded this effort, and it was such a popular feature that Judy Cook volunteered to continue the tradition in 2017 and beyond. 

Note: Many of these old songs should be looked at as “fairy tales for adults” in that they often address very strong, and sometimes scary, subject matter. They allow us to deal with difficult situations and emotions with the distance afforded by putting it in a song. They are cautionary tales, and had their use as such.

This month’s song:

  • "View on the Erie Canal" by J.W. Hill, 1829 July 2025: We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie
    Submitted by Lee Murdock

    This song was sung by Captain Pearl Nye of Akron, Ohio to a number of folklorists—John and Alan Lomax and Ivan Walton, to name just a few. Having worked the Ohio and Erie Canal for many years, Nye was a treasure trove of songs, stories and anecdotes from the canal era. These canals needed portage lakes to supply water for navigation, to keep water levels up. After most of the canals closed operations, the lakes became vacation destinations for the growing middle class of the early twentieth century, and remain so to this day.

    Listen to Lee’s version:

    Sheet music for "We're Going to Pump Out Lake Erie"
    Download the sheet music for “We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie.”

    Lyrics

    We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie
    By Captain Pearl R. Nye; arrangement by Lee Murdock

    The season is dry, old timer,
    And water won’t run uphill.
    So let’s do our best to forget the rest
    and keep our levels full.

    Chorus:
    We’re going to pump out Lake Erie.
    We’re going to begin next June.
    And when we get done, you can tell by the sun
    they’ll be whiskers on the moon.

    The portage lakes sometimes fail us
    and often are much too low.
    Oh, and then for rain we’d have to wait,
    for loaded we cannot go.

    We will watch our gates and paddles. Yes, the tumbles and wasteways, too.
    They’ll help us along with their merry song,
    and we’ll see that we get through.

    For the canal needs the water to keep things afloat
    and never will put wheels on my old canal boat,
    for I love the old tow-path and anything afloat.
    So you cannot make a wagon of my grand old boat.

    Lee Murdock has one foot in contemporary folk music, and one foot firmly planted in the folk music tradition. After studying the traditional folk songs of the British Isles and Appalachian American music, Lee has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories about the Great Lakes. Lee has released 21 CDs from 1981 to 2018, with each recording presenting a balance of traditional, original and contemporary music with a ear to expanding the audience of folk music lovers.

Past Songs