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Spell of the Yukon

by Claire Ness

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about

Using three of the nine verses of the famous Robert Service poem, all out of order (I hope he wouldn't mind...), I composed this song for the Yukon Commissioner's Ball in Dawson City. When I told Ryan McNally I was going to play at the Ball, he said "bring a lot of waltzes. They love waltzes." So this is what I came up with to please the old-time fancy-dressed dancers of Dawson City.

Almost every time I sing the first verse ("There's a land where the mountains are nameless...") I am taken back to my days as Leading Lady of the Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue and I often think of Grant Simpson. When the MC recited it at the end of the show with us all standing out on stage together, usually it would bring real tears to my eyes. That's how much I love my Yukon home - enough to well up every night all summer long with the wonder of the wildness we are a part of.

lyrics

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;

There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.

Oh The summer—no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all a thrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.

The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness—
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

Oh The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.

The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I’ve bade ’em good-by—but I can’t.

credits

released June 13, 2023
Robert Service - words
Claire Ness - music
Jordy Walker - producer, engineer, bass, piano
Keitha Clark - fiddle
Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Music

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Claire Ness Whitehorse, Yukon

Cheeky wit.
Swing vocals.
Wild northern spirit.

Untamed tales and bona fide love songs from a candid heart!

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