The Carrie Grover Project is the fascinating work of Julie Mainstone Savas and her endeavour to preserve the songs of Carrie Grover, born in Sunken Lake, Nova Scotia in 1879. In Mainstone’s own words: “The accumulation of her (Carrie Grover’s) words is our window to the world she knew in an era of song-singing that has slipped through the fingers of modern times. Her commitment to the preservation of her songs and stories captures the heartbeat of the lives and circumstances of generations of people. The Carrie Grover Project is the 21st century attempt to ensure its preservation.”

Carrie Grover collected the traditional ballads that she had grown up with in rural Nova Scotia and published them in the book A Heritage of Songs. It included notes on who in her family had first sung the tune, and where the tune had supposedly come from. Like a time capsule, Grover preserved not only the songs themselves but likely the way these tunes would have been sung back in the 18th century. Some of these songs would go on to be performed by musicians such as Paul Brady and Joan Baez.

For anyone even slightly interested in the ways of people long gone, especially the people and history of rural Nova Scotia, this is well worth the listen. Below is the first episode of the podcast. The whole podcast can be found on www.carriegroverproject.com.