A bit out of the ordinary for The Lost World of Cape Breton Island, but today we’re sharing a traditional song popularized by English folk-singer Norma Waterson entitled “When First I Came to Caledonia”.

The “Caledonia” alluded to in the song’s title is not Scotland but, believe it or not, the Caledonia neighbourhood in the town of Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Exported from Cape Breton in the early 1900’s and popularized in the U.K. by Norma Waterson on her 1994 album Waterson:Carthy, “When First I Came to Caledonia” is the story of two brothers arriving in Glace Bay to work at the coal mines. While working at the No.3 colliery, the brothers find lodging at Donald Norman’s local grocery store and boarding house, but in the end can’t get the credit they need to even buy a “cake of soap, brochan (likely a porridge or gruel)”, or a “pound of tea”, instead being reduced to “spearing eels … out on Scatarie”.

Musician Tony Cuffe would perform this traditional piece regularly and one time recounted to the audience what had happened one night after a show:

“I sang this song one night at a club in New York State, and a gentleman came up to me and said not only did he know this song from his youth, he also knew Donald Norman, one of the people in the song, and I was totally amazed – I had never met someone who knew someone from a traditional song before!”