Second Hand Record Dip Part 79 - Tom, Jim and Garth - Come Home Newfoundlander/ Something To Sing About

Who: Tim, Jim & Garth (of "The Scotians")
What: Come Home Newfoundlander/ Something To Sing About
Label: Melbourne
When: 196(?)
Where: Wood Street Market, Walthamstow
Cost: 50p

My wife's Canadian, you know. So really, you'd have thought that this particular single might have slipped inside her luggage when she moved permanently to the UK, or perhaps have been sent to us as a gift. You'd be wrong, however - it turned up in Wood Street Market in Walthamstow (East London) late last year to the complete and total bemusement of us both, sitting in the sixties 50p boxes alongside the usual records by Cliff Richard, The Tremeloes, Ken Dodd, et al.

Tom, Jim and Garth were all members of a Canadian folk outfit called The Scotians (later known as The New Scotians) and their chief member Thomas Powers was responsible for putting on gigs in "The Living End" coffee bar on Grafton Street in Halifax. Their output ranged from folk to pop to calypso, but primarily they were an important cog in the Canadian folk circuit and apparently capable of stirring up the memories of many people in that area.

This single has been rather heavily loved - "Come Home Newfoundlander" is battered beyond belief and horribly needleworn, which I apologise for - but is a two sided effort of very patriotic ditties about everyone's favourite large country north of the USA, and I suspect it may possibly have been geared at the tourist market in some way, which might explain how a copy ended up back home in the UK.  Both sides are quite charming, and as soon as I got the record home and played it my wife realised she knew both songs from her childhood, and that Canuck folk rockers The Great Big Sea also recorded a version of "Come Home Newfoundlander" (though I doubt that's going to mean anything to most readers).

Sadly, group leader Thomas Powers passed away in 2010 after a period of running a barber's business whilst continuing to play music.  What became of the rest of The New Scotians I'm none too sure, but I'm sure somebody will be able to fill in the blanks - certainly, some of their records seem very collectible these days.