{title: I'se the B'y}
{artist: Traditional (Newfoundland)}
{key: D}
{tempo: 132}
{difficulty: beginner}
{phase: 2}
{tags: canadiana,traditional,newfoundland,public-domain,singalong,duet,kids,shanty,starter,campfire}
{video: youtube:S-bQn9DtgUA}
{credit: 'I'se the B'y' — Great Big Sea (live with lyrics). Traditional Newfoundland folk song (PD composition, pre-1928). The Great Big Sea arrangement is the modern canonical version.}

{c: The Newfoundland kids-and-grown-ups song. Public domain composition. Three chords (D, A, G), lively jig feel.}
{c: A clean Canadiana pick — no appropriation issues, equally strong for any singalong audience including kids in the room.}
{c: Lyrics traditional, in print since at least the early 1900s (Gerald S. Doyle's Old-Time Songs of Newfoundland, 1927).}

{c: ===== STRUCTURE =====}
{c: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Final chorus (slow it down for the last "All around the circle!")}

{start_of_verse}
[D]I'se the b'y that builds the boat
And [A]I'se the b'y that sails her
[D]I'se the b'y that catches the [G]fish
And [A]brings them home to Li[D]za
{end_of_verse}

{start_of_chorus}
[D]Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo!
[A]Hip yer partner, Sally Brown!
[D]Fogo, Twillingate, [G]Moreton's Harbour
[A]All around the [D]circle!
{end_of_chorus}

{start_of_verse}
[D]Sods and rinds to cover yer flake
[A]Cake and tea for supper
[D]Codfish in the spring of the [G]year
[A]Fried in maggoty [D]butter
{end_of_verse}

{start_of_chorus}
[D]Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo!
[A]Hip yer partner, Sally Brown!
[D]Fogo, Twillingate, [G]Moreton's Harbour
[A]All around the [D]circle!
{end_of_chorus}

{start_of_verse}
[D]I don't want your maggoty fish
[A]That's no good for winter
[D]I could buy as good as [G]that
[A]Down in Bona[D]vista
{end_of_verse}

{start_of_chorus}
[D]Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo!
[A]Hip yer partner, Sally Brown!
[D]Fogo, Twillingate, [G]Moreton's Harbour
[A]All around the [D]circle!
{end_of_chorus}

{start_of_verse}
[D]I took Liza to a dance
And [A]faith but she could travel
And [D]every step that she did [G]take
Was [A]up to her knees in [D]gravel
{end_of_verse}

{start_of_chorus}
[D]Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo!
[A]Hip yer partner, Sally Brown!
[D]Fogo, Twillingate, [G]Moreton's Harbour
[A]All around the [D]circle!
{end_of_chorus}

{c: ===== HOW TO PLAY IT =====}
{c: Three chords: D, A, G — sit beautifully under the fiddle in the home key. Strum: boom-chuck-boom-chuck, jig-pace (around 132 BPM). Lean into the chorus — that's the part the family yells.}
{c: For the 7yo: the chorus places are all real Newfoundland outports — Fogo Island, Twillingate, Moreton's Harbour. Look them up on a map together. It's a geography lesson in a song.}

{c: ===== FIDDLE BREAK (instrumental verse) =====}
{c: After verse 2 (Sods and rinds…) or as an outro, fiddle takes a full 16-bar verse-and-chorus as a solo, then the band comes back in. This is THE classic Newfoundland fiddle moment.}
{c: Stay in D. The melody mirrors the vocal line on the verse, then opens up on the chorus with passing eighths.}
{c: Suggested fiddle melody (ABC notation, key D, 4/4):}
{c:   Verse:  |: A2 d2 d2 c2 | d2 e2 f2 e2 | d2 B2 A2 G2 | A2 F2 D4 :|}
{c:   Chorus: |: d2 d2 e2 d2 | c2 c2 d2 c2 | B2 c2 d2 e2 | f2 e2 d4 :|}
{c: Or improvise: stick to D major arpeggio (D-F#-A-d) with passing tones; the chorus opens onto G (G-B-d) and resolves on A (A-c#-e).}

{c: ===== BAND ARRANGEMENT =====}
{c: Verse 1: one lead voice, light strum. Hold the band back so the chorus has somewhere to grow into.}
{c: Chorus: ALL voices on "Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo!" — harmony on the high third, full crew belting the second "Hip yer partner!" line and the place names. Fiddle joins the chorus from here onward.}
{c: Verse 2: trade the lead to a second voice. Fiddle drones a D string underneath.}
{c: Verse 3 (the maggoty-fish verse): two voices in call-and-answer; the "I don't want your maggoty fish" line is the funniest in the song — let the room (or any kids in it) yell it with you.}
{c: Verse 4 (Liza dance): full band, bodhrán hammering downbeats.}
{c: Fiddle break: full chorus melody as written above, then straight back into the final chorus with the whole crew belting it.}

{c: ===== WHY THIS SONG =====}
{c: Replaces "Land of the Silver Birch" as the songbook's Canadian kids' anthem. Newfoundland's most-sung folk song, in print since the 1920s, made famous internationally by Great Big Sea in 1993. The chorus is geographically specific to real outports — kids actually learn a piece of Canadian geography in the act of singing it. Strong fiddle tradition (it WANTS a fiddle break). Public domain composition.}
{c: Use this song to show kids in the room that "Canadian folk music" doesn't have to mean cosplay. It can mean a real place, real fishermen named Sally and Liza, a real dance hall, real maggoty butter. That's the inheritance worth passing on.}