So, back around 1955, this Icelandic Canadian folksinger from Wynyard Saskatchewan decided to check out his Icelandic heritage by travelling to Iceland, but he only has enough money to get to St.John's NL, where he planned to scrape together enough for the rest of the trip. He lands at a radio station, where the following happens.
"He tossed a Gerald S. Doyle songbook on the table and he said, "Can you sing any of that?" And this was my first introduction to Newfoundland folk music, so I opened it and thumbed through, I said "My God this is beautiful stuff." I had never heard any of it before and I said "This must be on all kinds of records," I said "I've never run across any of it." He said, "I don't think any of them are on records" and I thought this is a gold mine, you know, oh my." -- Omar Blondahl
He then recorded what was to be the first (or maybe the second) LP album ever of Newfoundland songs in 1955. No one had considered the songs to be important enough to record, up until that point. How things have changed, now you can bottle Newfoundland iceberg sweat and sell it.
(The first Nfld. songs album was by Montrealer Alan Mills in 1953.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Blondahl
Omar Blondahl - Let me Fish off Cape St. Mary's (1956)
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