Above is a picture of my Grandfather taken in July of 1967. Most of the songs on the album are from his repertoire. He claimed to know a song for every day of the year, unfortunately most of them died with him. Some of his songs which I do have that did not make it on the album include Sir James the Ross, The Holy Church of Rome, Daniel Monroe, The Black, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud, Jimmy & Nancy, The Press Gang, Matt Hyland, plus a number I can't think of at the moment.
My Father wrote a piece about my
Grandfather for the liner notes:
John Patrick Myrick was born at Cape Race lightstation in 1900. Raised there & at Cape Freels south, he married Mary Frances Molloy and was a dory and small boat fisherman and postmaster at St. Shotts for many years. Renowned for his memory and intelligence he was valued all along the southeastern Avalon for his knowledge of local history, marine disasters, geneology and ballads.Jack sang unaccompanied by musical instruments; he sang from memory without any text. He knew variants of some songs that differed from those published by various folklorists. At a Christmas time, spree, houseball, or wedding Jack sang on request one song after another. Now Tom, his daughter Mary's son, carries on the tradition by singing a selection of songs that Jack and other St. Shotts' men sang and that I recorded beginning in 1968.