Album Notes

Inside Cover of Tribute CD
Taken at Bell Island Lighthouse.

The Submarine Miners started in June of 1994 as a project to help raise funds for the Bell Island Miners Museum which was to open the following year. Now, six years later, we’ve come back to the completed Museum to record this album. There were two reasons for making this recording. The first was to have a permanent document of this group for the cultural history of Bell Island. And more importantly, to create a legacy to pass on to our families and future generations. The songs we’ve selected reflect our musical tastes not only for mining songs, but many of the folk songs that are interwoven into our lives.

Lorraine Cahill
August 2000

Back cover of CD
Artwork by Cynthia Metcalfe
"Fog Drifts in Over No. 4"

When we were first asked to help make an archive of the Bell Island Submarine Miners group, it started as a video, but then things kind of grew from there. When Lorraine presented the list of songs for this CD, I realized that these songs tell a story, the story of Bell Island since 1895. From the opening of the first open pit mine in the late 1800’s, men came here looking for work and a new life. They worked hard to maintain there way of life and honour their past. The work was dangerous, but a good time was only a neighbour’s kitchen away. As industry drew to a close, residents left for all parts of the world, but the dream remains to reunite the exiles and bring ‘em home. Oh, give us all the power.

Russell Bowers
September 2000