Great Lakes music map now features odes to gobies, muck and a bull-whipped dog

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By Great Lakes Echo
Nov. 18, 2009

Echo’s Great Lakes music map map is growing with new reader contributions of songs inspired by the lakes. Check out the additions by clicking on the map found here.

Among our favorites of the new additions: 

  • Terry Brown We’ve got this Mucky Water (Clifford Stuehmer) A late entry that helps beef out Lake Huron’s representation.
  • Gun Street Girl (Tom Waits) with the wonderful line: “Sittin’ by the Erie with a bull-whipped dog.”
  • Galloping Goby Blues (David Jude) featuring this verse: “There’s gobies in Superior and St. Clair, Gobies running rampant everywhere, Gobies in the bathroom, gobies in the sink, they know where you’re going, they know what you think.”

Got a good one? Suggest it in the comments below or at the bottom of the original story.

6 thoughts on “Great Lakes music map now features odes to gobies, muck and a bull-whipped dog

  1. im doing a project on the goby and the song the galloping goby blues sounds perfect for the media aspect; does anyone know where i can download it??

  2. Hi Mike,

    I was wondering if there was any way to purchase a copy of the “Michigan Man” song. Do you have a cd out? I love the song and would like to get a copy of it. Thanks.

    Yours Truely,
    Don Baldwin

  3. Who could forget Mike Ridley’s, I am a Michigan Man.

    The Great Lakes line:
    where sleeping bears lie on the sand
    where Manitou has placed his hands

    MICHIGAN MAN
    When I wander far a way, a dream stays with me night and day.
    It’s the road that leads to my home state,
    I am a Michigan Man.
    Changing seasons paint the scene
    like rainbow trout in a hidden stream
    the white tail deer and the tall pine trees
    I am a Michigan Man.
    (chorus)
    I am I am a Michigan Man
    ask where I’m from and I’ll show you my hands
    Lord above I love this land
    I am a Michigan Man
    From the Keewenaw down to St. Joe
    Kalamazoo east to Monroe
    Sault Ste. Marie and back again
    I am a Michigan Man
    (cho)
    (bridge)
    Mitch-i-ga-mee
    Win a-wen nsustung
    wah-sey-wah mib-zey-wen
    geen-wah gaa-muk,
    wen-maa-naa-nuk
    Ab-nab-ma-ing
    Anishnabe Anishnabe
    (Looking back,
    he who understands
    the passing light
    will always remember
    the first people of
    Michigan)
    If I should die across the sea
    on a peninsula you can bury me
    and on my headstone it should read
    here lies a Michigan Man
    (chorus)
    (repeat chorus)
    I am, I am a Michigan Man
    where sleeping bears lie on the sand
    where Manitou has placed his hands
    I am a Michigan Man

    copyright 1995
    Mike Ridley
    Keweneh Music

  4. I think the Great Lakes greatest song is by Pat Dailey – Great Lakes Song.
    The main verse is:
    Sweet mother Michigan, Father Superior coming down from Mackinaw and Sault Saint Marie, Blue water Huron flow down to Lake Erieo fall to Ontario and run on out to sea
    The GreaT Lakes are a diamond on the hand of North America
    bright face shining jewel on the..
    Fresh water highway coming down from Canada
    all around the coastline can’t you hear them sing
    Hardy are the seaman on the Ships that load the iron ore sailing out of Thunderbay to Buffalo
    Hardy are the fisherman just like their fathers were before that say they’ll marry me at sea…
    The song is up beat with a great rythym and passion for the lakes
    He also sings a song about Walleye – Legend of the Lake (Erie) – Putn Bay
    There is Lee Murdock who sings ballads about the ship the Dinkey. Lady of Old Maumee Bay(Toledo Lighthouse) and the Ashtabula lighthouse
    KD Moore who sings about Mari Gras(at Putin Bay)
    Dan Hall who sings about the Bradley(ship)
    There is also ballad singer Russ Franzen who sings about the Maumee and Erie Canal
    Putin Bay is probably the most renowned island in the Great Lakes – a fun place with history – food, music and drink
    All of these singers are in Northwest Ohio except Murdock who hails in Illinois

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