Maps

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Maps – a collection of the most requested songs selected from 9 of David Francey’s 13 albums
I have been writing songs for over 50 years. Each song is a map that helped me navigate through the ups and downs life put in my way. I’d have been lost without them. David Francey
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1. Red-winged Blackbird – 1989. Torn Screen Door
These birds have always brought me joy. The harbinger of spring and the end of the long winter. This song’s popularity was a delightful surprise and remains among the most popular with folks. I suspect most are Canadians who are looking for any sign of spring at the end of a long winter. Exactly when and why I wrote it.
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2. Come Rain or Come Shine – 1989. Skating Rink
One of the first love songs I wrote for Beth. When we first got together and love was new. A lot of folks have seen their own love story in this song and use it as their first dance. A hopeful affirmation of love.
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3. Paperboy – 1998. Far End of Summer
One of the best things about that job was that contented feeling of having the world to myself, early in the morning, before the village awoke.
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4. Waking Hour - 2000. The Waking Hour
A rookery of Crows behind the house turned morning into a time of reckoning. I got through that time, in no small measure, due to this song.
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5, Lonely Road - 2007. The Broken Heart of Everything
I spend a lot of time touring, missing home from the long road. I always felt I should come with a “Better When Missed” sticker.
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6. Blue Water – 1990. Torn Screen Door
My father spent five years on the Grey Funnel Line, The Royal Navy during the Second World War. I wrote this for him. It was such a thrill to watch and hear it come together in the studio. A beautiful Dave Clarke arrangement.
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7. Broken Glass - 1993. Skating Rink
A perpetual fan favourite, this was written for my daughter, Amy, when she was 14 years old. I think love always walks the high school halls.
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8. Ballad of Bowser MacRae – 2005. Right of Passage
Greg Macrae was the third mate on the good ship M V Algoville. A rare man, a good soul, a grand shipmate and a fast friend. I was lucky to spend the time with such a unique and kind man. He is missed.
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9. Satellite – 2002. So Say We All
I lived by myself on Under Bunker Road before Beth joined me. At 9 PM that Satellite was my nightly visitor, up there in the glories of the Heaven, looking straight down at the ground. Sadly, that’s how a lot of us walk through our own beautiful worlds. I saw myself in that satellite and this song.
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10. Morning Train - 2003. The Waking Hour
Written after a splendid time at the Tonder Music Festival in Denmark when hope carried the day. I still think all the gods would give us the same message: we’re all on the same train.
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11. Hard Steel Mill - 1994. Torn Screen Door
The 4 am view of the mills from the Burlington Skyway Bridge across Hamilton harbour. A moving, industrial landscape I saw at its best every morning.
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12. The Flower of Colonsay – 2017. The Broken Heart of Everything
A love story from an island in the Inner Hebrides. Love finds us anywhere. I was an observer as it took its course.
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13. Annie’s House – 2001. Skating Rink
We’d won our first JUNO and were headed to New Hampshire and the welcoming arms of Annie Provenzano. I am forever grateful for Annie’s friendship and support. Both have been rock solid. I was happy to write her song that day; never amiss to celebrate kindness.
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14. Borderline – 1993. Torn Screen Door
My first marriage was ending. Every day I crossed the border to the US. I was quite borderline myself. A chronicling of a bit of time spent in the wilderness. Not wandering, but nowhere near home.
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15. Ashtabula – 2003. The Waking Hour
A coal port on Lake Erie. Kelli O’Neil took me down there. I was heart struck when she told me the coal trains came up from Kentucky. This was my mother’s favourite song. I can still hear her singing it. She had a lovely voice. Her favourite line was “That coal train from Kentucky, man, she’s come a long, long way.”
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16. Nearly Midnight –2000. Skating Rink
The winter journey through the Eastern Townships, every mile bathed in silver moonlight. Everything described in the song combined to make it a perfect Canadian winter night on the road.
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17. Skating Rink – 2002. Skating Rink
From our house you could hear the boom of the puck on the boards. I could hear them as I wrote the song. (In the video Ian McGregor is number 14). So many nights spent under the stars on the ice.
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18. HWY 95 – 2002. The Waking Hour
Beth and I on the road south to our first Folk Alliance Conference when all seemed possible. Our first time in the Southland. When we hit Georgia, we ate nothing but roadside pecans and rolled the windows down, down, down.
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19. Ankle Tattoo - 2003, The Waking Hour
Bus stations are unchangingly changing places. This song unfolded as the wait progressed as events unfolded around me, as we all came and went in a steady parade of characters.
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20. Fool – 2014. Empty Train
I earned this one, sadly. Oh my.
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21. The Gate - 2005. Right of Passage
The spreading of my father’s ashes in Kilmaurs led me to writing this. My sister Muriel, my ma and I at the gate. Ma said “This is where your father first told me he loved me.” The remembrance in her voice hit me hard in the heart and sparked the writing of the song.
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22. Rain – 2008. So Say we All
You can spend too long under a cloudy sky. You have to keep the sun in mind, even if you can’t keep it in sight. We always get by the rain.
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23. Empty Train - 2010. Empty Train
The trains in Ashcroft BC on the Thompson River gave birth to this song. I always enjoyed our runs up to the Opera House. The empty trains rattling and banging up the valley made a grand subject to hang a love song on.
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24. Far End of Summer - 1999. Far End of Summer
I had just done my first solo show in the basement of the Cliff House Hotel. I was walking our dog, Buddy, thinking I’d just done what I was meant to do. Still a personal favourite.
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25. Only Love - 2017. The Broken Heart of Everything
A song that could have had hundreds of lines. I wrote out dozens I think and distilled it down in the barn. Only love indeed.
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26. Walking in Jerusalem - traditional. The Broken Heart of Everything
I sang this one with the band Blue Moon in Ayer’s Cliff when I first sang on stage. This is a nod to them, their kindness, and their open welcome to me. Musicians to the core.
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27. Saints and Sinners - 1997. Torn Screen Door
Church bells were ringing as I wrote this on my front steps. I started to remember the best lesson I ever learned. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It has been my credo ever since. It works!
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28. February Morning Drive - 2000. Far End of Summer
A winter drive on the way to the job site from Ayer’s Cliff to Lennoxville on Highway 143. A sunny morning in the coldest month and a beautiful start to the day. By days end I had hypothermia, but I didn’t write about that part.
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29. Kansas – 2006. Right of Passage
An unexpected muse in an exceptional song writing camp in Palmer Alaska – land of the midnight sun. One of the writers was from Kansas, so I called her “Kansas.” She loved it. That and the midnight sun inspired the writing.
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30. Pandora’s Box - 2008. So Say We All
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A take on the internet, inspired by the jailing of Bob Lovelace, an Algonquin activist, at a protest down the road. In this case it was force for good. So often it isn’t.
31. Tonight in My Dreams - 1994. The Waking Hour
Beth was, and is, the best dancer I’ve ever met. A poetry of movement. I’m about the opposite. The memory is of dancing to live music at The Pines in Bridgenorth, Ontario on a Saturday Night.
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32. Banks of the Seaway – 1992. Far End of Summer
The Saint Lawrence Seaway in four seasons. My favourite river in the world. I wrote the song during a blizzard on Highway 401, started when the road sign for “Summers Town” loomed out of the driving snow. 
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33. All Lights Burning Bright - 2005. Right of Passage
Good advice from the ship’s log. I try to heed it.
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34. Lucky Man - 2000. Far End of Summer
I was inspired by the joy my musical friends, Jenn Cianca and Karla Mundy, brought to my songs. Kind hearts and great talents both; they were the first ones on the bus! My first of many platonic love songs.
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35. Grateful – 2007. Late Edition
Because sometimes I forgot to be. The leaving really is the hardest part.
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36. Torn Screen Door – 1990. Torn Screen Door

This song has rung like a bell from the moment I wrote it. It’s short, succinct and recognizable wherever I’ve played it ’round the world. It tells an unfortunately common tale of the human cost of coming out on the short end, despite our best efforts.
37. Bonus Track – Corpus Christi – 2019
I saw the city name on a map and it struck me as beautifully strange. I made up the character. I live the bridge "and from myself deliver me."
Credits
All songs, words and music, David Francey (SOCAN) except Walking in Jerusalem (Traditional)
Mastered by Mariana Hutten Czapski, Lacquer Channel
Art direction: Colin Francey, Brinley Arnou and Beth Girdler
Graphic layout: Colin Francey and Brinley Arnou
Photography: Beth Girdler. Collage photos from the private collection of Beth Girdler and David Francey
 
 
Many Thanks to:
I am grateful beyond measure for the musicians who have brought all these song to life. I could not have done any of it without them and I could not have enjoyed doing it more. It’s a wonderful thing to be around like minds when those minds are so exquisitely talented. I am in awe of and grateful for every one of them that lent their talents and hearts to the songs.
Many thanks to our long time manager and friend, Mark Watson who encouraged us to put this album together and helped pull together the songs. My friend Jess Wedden was instrumental in helping me through the process of winnowing out the song list. Thank you for keeping me on the rails and getting us to the end. Thanks to the hardworking crew of Ryan and Jennifer Heerschap who do an excellent job booking our shows.
I am lucky to have the talented family I do. I want to thank Colin Francey and Brinley Arnou for their care and skill in compiling the album design for this record. Thanks for the insights, talents and joy you brought to all of it. Above and beyond!
Thanks to Beth for keeping us all marching, for inspiring songs, dragging them into the light of day and me along with them. None of it would have happened without her. There’s not much love can’t accomplish when it puts its mind to something.
I dedicate this album to Ian MacGregor. A friend and a friendship still missed.