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Michigan-I-A 4:210:00/4:21
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Over the Waterfall 2:280:00/2:28
Michigan-I-A
Come all ye Yankee farmers who’d like to change your lot
With spunk enough to travel beyond your native spot
And leave behind the village where pa and ma doth stay
Come go with me and settle in Michigan-I-A
For there’s your Penobscot way down in parts of Maine
Where timber grows a-plenty, but not a bit of grain
And then there is your Quaddy and your Piscatacaway
But these can’t hold a candle to Michigan-I-A
And there’s your state of Vermont, but what a place is that?
To be sure the girls are pretty and the cattle very fat
But who amongst her mountains and clouds of snow would stay
When he can have a section in Michigan-I-A?
And Massachusetts was once good enough to be sure
But now she’s always lying in taxation and manure
She’ll cause a peck of trouble, but deal a peck will pay
When all is scripture measure in Michigan-I-A
And there’s your land of blue laws where deacons cut their hair
For fear their locks and tenets will not exactly square
Where beer that works on Sundays a penalty must pay
When all is free and easy in Michigan-I-A
And in the state of New York peoples very rich
They amongst themselves and others have dug a mighty ditch
Which renders it more easy for us to find our way
And sail upon the waters of Michigan-I-A
What country ever grew up so great in little time?
Just springing from a nursery and into life it’s prime
When Uncle Sam did wean her ‘twas but the other day
And now she’s quite a lady, this Michigan-I-A
And if you want to go to a place called Washtenaw
You’ll first upon the Huron, such land you never saw
here ship comes to Ann Arbor right through a pleasant bay
And touch at Ypsilanti in Michigan-I-A
And if you want to travel a little farther back
You’ll reach the shire of Oakland, and the town of Pontiac
Which springing up so sudden scared the bears and wolves away
That used to roam about there in Michigan-I-A
And if you want to go where Rochester is there
Further still Mount Clemens looks out upon St. Clair
Along with other places within Macomb-i-a
Which promise population to Michigan-I-A
And if you want to travel a little further on
I guess you’ll touch St. Joseph where everybody’s gone
Where everything like Jack’s beans grows monstrous fast they say
And beats the rest all hollow in Michigan-I-A
So come all ye Yankee farmer boys with a mettle heart like me
With elbow grease a-plenty to bow the forest tree
Come buy a quarter section, and I’ll be bound you’ll say
This country takes the rag off, this Michigan-I-A!
Source: Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner
Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan
University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1939