Mark Gilston
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When I First Came to this land

Mark Gilston » Videos » When I First Came to this land

musician/member name: Mark Gilston
Duration: 00:02:41
description:
Mark Gilston sings a reworking of a Pennsylvania Dutch folk song accompanied on the mountain dulcimer. When I First Came to this Land was reworked from it's Pennsylvania Dutch origins by Oscar Brand in 1957. The original song has quite a few different versions, and the Anglicized song has gone through several changes and acquired many new verses since first recorded by Oscar Brand and more famously by Pete Seeger. I try to stay relatively close to the original English version.
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Mark Gilston
10/12/25 10:55:46AM @mark-gilston:

Your comments are very much appreciated.  


Some people also sing "Love of my life" for the wife. "Trouble and Strife" is the Rhyming Cockney expression for a wife so it's rather interesting that it would show up so out of context in versions of this song which has no British antecedents.


I absolutely agree that people in general found much more enjoyment in longer songs with extended stories and / or incremental repetition.  And choruses have always been a way to bind singing communities together.  Also apparently, the Pennsylvania Dutch were very fond of cumulative songs as were the rural English. 


Strumelia:


Yours is a charming version of this great old song Mark.
BTW I always appreciate that it's easy to understand the lyrics when you sing them. Very nice crisp playing too!
I've heard the wife being called "Trouble and Strife" as well as your "Run For your Life"... both are funny, as is the son's name "My Work's Done".  biglaugh


I feel like people these days have less patience to listen to lyrics that repeat this much and sloooowly build onto the next part. But way back in the day this was people's entertainment and they enjoyed sitting back to listen to long stories and ballads with many more verses and choruses than today's songs. Do you agree, or is that in my head?


 
Strumelia
10/12/25 08:49:57AM @strumelia:

Yours is a charming version of this great old song Mark.
BTW I always appreciate that it's easy to understand the lyrics when you sing them. Very nice crisp playing too!
I've heard the wife being called "Trouble and Strife" as well as your "Run For your Life"... both are funny, as is the son's name "My Work's Done".  biglaugh

I feel like people these days have less patience to listen to lyrics that repeat this much and sloooowly build onto the next part. But way back in the day this was people's entertainment and they enjoyed sitting back to listen to long stories and ballads with many more verses and choruses than today's songs. Do you agree, or is that in my head?