It was over 4 years ago as my wife and I shared our honeymoon in Costa Rica, when I got commissioned to write a song based on the story told in a poem from 1759 in which the Americans were attempting to attack Chester, Nova Scotia. A new song adventure for this songwriter! I tried to write the song in a style that might have been popular in the taverns of the day where many story songs where performed.
The three pages below tell the original story/poem from 1759 depict the events of an American ship arriving into Chester Bay with the purpose of pillaging and whatever went along with that activity. The story of how the woman of Chester saved the town is quite amazing.
I completed the song in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, and emailed a demo to Dawn Harwood Jones who had contracted me to compose it. Here is the melody and chord chart as arranged by Peter Robson.
THE story continues…..
This year my wife and I summered outside Chester close to where this mid 1700’s story had taken place. This was our way of dealing with Covid-19 isolation. We had a beautiful cottage overlooking the water and as we were walking through the house the first day my wife, being a visual artist, noticed a painting (below) in one of the bathrooms and remarked that she thought this painting was depicting the story of the poem and the song I had composed. As I checked the painting I realized it was as she had stated. What an experience this was! On the back was a note with information on the artist Jose Valderde.
Here are the painting depicting the invasion of Chester by an American ship in mid 1700s and the note found on back of painting.
