Content area
Full text
The Legacy of "Aunt Martha's Sheep": Political and Social Satire in the Newfoundland Recordings of Ellis and Wince Coles
Ellis and Wince Giles are a country ballad duo from Carmanville, Newfoundland. The brothers are part-time musicians who have gained widespread popularity among "outport" Newfoundlanders (those from small coastal communities) and among the numerous expatriate Newfoundlanders of southern Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. In many ways their hometown is a typical Newfoundland community. Having a population of approximately eight hundred, Carmanville is located in Hamilton Sound, on the central north coast of the island. Its homes are stretched along the shore, facing the traditional fishing grounds on which the economy has been based. Given the lack of industry or employment outside of the fishery, and because of the northern cod moratorium (ongoing since 1992), it is a community awaiting revival. Ellis and Wince's version of the Newfoundland country ballad has developed through their intimate relation with this milieu, the present recession, and the consequent depopulation of the region.
Ellis (b. 1939) and Wince (b. 1945) both began playing the guitar and composing songs while in their youth. As adults, however, they each followed separate paths toward local stardom. Ellis worked primarily as a heavy equipment operator, traveling regularly throughout Newfoundland. While driving alone during the day, he would often compose songs in his mind and then perform them at night for his fellow workers. When asked about this compositional process, Ellis explained, " It is just stories, funny things that happened. Sometimes you get it from the old fella next door, they doing something foolish out around the bay. It's not until the later years that we started picking up on the news, on the moratorium and such. There was always a lot of imagination. When I was young, I could take a story, pick up a guitar, and sing it. I could write the song while I sang it" (Ellis Coles, 1998). Ellis's formal public debut as a songwriter came in 1972, when popular Newfoundland singer Dick Nolan recorded "Aunt Martha's Sheep," a song cowritten with Ellis.
Wince notes that he and Ellis both began writing songs as a pastime when they were teenagers. But, "after a year or two [we] threw them in the...