Who an I :? [Verse 1] Born in Dalhousie, sixty-one, Acadian blood from Poitou’s line. My dad was a carpenter, I swung a hammer After school, a nail at a time. Summers with the paper company, Already out there in the woods, So when the fires came, I hauled the hose, Last in line, or lead, if I could. [Chorus] So who am I? Who’s Redge? Just a man from the Restigoosh,County In New Brunswick Canada , wait is it still Canada ,,, With a river out front and a song to sing About the way we were. [Verse 2] Worked the trash pump, rode the tanker, Seven stacks of hose on my back, Up to the fire line, hot and heavy, Never once thought of turning back. Climbed the towers, took them down, Sold the gear along the way, Worked the corner stores, not my thing, But you do what you do to get by day. [Chorus 2] So who am I? Who’s Redge? Just a man from the Restigoosh, With a river out front and a song to sing About the way we were. [Verse 3] Six, seven years in instrumentation At the cotton mill, ‘til they closed the door. Then the counters, then the provincial park, Near ten years, and I’d be there still, for sure. Some of it’s not pretty, I’ll tell it another day. I hold no secrets, I tell it the way it is. [Bridge] But the music was always there: The church basement, the school room down below, The TV, the radio, albums and EPs, Friends with guitars, and a baritone to grow. Nineteen eighty-nine, I got serious. Practice, and practice, and sacrifice, Sing it till it sounds like the record, Then a year later, I run it again, And that part that beat me, I get through it now. [Final Chorus] So who am I? Who’s Redge? The words are mine, the voice is mine, The music’s built with a little machine help, But the memories are all mine. Just a man from the Restigoosh, Singing about the way we were. [End]
