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Waltzing With The Angels

from Joyful Banner Blazing by Maria Dunn

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about

In October 2018, Indigenous rights activist Muriel Stanley Venne invited me to write a song about the Métis Ironworkers who built the CN Tower (Edmonton’s first high-rise, completed in 1966) and who went on to construct many more of the city’s tallest buildings of that era. She told me that they described their dangerous work as “waltzing with the angels”. This song is inspired by that phrase and by the stories of Ironworkers that Muriel, Winston Gereluk and Don Bouzek interviewed in early 2018 on behalf of the Alberta Labour History Institute. Thank you to these workers for sharing their experiences: Larry Avery, Hugh Edgar, Tom Daniels, Homer Doucet, Dennis Redhorse Kopp, Ivan (Kelly) Beauregard, Hugh Kopp.

One man, Paul Rivard, died from a fall during the building’s construction. The workers interviewed knew many fellow Ironworkers (some relatives) who were killed while working on projects in Western Canada in the same era. This song is dedicated to their memory.

lyrics

3. Waltzing With The Angels
© Maria Dunn, 2018

If you pause upon the pavement
And crane your neck to see
You can almost glimpse the angels
That waltzed along with me

As I stepped out on those high beams
My sidewalk in the sky
The city far below me
Sunshine in my eyes

We were strong at seventeen
Métis Ironworkers all
We danced between two worlds
Determined not to fall

It was us who raised this tower
Hanging from its side
One hook around your belt
Was all that kept you in this life

Floors slippery with the diesel
Winds that whip away your breath
You put it from your mind
‘Cause it’s not your date with death

And to all our fallen brothers
Who joined that angel band
Your courage so betrayed by laws
That failed the working man

So pause upon the pavement
Crane your neck, see
The wings of all those angels
That waltzed along with me

credits

from Joyful Banner Blazing, released January 29, 2021
© Maria Dunn, 2018

Maria Dunn vocal
Jeff Bradshaw pedal steel
Debbie Houle harmony vocal
Shannon Johnson violin
Solon McDade upright bass
Byron Myhre acoustic guitar

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Maria Dunn Edmonton, Alberta

2022 Juno Winner for Joyful Banner Blazing! A true preserver of the spirit of folk music, 3x Juno-nominated Maria Dunn is often compared to Woody Guthrie for her keen social awareness & unvarnished melodic songs about ordinary people. On 2016 Gathering & 2021 Joyful Banner Blazing, she celebrates the love of family, community, humanity that fires our actions to make the world a better place. ... more

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