''Aunt Martha's Sheep'' is a song written by Terrence White and Arthur Butt of Perry's Cove and later re-written by Ellis Coles and performed by Dick Nolan. It was primarily viewed as a slight on the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

the police force for the province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

, Canada. The song got airplay in the 1970s, but less after that. Released in 1972 it became one of Dick Nolan's signature songs."Singing legend Nolan dead at 66"
''CBC News'', Dec 13, 2005 The song tells the tale of a group of

Carmanville Carmanville is a Canadian community in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. History Carmanville, on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, was first settled by John Day, from Twillingate, and his family. The Day family trapped otter and f ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

-stealers who hoodwink an investigating RCMP officer by insisting their stew was made of

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

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Ben Weatherby
who originally produced "Aunt Martha's Sheep" for Nolan, released an album not long afterwards entitled ''You Can't Fool A Newfoundlander.'' On it, Weatherby performed a cover of "Aunt Martha's Sheep," but for a bit of fun, he wrote a continuation of the story (the title track) where the Mountie gets the last laugh. ''You Can't Fool A Newfoundlander'' won Weatherby his first

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

References

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External links

Newfoundland Heritage, Traditional SongsDictionary of Newfoundland English
Newfoundland and Labrador folk songs Canadian folk songs

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See also

References

External links