John Greer A Sarah Binks Songbook (High Voice / Piano)

A SARAH BINKS SONGBOOK (Digital Version)            Composer’s Note

If you grew up on the Canadian prairies you will most likely already know of Sarah Binks, but many Canadians from all corners of the country and walks of life can recite a memorable verse or two of hers by heart. “Thereis no doubt,” writes Paul Hiebert of his whimsical poetess creation, the Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan, “that some of Sarah’s finest work still lies buried among the tax sales and mortgage foreclosures.” According to her “biography,” Sarah Binks, lavishly illustrated with her own poetry, honours were showered upon her throughout her life from Quagmire to Hitching, from Pelvis and Detour to Oak Bluff and Cactus Lake, culminating in that highest award in the bestowal of her province’s people, the Wheat Pool Medal. “No other poet has caught in deathless lines so much of Saskatchewan’s elusive spirit, the baldness of its prairies, the alkalinity of its soil, the richness of its insect life.”