{title: The Mary Ellen Carter}
{artist: Stan Rogers}
{album: Between the Breaks... Live! (1979)}
{key: G}
{tempo: 100}
{difficulty: intermediate}
{tags: canadiana,stan-rogers,maritime,uplifting}
{video: youtube:FrB17-cwsKA}
{credit: Stan Rogers - 'The Mary Ellen Carter' (from Between the Breaks Live!, 1979). (c) Fogarty's Cove Music.}

{c: A song about raising a sunken ship that becomes a metaphor for not giving up on anything ever. Stan Rogers' most quoted line: "Rise again, rise again — that her name not be lost to the knowledge of men."}
{c: Saved a sailor's life in real life — Robert Cusick survived the sinking of the Marine Electric in 1983 by singing this song to himself in the freezing Atlantic.}
{c: Lyrics copyright Fogarty's Cove Music. Chord skeleton below. Full lyrics in Stan Rogers Songbook.}

{c: ===== STRUCTURE =====}
{c: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Final chorus (BIG)}

{c: ===== VERSE PROGRESSION (in G) =====}
[G]________ [C]________ [G]________ [D]________
[G]________ [Em]________ [C]________ [D]________
[G]________ [C]________ [G]________ [Em]________
[C]________ [G]________ [D]________ [G]________

{c: ===== CHORUS PROGRESSION =====}
{c: Build it. Each repeat of "rise again" gets bigger.}
[G]________ [D]________ [Em]________ [C]________
[G]________ [D]________ [G]________
[C]________ [G]________ [Em]________ [D]________
[G]________ [C]________ [G]________ [D]________ [G]________

{c: ===== PERFORMANCE NOTES =====}
{c: Strum: starts gentle (verse 1), builds through each chorus.}
{c: By the final chorus, EVERYONE in the room is singing "rise again" at the top of their lungs.}
{c: Capo 2 puts it in F-shapes (often easier to sing).}
{c: Capo 5 = D-shapes (good if you've been playing D-shape Stan Rogers songs all night).}

{c: ===== ARRANGEMENT FOR A FAMILY BAND =====}
{c: Guitar: drives the rhythm. Don't overplay the verses.}
{c: Mandolin: lay out for verse 1. Chop on verse 2 and onward. Tremolo the long notes in the final chorus.}
{c: Fiddle: sustained chord tones underneath the verses. Lead the bridge.}
{c: Concertina or whistle: harmony line on the choruses, especially "rise again."}
{c: Drums/bodhrán: nothing till chorus 2. Build with the song.}

{c: ===== HOW TO LEARN THIS =====}
{c: 1. Listen to "Between the Breaks... Live!" version. Stan does it solo with guitar.}
{c: 2. Read Robert Cusick's testimony — search "Mary Ellen Carter saved my life" — it's why this song matters.}
{c: 3. Sing the chorus first, alone, until you OWN it. The verses are story; the chorus is gospel.}
{c: 4. Don't rush it. The song is 6+ minutes. Let it breathe.}

{c: ===== WHY THIS SONG =====}
{c: Of every Stan Rogers song, this is the one to learn first if you need cheering up. It's about salvage — the literal raising of a sunken ship — but Stan ends with the line that makes it universal: "And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow / With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go / Turn to and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain / And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again."}