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CHRIS JULIN: Lee Murdock grew up in the suburbs of Chicago during the 1950s, when lots of people were singing folk music. Murdock joined in, playing guitar and singing Irish and Scottish ballads. He looks the part of a Scottish troubadour with his stocky build and bushy reddish beard. Along with the Celtic tunes, Murdock took a swing at ragtime and blues before he turned to Great Lakes songs. At a concert in the Duluth Aquarium, Murdock told his audience that there's plenty of Great Lakes music. But for years, nobody was singing it.

LEE MURDOCK: Sometimes people ask me, Lee, why do you sing folk songs at the Great Lakes? Because when I was young and learning a lot of folk songs, like many people my age did when we were in school, we didn't really learn any Great Lakes folk songs. Hardly at all. This is about the only one that even comes close. If you know it, join in.

(SINGING) I've got a mule, and her name is Sal.

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.

She's a good old worker and a good old pal.

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.

CHRIS JULIN: As Lee Murdock says, most of the tunes he sings are not as familiar as that one. His concerts usually include a mix of traditional tunes and modern songs about The Lakes that he's written himself or borrowed from other musicians. To find traditional tunes, Murdock says he sifts through more than a dozen boxes of music collected by University of Michigan folklorist Ivan Walton. Walton has been dead for years, but he spent the 30s, 40s, and 50s traveling the Great Lakes to collect songs and stories.

LEE MURDOCK: Professor Walton has done all the hard work. Here's all this material that's kind of there, and I just go through it as best I can. And it's almost like a lifetime's worth of work just in that one collection.

CHRIS JULIN: Murdock dug up this trucking shanty sung by African-American stevedores who loaded copper and iron into ships on Lake Superior before the Civil War.

LEE MURDOCK: (SINGING) Lake Superior is colder than ice.

So tell me, who's on the way, boys, who's on the way?

Fall in just once and freeze all your lice.

So tell me, where you goin'?

CHRIS JULIN: When Murdock writes his own music of The Lakes, he tends to write story songs based on historical events. These tunes sound a lot like the work of Canadian folk singers Stan Rogers and James Keelaghan. Murdock wrote this song about two lighthouse keepers trapped by a monstrous forest fire in upper Michigan in 1908. The crew from a ship called the Scottish Hero tried to save them.

LEE MURDOCK: (SINGING) The surf was rolling wildly and sparks flew in the air,

A choice between the fire and icy waters faced us there.

A yawl boat left the Hero and tossed about the waves,

Just four strong sailors pulling hard for shore and us to save.

CHRIS JULIN: Lee Murdock does some concerts specifically for kids. He spends lots of time in school singing and telling stories. He does plenty of concerts for adults, too, as he travels across the upper Midwest, trying to breathe new life into the old stories of the Great Lakes. In Duluth, this is Chris Julin, Minnesota Public Radio.

(SINGING) Who lost his life while trying in vain to save our own.

You're the true Scottish Hero, may your name be ever known.

You're the true Scottish Hero, may your name be ever known!