Singing Maine’s praises, one county at a time
Elizabeth Lardie Thompson couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
She was playing pub trivia in Sydney, Australia, more than 20 years ago. The quiz master began the bonus round by saying “There’s this silly song Americans sing if they grow up in Maine and it’s got all the counties in it.” Could anyone in the pub sing it?
“We sang that song at least once a week in fourth grade, and then it just carried into something we did incessantly, even into to high school,” said Thompson, 43, a theater performer and writer who lives in Bath. “So when they asked if anyone could sing it, I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Elizabeth Lardie Thompson of Bath, seen at The Theater Project in Brunswick, correctly answered a pub trivia question in Australia by singing the “Maine County Song.” (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
The “Maine County Song” has been taught in Maine schools for decades, at least since the 1950s. It began as an easy way for kids to learn some strange-sounding Maine county names, like Androscoggin, Piscataquis or Sagadahoc. Today it’s a grassroots Maine tradition, a source of pride for adults who can still sing it at a moment’s notice.
The fact that a quiz master in Australia had heard about it — from another Aussie who had spent a college semester in Maine — is testament to how unique and long-lasting the 30-second song is.
In Maine, people talk about the divide between rural and urban areas, locals and tourists, the 1st District and the 2nd District. But for several generations, the “Maine County Song” is a unifier to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.”
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“I just think it’s a point of pride, that we all know the 16 counties because of that song,” said Denise Michaud, 61, administrative assistant for South Portland Public Works. “It’s like ‘Oh, you don’t know the counties in your state? I know the counties in my state, because I can sing them.'”
A SINGING SUCCESS
As an educational tool, the song’s success is undeniable. It’s so well-known that it’s become part of the state’s popular culture.
The Downeasters Chorus, a Maine-based barbershop harmony group, added it to their repertoire this year and sang it at the Yarmouth Clam Festival in July. Marpheen Chann of Portland, who is running for Cumberland County Commisioner in November, posted a video of himself singing the song on social media after reading a ton about Maine county government in preparation for his campaign. He said he first sang it at Acton Elementary School.
The Law Offices of Joe Bornstein produced a series of TV ads a couple of years ago to celebrate the firm’s 50th anniversary, featuring “American Idol” finalist Julia Haven of Cumberland singing the song. The firm wanted to create a “unifying message” for its anniversary and thought the “Maine County Song” was the perfect way to do that, said Nate Bergeron, the marketing director.
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Emily Little, a nurse who grew up on Mount Desert Island but now lives in Virginia, has taught the song to her three kids. She laments that they’ll never know the joys of singing about all of the counties in their state —Virginia has 95 counties, way too many to remember or fit into a song.
On a summer visit to Maine last year, her kids, husband and parents joined her in making a video of the whole family singing the song, one voice at a time.
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When Little went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, she organized Maine-themed parties with other students from the Pine Tree state and singing the county song was always part of the program.
“No one else had a state party, it was like no other state had its own identity. And singing the county song was part of that,” said Little, 41.
Fourth graders at Congin School in Westbrook sing the “Maine County Song” on Oct. 20 as part of a Maine studies unit. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Three classes of fourth graders at the Congin School in Westbrook were learning the song this month as part of a Maine studies unit. Kids could be heard at recess or in bus lines singing it.
In class on a recent Tuesday morning, they sang it repeatedly without any missteps — though some students admitted having trouble pronouncing some of the counties at first, including Androscoggin and Sagadahoc.
Most had heard of Cumberland County, which includes Westbrook, and nearby York County. They were also learning about the structure of U.S. government, and how it’s broken down by state, county and towns so that all people, in every place, can have a voice.
Part of the lesson is that “one person cannot do it all, so having local help makes it easier for everyone,” said Wendy Nugent, a fourth grade teacher.
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WORD OF MOUTH
The song’s origins seem to be organic. Some people remember learning it in their public school classrooms as early as the 1950s, and it’s easy to find many who learned it from the 1970s on. Several teachers interviewed for this story said it had been taught in their schools since at least the ’80s or ’90s.
The song is not a mandated part of any curriculum and there’s no single official version, so a few of the words and the order of the counties are sometimes different. Some people call it “The 16 Counties Song.”
But hundreds of teachers have used it during the fourth grade year as part of the required Maine studies unit.
Denise Michaud and her son, Ben Michaud, both learned the “Maine County Song” in South Portland schools, though slightly different versions. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
Michaud said she was “shocked” when her son, Ben Michaud, came home from school and sang a version of the “Maine County Song” that was different than the one she learned at Dora Small School in South Portland in the 1970s.
Ben Michaud, now 30, had learned a version that ended with “Oxford and Penobscot” instead of “Aroostook and Penoboscot.” While being interviewed for this story, Michaud sang her version of the song, to prove she still could.
The Maine Secretary of State Kids’ Page lists lyrics to two versions of the song, along with audio clips. But a spokesperson for the office says no one there knows when the information was added to the website, or when the song was first taught.
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The first version on the website is: “The 16 counties in our state are/Cumberland and Franklin/Piscataquis and Somerset/Aroostook, Androscoggin/Sagadahoc and Kennebec/Lincoln, Knox and Hancock/Waldo, Washington and York/Oxford and Penobscot.”
The second version reads: “There are 16 counties in our state/There’s Cumberland and Franklin/Piscataquis and Kennebec/Oxford, Androscoggin/Waldo, Washington and York/Lincoln, Knox and Hancock/Sagadahoc and Somerset/Aroostook and Penobscot.”
Both are sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” and both sound pretty much the same to those of us who didn’t learn the song in school. But dozens of people responding to a Facebook query were adamant that the version they learned was the correct one.
SCARES BEARS, PAYS FOR COLLEGE
Emma and Nora Conrad have found myriad uses for the “Maine County Song” since learning it in Winthrop as grade schoolers. The sisters sang it to pass the time on long car trips, sometimes shouting it out the window at passing traffic. They sang it at a Christmas parade in their father’s Pennsylvania hometown. They sing spontaneously when walking, kayaking or hiking.
Once, while hiking in Colorado, they sang it to scare any nearby bears. It was a song they knew well enough to sing at the top of their lungs, a sort of default safety song.
Emma Conrad, who works for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said the song is a comfortable way to break the ice when she meets other people who grew up here.
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“Maine is a big small town, and with just 16 counties you’re never far removed from people all around the state,” said Conrad, 28, of Portland.
The song has helped put Maine students through college. Massachusetts-based dairy company H.P. Hood promoted its Milk Money Scholarship program in Maine in the late 1990s by offering a $4,000 scholarship to one student in each of the 16 counties.
To apply for the scholarship, students had to show up in person and successfully sing the county song. Grades and recommendations, interviews and other non-musical criteria were considered, too.
Musician Lauren Rioux with her children Oscar, 11 and Caroline 6, at her home studio in Scarborough on Wednesday. She won a $4,000 college scholarship in 1999 that required her to sing the “Maine County Song.” (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Lauren Rioux, 45, grew up in East Machias in Washington County and applied for the scholarship in 1999. She sang the county song at the University of Maine at Machias and later found out she had gotten the $,4,000 award, which she used while studying music at the University of Southern Maine.
Rioux, who lives in Scarborough, is a fiddler who teaches at her home studio and at Waynflete School in Portland. Sometimes when people ask her to sing the “Maine County Song,” she jokes that she once got paid a lot of money to play it. But she’s happy to play it for free, and to teach it to others.
During COVID, when she couldn’t teach in-person, Rioux made videos. She made one singing the “Maine County Song.” Her baby daughter, Caroline, is seen sleeping in a carrier as she sings. Rioux said she can’t remember exactly why she decided to record the song. But she’s glad she did.
“It’s part of our state’s lore, it’s fun and it’s happy.”
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Ray Routhier has written about pop culture, movies, TV, music and lifestyle trends for the Portland Press Herald since 1993. He is continually fascinated with stories that show the unique character of. More by Ray Routhier
