Introduction
Charles Thomas “Stompin’ Tom” Connors was a born storyteller whose career spanned nearly five decades, during which he wrote over 300 songs celebrating Canada’s towns, industries, and legends. With unabashed pride in his homeland, he crafted folk-country anthems that remain woven into Canada’s cultural fabric.
“Halifax Song (Old Atlantic Shore)” appears on the double-LP soundtrack Across This Land With Stompin’ Tom Connors, filmed live at the Horseshoe Tavern in 1973 and originally released on Boot Records that same year. It’s noted as “the other song, along with Luke’s Guitar, that Stompin’ Tom wrote about Halifax,” underscoring its rarity in his catalogue. Through its lyrics, Connors evokes the “big moon” shining over the Maritimes and the yearning to return “to old Halifax,” tapping into nostalgia for coastal rhythms and rugged shorelines.
Captured on film, the Horseshoe Tavern show crackles with energy: patrons clapping, singing along, and stomping their feet on Connors’s famous plank to keep rhythm—his trademark “stompin’ board” that often bore holes by night’s end. The intimacy of a crowded Toronto bar amplifies every guitar chord and lyric, creating a communal vibe that made Connors’s live concerts legendary.
What makes “Halifax Song” special is its blend of personal affection and broad appeal. Listeners in Nova Scotia hear more than geography; they feel a shared heritage of fishing schooners, Celtic tangles of fiddle and accordions, and the warmth of local pubs where stories flow as freely as the tides. For Canadians across the country—and beyond—this song becomes a musical postcard, reminding them of home.
“Halifax Song (Old Atlantic Shore)” stands as a testament to Stompin’ Tom Connors’s gift for turning place into poetry and performance into fellowship. Whether you grew up by the sea or dream of its shores, this live gem invites you to stomp along and sing out your own memories of the old Atlantic coast.