Brian Miller captures a slice of 19th-century history with Minnesota Lumberjack Songs: Irish & Scottish Music from the North Woods, an album collecting songs of the shanty-boys who logged the once bountiful forests of North America.

These songs shouldn't be confused with the shanties that evolved on ships to make the work lighter. As Miller explains in his liner notes:

Nineteenth century logging was winter work. Snow and ice were needed, along with oxen or horses, to transport logs to the riverbank by sled. Men signed up for a six-month term, October through March, in an isolated camp in the woods. There they worked arduously during the short daylight hours and ate, slept and entertained themselves in the bunkhouse after dark. The camps were called shanties, and the men were called shanty-boys rather than lumberjacks.

These roving men, the notes explain, didn't sing while they worked but in the long bunkhouse hours, usually unaccompanied and often without the sing-along choruses so popular onboard ships.

Appropriately, the songs here are sparsely arranged, although there are some nifty instrumentals as well. Miller sings and plays bouzouki, guitar, wooden flute and harmonium. Joining him on the album are Norah Rendell (tin whistles and backing vocals), Daithi Sproule (backing vocals), Tommie Cunniffe (button accordion), Nathan Gourley and Tom Schaefer (fiddle) and Danielle Enblom (dancing) -- although their contributions are infrequent. This is a pretty barebones package, as it should be: It has an air of authenticity, much more than a polished studio production would have.

Some songs are cheerful in nature, but more are mournful. Tracks include "The Maid of the Logan Bough," "The Shanty-Boy's Alphabet," "Kettle River," "Morzie Ellsworth," "The Mines of Cariboo" and "Save Your Money When You're Young."