Lyr Req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep

Subject: Lyr Req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old
From: babypix
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 01:24 PM

Gentle Colleagues:

Yep, it's that time of year again. The time when I get a song stuck in my head and can't sleep until I've learned it. "WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHEAR THE SHEEP IN OLD MONTANA" was recorded by Bob Bovee who got it off of a Haywire Mac album.

I am seeking sheet music for this li'l gem. Did it ever exist? Anyone? I've even checked ebay hoping to get lucky, but no dice.

Happy Trails,

Deborah Robins-Hanks

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 03:28 PM

Looks like there may have been no sheet music.
Recorded by Bob Bovee, "Roundup," Train on the Island, Minneapolis, Minn., 1979 LP.
Can't find that a cd was made.

Looks like a tough one to corral.

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 05:18 PM

I found 25-30 Montana songs(recordings), but not that one.

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 05:36 PM

If you have the tune on a computer, surely you can, with the right program, produce sheet music for it and get the lyrics off the recording? If I am understanding you correctly...you want the lyrics, but in sheet music form?

These folks have a Field Recoding of it; they might be able to help.

Good luck!

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 06:16 PM

Kat, I searched the USU Collections and found only #30b, Pop Wagner and Bob Bovee, but the sheep song isn't there. Where did you find it?

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Alice
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 06:18 PM

On the page Kat linked, it is at the bottom.

They spell Montana wrong, but if you search on the word "shear" in the page, you find it.

Alice

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Nov 09 - 08:01 PM

Thanks, Alice.
#125. Unknown singer, may be a variant, but the best lead so far.

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 14 Nov 09 - 09:56 AM

I have a Harry McClintock song called "When It's Time To Shear The Sheep I'm Coming Back" on a recording I ordered from The Music Barn. It doesn't show up in a search of their website but it is listed in their latest catalogue which just came out last week.

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Nov 09 - 02:38 PM

Bob the Postman- may be the same song, the original.
Could you post the lyrics?

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 09 - 05:09 PM

It's the same song.

Mark Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHEAR THE SHEEP
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 08:03 AM

WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHEAR THE SHEEP
(Transcribed from a recording by Harry McClintock)

'Twas springtime in Montana. The grass was growing green.
Two lovers once were wandering beside a tumbling stream.
He was a poor sheep herder. He was going far away,
And turning to his sweetheart these last words he did say:

When it's time to shear the sheep in old Montana,
When the jaybird sings again his sweet refrain,
When the flowers bloom on the knolls and the gophers dig their holes,
It is then that I'll be coming back again.

So you'd better watch your step while I am gone, dear,
And don't you dare go near the railroad track.
I'll be dreaming of you, honey. Don't take any wooden money.
When it's time to shear the sheep I'm coming baahhk.

And then these lovers parted and he went far away.
He went to old Wyoming and started shoveling hay.
But ere the snow had melted, he got a little note,
A message from his sweetheart, and this is what she wrote:

When it's time to shear the sheep in old Montana,
Please take my tip and head the other way,
For I'm tired of being good and I'm going Hollywood,
So perhaps we'll meet again some other day.

When I'm travelling through this country on a Pullman,
You'll be camping out beside the railroad track.
When you read this note don't shiver. There's still water in the river.
When it's time to shear the sheep, I won't be baahhk.


"baahhk" is the word "back" pronounced bleatingly

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 01:27 PM

Thanks for posting. A fun song that could be expanded.

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: babypix
Date: 16 Nov 09 - 01:39 PM

American singer, Mark Ross, now living in Eugene, OR, does a energetic rendition of this song...and lots of others, too!

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old
From: Mark Ross
Date: 16 Nov 09 - 04:22 PM

Thanks Deborah.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 08:07 AM

I told me mates at work that I'd been working on this song and immediately the cry went up "When it's time to SHARE the sheep in old Montana". Is this what Q meant when he remarked that the song could be expanded? Will I or anyone else now be able to refrain from composing a complete sheep-shagging parody? Has Mark got there already, perhaps?

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: Artful Codger
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 11:56 PM

Sheep-sharing? Bob & Carol & Ted & Fluffy?

Subject: RE: req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep in Old Mont
From: beeliner
Date: 18 Nov 09 - 12:23 AM

This has to be related , if only distantly, to "Rosebud in June", as sung by Steeleye Span.

One of the most erotic songs I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: When It's Time to Shear the Sheep
From: GUEST,Greg from Montana now in Australia
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 03:29 AM

I HAVE to get a recording of this to share with my aussie choir mates. They have their Waltzing Matilda - now they need to here a song of the wild, wild west. Does anyone have an mp3 I can share with them, teach them. My mom has scribbled out the tune and I've never seen all the lyrics before today (I've always thought it had a happy ending!). If you can help out contact me at [e-mail]