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Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...

GUEST,BlackAcornUK 26 Sep 23 - 09:58 AM
gillymor 26 Sep 23 - 10:10 AM
Black belt caterpillar wrestler 26 Sep 23 - 10:30 AM
GUEST,henryp 26 Sep 23 - 10:56 AM
GUEST,jim bainbridge 26 Sep 23 - 12:56 PM
GUEST,jim bainbridge 26 Sep 23 - 03:33 PM
Mark Ross 26 Sep 23 - 03:34 PM
GUEST,RJM 26 Sep 23 - 04:32 PM
Jon Freeman 26 Sep 23 - 04:44 PM
Helen 26 Sep 23 - 08:04 PM
GUEST 27 Sep 23 - 09:33 AM
Sandra in Sydney 27 Sep 23 - 10:09 AM
RTim 27 Sep 23 - 07:18 PM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 12:01 AM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 12:12 AM
GUEST,BlackAcornUK 28 Sep 23 - 03:40 AM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 07:14 AM
GUEST,IS 28 Sep 23 - 08:16 AM
GUEST,iains 28 Sep 23 - 11:26 AM
GUEST 28 Sep 23 - 12:43 PM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 04:37 PM
Helen 28 Sep 23 - 04:54 PM
Jack Campin 28 Sep 23 - 07:29 PM
GeoffLawes 29 Sep 23 - 04:10 AM
GeoffLawes 29 Sep 23 - 04:18 AM
GUEST,iains 29 Sep 23 - 05:54 AM
RTim 29 Sep 23 - 04:03 PM
AllisonA(Animaterra) 29 Sep 23 - 04:23 PM
Tattie Bogle 29 Sep 23 - 07:15 PM
Jack Campin 30 Sep 23 - 08:34 AM
GUEST,BlackAcornUK 26 Sep 23 - 09:58 AM
GUEST,henryp 26 Sep 23 - 10:56 AM
GUEST,jim bainbridge 26 Sep 23 - 12:56 PM
GUEST,jim bainbridge 26 Sep 23 - 03:33 PM
GUEST,RJM 26 Sep 23 - 04:32 PM
GUEST 27 Sep 23 - 09:33 AM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 12:01 AM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 12:12 AM
GUEST,BlackAcornUK 28 Sep 23 - 03:40 AM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 07:14 AM
GUEST,IS 28 Sep 23 - 08:16 AM
GUEST,iains 28 Sep 23 - 11:26 AM
GUEST 28 Sep 23 - 12:43 PM
GUEST,henryp 28 Sep 23 - 04:37 PM
GUEST,iains 29 Sep 23 - 05:54 AM
Helen 26 Sep 23 - 08:04 PM
Helen 28 Sep 23 - 04:54 PM
AllisonA(Animaterra) 29 Sep 23 - 04:23 PM
Jon Freeman 26 Sep 23 - 04:44 PM
gillymor 26 Sep 23 - 10:10 AM
Tattie Bogle 29 Sep 23 - 07:15 PM
Mark Ross 26 Sep 23 - 03:34 PM
Sandra in Sydney 27 Sep 23 - 10:09 AM
GeoffLawes 29 Sep 23 - 04:10 AM
GeoffLawes 29 Sep 23 - 04:18 AM
Black belt caterpillar wrestler 26 Sep 23 - 10:30 AM
RTim 27 Sep 23 - 07:18 PM
RTim 29 Sep 23 - 04:03 PM
Jack Campin 28 Sep 23 - 07:29 PM
Jack Campin 30 Sep 23 - 08:34 AM
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Subject: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 09:58 AM

I'm curious to learn people's suggestions for songs related to sheep, the keeping and shearing of sheep, and the wider wool trade -

I'm thinking very broadly, from trad pieces like 'Searching for Lambs', 'Shepherd of the Downs', new compositions eg 'Molly Metcalfe', to industrial ballads like 'The Handloom Weaver's Lament', work/factory songs, and similar artisanal/community-derived material (eg waulking songs from the Outer Hebrides).

I'm doubly interested in (a) songs from the North of England, especially Yorkshire; and (b) songs from beyond Britain, especially from South East Asia.

I hope this isn't too loose for people to grapple with - very interested to see any/all responses

Many thanks in advance!


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:10 AM

Top of my head-
The Lambs on the Green Hills
Broom O' the Cowdenknowes
The Shearing's not for you


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:30 AM

Scowie's poem "The hardy Lonk" is in need of a tune.

Robin


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:56 AM

Tarry Wool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyI-Bp6YiHI
Here is the tune for this popular folk song and three harmonies too. Tarry Wool was first recorded by Ralph Vaughan Williams in August 1904 in the Sun Inn in Dent where Williams heard Pop Mason singing it. He was called Pop because he was a chimney sweep and his brushes would pop out of the chimney pots. (At Christmas we sing this song to the words of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.) David Burbidge.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 12:56 PM

I'd suggest yu get hold of Alison McMorland's excellent book on the life and songs of Willie Scott, Scottish border shepherd. 'Herd Laddie o' the Glen'

...and more important, to listen to the man singing- there are plenty of recordings

or Jimmy White, Northumbrian shepherd, although recordings harder to find


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 03:33 PM

or, further south, the Copper brothers Bob & Ron in Sussex had such songs as 'A shepherd of the Downs'.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Mark Ross
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 03:34 PM

WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHEAR THE SHEEP IN OLD MONTANA Haywire Mac McClintock


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 04:32 PM

FlashJack from Gundegai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mjXqiCMMIs Martyn Wyndham Read


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 04:44 PM

Here we are in New South Wales, shearing sheep as big as wales

With leather necks and daggy tails and hides as tough as rusty nails...

Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem version


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Helen
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 08:04 PM

Am I allowed to suggest Waltzing Matilda? :-D


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 09:33 AM

while we're in oz- Click go the shears boys


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 10:09 AM

my friends Jason & Chloe Roweth released a CD - Too many bloody songs about Shearers a few years back! Check out the earliest published version of click Goes the shears - the shearer finally goes to HEAVEN, but some wowser sent him to hell & everyone sings that version these days, tho I try to get the proper word accepted, but I have such a soft voice ...

The title comes from a comment by the father of an early member of the Bush Music Club, Australia's oldest folk club, which is turning 70 next year. When his son came home with YET ANOTHER song about shearers, father made the above comment, so son suggested he write a song about another topic. Father was not a writer, yet he wrote a verse which his songwriting son made into a song - The Peach Pickers Song - see page 3


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: RTim
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 07:18 PM

Here is a version of a song that I have added a verse to...so that I can sing it in New England and also have a reference to the Sea.....

Tim Radford

Tending My Sheep by Ruth Tongue


If I was the King of Taunton town
I'd wear a sword and a golden crown.
I'd ride on afore when we went to the war
With soldiers to follow, a hundred or more!

But (So/And) I'd rather be tending my sheep,
Yes, I'd rather be tending my sheep;
My ewes and my rams and my little young lambs,
I'd rather be tending my sheep.

If I were a Bristol merchant-man,
With silver to collar and silver to hem,
And fine chests of gold, a sight to behold.
The thieves and the robbers they'd soon make me old.

(My extra verse)
If I were a Somerset fisherman bold
I’d cast out my nets be the weather hot or cold.
All the days of my life with my heart & my soul
I’d do my very best to feed all from my haul.

A shepherd I've been all the days that I've seen,
When the fields they're white and the fields they are green.
And I do meet my foe when the cold wind does blow,
When the foxes so cunning hide down in the snow.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The towns of Taunton, Bristol and Somerset are all in the south east of the States of Massachusetts or in Rhode Island, and although the song is originally from Somerset, England – it seems to “fit” here; so I wrote the extra “Fisherman” verse.

Ther tune can be heard here by The Furrow Collective.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utHPUSvUJNw


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:01 AM

Ian Russell wrote; In the vernacular tradition of English village carolling, as it is performed in the southern Pennine hills, one text occurs in more musical settings than all others. This is the carol While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night. Since 1969 I have recorded in oral tradition more than 30 different tunes to which these words are sung within 40 kilometres of the city of Sheffield. That number could easily be doubled if I took into account the tunes found in manuscripts and locally circulated printed collections assigned to this text.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:12 AM

From: Steve Gardham Date: 06 Oct 17 - 01:16 PM
'We shepherds are the best of men' Copper Family aka 'Where the Stormy Winds do blow'

From: Joe Offer Date: 07 Oct 17 - 03:08 AM
The song can be found at the folkinfo Website, http://joe-offer.com/folkinfo/songs/251.html

THE SHEPHERD'S SONG

We shepherds are the best of men,
That e'er trod English ground;
When we come to an alehouse
We value not a crown.
We spend our money freely,
We pay before we go;
There's no ale on the wolds,
Where the stormy winds do blow.

(Chorus)
We spend our money freely,
We pay before we go;
There's no ale on the wolds,
Where the stormy winds do blow.

Source: Lucy Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland. 1893, English County Songs, Leadenhall Press, London
Notes: Lucy Broadwood's notes are given below:
The first verse was taken from the recitation of a lady born at Stoke, Gloucestershire in 1793; the remaining verses were recovered from Thomas Coldicote, shepherd. of Ebrington, Gloucestershire. Blockley, referred to in verse 3, is in the parish adjoining Ebrington. Possibly it was usual for the singer to fill in a local name in the place.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 03:40 AM

Good stuff, many thanks all! And, how could I forget While Shepherds Watched? I was thinking about the 'Ilkley Moor' version just last week!


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 07:14 AM

The hymn tune "Cranbrook" was written in 1805 by Canterbury shoe-maker Thomas Clark and named after the local village of Cranbrook in Kent. It was originally set to the words 'Grace 'tis a charming sound' written by Philip Doddridge but is now better known in the UK as the tune of 'On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at'. Wikipedia


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,IS
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 08:16 AM

Band o' Shearers (Roud 1524).


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 11:26 AM

In? 1987 the Proclaimers released a single called ‘Letter from America’, which compared the then ongoing industrial destruction of the Scottish Lowlands with the Highland Clearances two centuries before. It was a rare intrusion by an 18th-century lyric into the UK top ten. ‘Lochaber no more/Sutherland no more/Lewis no more/Skye no more’, sang the Proclaimers, reprising the sentiment a few lines later as ‘Bathgate no more/Linwood no more/Methil no more/Irvine no more’. These were towns where big car plants and steel fabrication factories had recently shut down and sent their workers away.
The highland clearances replaced the indigenous population with sheep, destroyed the remnants of the clan system and depopulated swathes of the highlabds.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:43 PM

except in Arran, where the people were cleared out & replaced by
deer


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 04:37 PM

Sheep Counting by John Tams

Sleep my pretty one sleep
Lay down in your lambskin Now lay you down deep
And I'll fold you in woolsey Down-soft don't you weep my lamb
Sleep my pretty one, sleep

One ewe tomorrow true Two ewes aplenty
Three oh how happy we Four nearly gentry
Five how we favoured be Six trust to glory
And seven the world is right Eight tells the story
Nine we may prosper true Ten we can start anew

Sleep my pretty one sleep
Lay down in your lambskin Now lay you down deep
And I'll fold you in woolsey Down-soft don't you weep my lamb
Sleep my pretty one
Sleep my pretty one, Sleep


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Helen
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 04:54 PM

The relevant question is: what's a Jumbuck?

Waltzing Matilda
[Verse 1]
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 2]
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 3]
Up rode the squatter mounted on his thorough-bred
Down came the troopers One Two Three
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
You might also like
You’re the Voice
John Farnham
Strangers
Kenya Grace
Rich Men North of Richmond
Oliver Anthony Music
[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 4]
Up jumped the swagman sprang in to the billabong
You'll never catch me alive said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 07:29 PM

There is a genre of instrumental tunes called "doina" in Romania which are mostly dramatizations of a story about a shepherd who loses his sheep. The mode is always the one called "nikriz" in Turkish - dunno the Romanian word for it - DEFG#ABcd. They're not improvised, but each player has one of their own. Structure is always the same:

1. Slow sad piece about how the shepherd has lost his sheep.
2. Happy bit, he found his sheep!
3. Sad bit again, he was really looking at rocks and his sheep are still lost.
4. Happy bit, he really did find his sheep again!

This form was taken up by klezmer players in the 19th century but the explicit reference to sheep was dropped.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:10 AM

CA’THE YOWES from Wikipedia     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%27_the_yowes ,BR>


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:18 AM

Many recordings of Ca' the Yowes on YouTube    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Ca%27+The+Yowes


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 05:54 AM

The Limcilnshire shepherd:
Chorus (after each verse):
Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, pethera, pimp.
Yon owd ewe’s far-welted, and this ewe’s got a limp
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik,
Aye, we can deal wi’ ’em all, and wheer’s me crook and stick?

I count ’em up to figgits, and figgits have a notch,
There’s more to being a shepherd than being on watch;
There’s swedes to chop and lambing time and snow upon the rick,
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik.

From Caistor down to Spilsby from Sleaford up to Brigg,
There’s Lincoln sheep all on the chalk, all hung wi’ wool and big.
And I, here in Langton wi’ this same old flock,
Just as me grandad did afore they meddled with the clock.

We’ve bred our tups and gimmers for the wool and length and girth,
And sheep have lambed, have gone away all o’er all the earth.
They’re bred in foreign flocks to give the wool its length and crimp,
Yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp.

They’re like a lot of bairns, they are, like children of me own,
They fondle round about owd Shep afore they’re strong and grown;
But they gets independent-like, before you know, they’ve gone,
But yet again, next lambing time we’ll ’a’ more to carry on.

Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, pethera, pimp,
Fifteen notches up to now and one ewe with a limp.
You reckons I should go away, you know I’ll never go,
For lambing time’s on top of us and it’ll surely snow.

Well, one day I’ll leave me ewes, I’ll leave me ewes for good,
And then you’ll know what breeding is in flocks and human blood;
For our Tom’s come out o’ t’ army, his face as red as brick,
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik.

Now lambing time come reg’lar-like, just as it’s always been,
And shepherds have to winter ’em and tent ’em till they’re weaned
My fambly had it ’fore I came, they’ll have it when I sleep,
So we can count our lambing times as I am countin’ sheep.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: RTim
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:03 PM

I have a wonderful recording from The Maramures region of Romania by the singer Ioan Pop ....It is called in Romanian - "Horea Oilor" and translated into English by the Romanians as "Song of the Sheeps"......:-)

Tim Radford


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:23 PM

At one time I had every song on Carla Sciaky's Spin the Weaver's Song memorized. All of the songs are about sheep, shearing, spinning, weaving. A lovely album.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 07:15 PM

Bonnie Glenshee has one verse about sheep
The Spinning Song
The Yowie wi the Crookit Horn


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Sep 23 - 08:34 AM

"The Ewie wi the Crookit Horn" is about moonshine distilling - the crookit horn is the coil of the still.

Check out the Mudcat song archive for "I Need A Sheep".


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Subject: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 09:58 AM

I'm curious to learn people's suggestions for songs related to sheep, the keeping and shearing of sheep, and the wider wool trade -

I'm thinking very broadly, from trad pieces like 'Searching for Lambs', 'Shepherd of the Downs', new compositions eg 'Molly Metcalfe', to industrial ballads like 'The Handloom Weaver's Lament', work/factory songs, and similar artisanal/community-derived material (eg waulking songs from the Outer Hebrides).

I'm doubly interested in (a) songs from the North of England, especially Yorkshire; and (b) songs from beyond Britain, especially from South East Asia.

I hope this isn't too loose for people to grapple with - very interested to see any/all responses

Many thanks in advance!


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:56 AM

Tarry Wool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyI-Bp6YiHI
Here is the tune for this popular folk song and three harmonies too. Tarry Wool was first recorded by Ralph Vaughan Williams in August 1904 in the Sun Inn in Dent where Williams heard Pop Mason singing it. He was called Pop because he was a chimney sweep and his brushes would pop out of the chimney pots. (At Christmas we sing this song to the words of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.) David Burbidge.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 12:56 PM

I'd suggest yu get hold of Alison McMorland's excellent book on the life and songs of Willie Scott, Scottish border shepherd. 'Herd Laddie o' the Glen'

...and more important, to listen to the man singing- there are plenty of recordings

or Jimmy White, Northumbrian shepherd, although recordings harder to find


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 03:33 PM

or, further south, the Copper brothers Bob & Ron in Sussex had such songs as 'A shepherd of the Downs'.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 04:32 PM

FlashJack from Gundegai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mjXqiCMMIs Martyn Wyndham Read


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 09:33 AM

while we're in oz- Click go the shears boys


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:01 AM

Ian Russell wrote; In the vernacular tradition of English village carolling, as it is performed in the southern Pennine hills, one text occurs in more musical settings than all others. This is the carol While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night. Since 1969 I have recorded in oral tradition more than 30 different tunes to which these words are sung within 40 kilometres of the city of Sheffield. That number could easily be doubled if I took into account the tunes found in manuscripts and locally circulated printed collections assigned to this text.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:12 AM

From: Steve Gardham Date: 06 Oct 17 - 01:16 PM
'We shepherds are the best of men' Copper Family aka 'Where the Stormy Winds do blow'

From: Joe Offer Date: 07 Oct 17 - 03:08 AM
The song can be found at the folkinfo Website, http://joe-offer.com/folkinfo/songs/251.html

THE SHEPHERD'S SONG

We shepherds are the best of men,
That e'er trod English ground;
When we come to an alehouse
We value not a crown.
We spend our money freely,
We pay before we go;
There's no ale on the wolds,
Where the stormy winds do blow.

(Chorus)
We spend our money freely,
We pay before we go;
There's no ale on the wolds,
Where the stormy winds do blow.

Source: Lucy Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland. 1893, English County Songs, Leadenhall Press, London
Notes: Lucy Broadwood's notes are given below:
The first verse was taken from the recitation of a lady born at Stoke, Gloucestershire in 1793; the remaining verses were recovered from Thomas Coldicote, shepherd. of Ebrington, Gloucestershire. Blockley, referred to in verse 3, is in the parish adjoining Ebrington. Possibly it was usual for the singer to fill in a local name in the place.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 03:40 AM

Good stuff, many thanks all! And, how could I forget While Shepherds Watched? I was thinking about the 'Ilkley Moor' version just last week!


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 07:14 AM

The hymn tune "Cranbrook" was written in 1805 by Canterbury shoe-maker Thomas Clark and named after the local village of Cranbrook in Kent. It was originally set to the words 'Grace 'tis a charming sound' written by Philip Doddridge but is now better known in the UK as the tune of 'On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at'. Wikipedia


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,IS
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 08:16 AM

Band o' Shearers (Roud 1524).


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 11:26 AM

In? 1987 the Proclaimers released a single called ‘Letter from America’, which compared the then ongoing industrial destruction of the Scottish Lowlands with the Highland Clearances two centuries before. It was a rare intrusion by an 18th-century lyric into the UK top ten. ‘Lochaber no more/Sutherland no more/Lewis no more/Skye no more’, sang the Proclaimers, reprising the sentiment a few lines later as ‘Bathgate no more/Linwood no more/Methil no more/Irvine no more’. These were towns where big car plants and steel fabrication factories had recently shut down and sent their workers away.
The highland clearances replaced the indigenous population with sheep, destroyed the remnants of the clan system and depopulated swathes of the highlabds.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 12:43 PM

except in Arran, where the people were cleared out & replaced by
deer


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 04:37 PM

Sheep Counting by John Tams

Sleep my pretty one sleep
Lay down in your lambskin Now lay you down deep
And I'll fold you in woolsey Down-soft don't you weep my lamb
Sleep my pretty one, sleep

One ewe tomorrow true Two ewes aplenty
Three oh how happy we Four nearly gentry
Five how we favoured be Six trust to glory
And seven the world is right Eight tells the story
Nine we may prosper true Ten we can start anew

Sleep my pretty one sleep
Lay down in your lambskin Now lay you down deep
And I'll fold you in woolsey Down-soft don't you weep my lamb
Sleep my pretty one
Sleep my pretty one, Sleep


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 05:54 AM

The Limcilnshire shepherd:
Chorus (after each verse):
Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, pethera, pimp.
Yon owd ewe’s far-welted, and this ewe’s got a limp
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik,
Aye, we can deal wi’ ’em all, and wheer’s me crook and stick?

I count ’em up to figgits, and figgits have a notch,
There’s more to being a shepherd than being on watch;
There’s swedes to chop and lambing time and snow upon the rick,
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik.

From Caistor down to Spilsby from Sleaford up to Brigg,
There’s Lincoln sheep all on the chalk, all hung wi’ wool and big.
And I, here in Langton wi’ this same old flock,
Just as me grandad did afore they meddled with the clock.

We’ve bred our tups and gimmers for the wool and length and girth,
And sheep have lambed, have gone away all o’er all the earth.
They’re bred in foreign flocks to give the wool its length and crimp,
Yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp.

They’re like a lot of bairns, they are, like children of me own,
They fondle round about owd Shep afore they’re strong and grown;
But they gets independent-like, before you know, they’ve gone,
But yet again, next lambing time we’ll ’a’ more to carry on.

Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, pethera, pimp,
Fifteen notches up to now and one ewe with a limp.
You reckons I should go away, you know I’ll never go,
For lambing time’s on top of us and it’ll surely snow.

Well, one day I’ll leave me ewes, I’ll leave me ewes for good,
And then you’ll know what breeding is in flocks and human blood;
For our Tom’s come out o’ t’ army, his face as red as brick,
Sethera, methera, hovera, and covera up to dik.

Now lambing time come reg’lar-like, just as it’s always been,
And shepherds have to winter ’em and tent ’em till they’re weaned
My fambly had it ’fore I came, they’ll have it when I sleep,
So we can count our lambing times as I am countin’ sheep.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Helen
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 08:04 PM

Am I allowed to suggest Waltzing Matilda? :-D


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Helen
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 04:54 PM

The relevant question is: what's a Jumbuck?

Waltzing Matilda
[Verse 1]
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 2]
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 3]
Up rode the squatter mounted on his thorough-bred
Down came the troopers One Two Three
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
You might also like
You’re the Voice
John Farnham
Strangers
Kenya Grace
Rich Men North of Richmond
Oliver Anthony Music
[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Verse 4]
Up jumped the swagman sprang in to the billabong
You'll never catch me alive said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

[Chorus]
Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:23 PM

At one time I had every song on Carla Sciaky's Spin the Weaver's Song memorized. All of the songs are about sheep, shearing, spinning, weaving. A lovely album.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 04:44 PM

Here we are in New South Wales, shearing sheep as big as wales

With leather necks and daggy tails and hides as tough as rusty nails...

Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem version


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:10 AM

Top of my head-
The Lambs on the Green Hills
Broom O' the Cowdenknowes
The Shearing's not for you


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 07:15 PM

Bonnie Glenshee has one verse about sheep
The Spinning Song
The Yowie wi the Crookit Horn


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Mark Ross
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 03:34 PM

WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHEAR THE SHEEP IN OLD MONTANA Haywire Mac McClintock


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 10:09 AM

my friends Jason & Chloe Roweth released a CD - Too many bloody songs about Shearers a few years back! Check out the earliest published version of click Goes the shears - the shearer finally goes to HEAVEN, but some wowser sent him to hell & everyone sings that version these days, tho I try to get the proper word accepted, but I have such a soft voice ...

The title comes from a comment by the father of an early member of the Bush Music Club, Australia's oldest folk club, which is turning 70 next year. When his son came home with YET ANOTHER song about shearers, father made the above comment, so son suggested he write a song about another topic. Father was not a writer, yet he wrote a verse which his songwriting son made into a song - The Peach Pickers Song - see page 3


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:10 AM

CA’THE YOWES from Wikipedia     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%27_the_yowes ,BR>


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:18 AM

Many recordings of Ca' the Yowes on YouTube    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Ca%27+The+Yowes


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 10:30 AM

Scowie's poem "The hardy Lonk" is in need of a tune.

Robin


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: RTim
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 07:18 PM

Here is a version of a song that I have added a verse to...so that I can sing it in New England and also have a reference to the Sea.....

Tim Radford

Tending My Sheep by Ruth Tongue


If I was the King of Taunton town
I'd wear a sword and a golden crown.
I'd ride on afore when we went to the war
With soldiers to follow, a hundred or more!

But (So/And) I'd rather be tending my sheep,
Yes, I'd rather be tending my sheep;
My ewes and my rams and my little young lambs,
I'd rather be tending my sheep.

If I were a Bristol merchant-man,
With silver to collar and silver to hem,
And fine chests of gold, a sight to behold.
The thieves and the robbers they'd soon make me old.

(My extra verse)
If I were a Somerset fisherman bold
I’d cast out my nets be the weather hot or cold.
All the days of my life with my heart & my soul
I’d do my very best to feed all from my haul.

A shepherd I've been all the days that I've seen,
When the fields they're white and the fields they are green.
And I do meet my foe when the cold wind does blow,
When the foxes so cunning hide down in the snow.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The towns of Taunton, Bristol and Somerset are all in the south east of the States of Massachusetts or in Rhode Island, and although the song is originally from Somerset, England – it seems to “fit” here; so I wrote the extra “Fisherman” verse.

Ther tune can be heard here by The Furrow Collective.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utHPUSvUJNw


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: RTim
Date: 29 Sep 23 - 04:03 PM

I have a wonderful recording from The Maramures region of Romania by the singer Ioan Pop ....It is called in Romanian - "Horea Oilor" and translated into English by the Romanians as "Song of the Sheeps"......:-)

Tim Radford


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Sep 23 - 07:29 PM

There is a genre of instrumental tunes called "doina" in Romania which are mostly dramatizations of a story about a shepherd who loses his sheep. The mode is always the one called "nikriz" in Turkish - dunno the Romanian word for it - DEFG#ABcd. They're not improvised, but each player has one of their own. Structure is always the same:

1. Slow sad piece about how the shepherd has lost his sheep.
2. Happy bit, he found his sheep!
3. Sad bit again, he was really looking at rocks and his sheep are still lost.
4. Happy bit, he really did find his sheep again!

This form was taken up by klezmer players in the 19th century but the explicit reference to sheep was dropped.


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Subject: RE: Seeking songs on sheep, wool etc...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Sep 23 - 08:34 AM

"The Ewie wi the Crookit Horn" is about moonshine distilling - the crookit horn is the coil of the still.

Check out the Mudcat song archive for "I Need A Sheep".


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