Harvest songs. Any good ones?

Subject: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Glyn Owen
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 05:37 PM

Hi.
My band have been asked to take part in a harvest service in a church in Bristol. Can anyone suggest any good harvest songs?

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 05:44 PM

Well,you can scarcely avoid doing one of the many many versions of John Barleycorn.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Janie
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 06:14 PM

"Come Ye Thankful People, Come"

words and music at cyberhymnal.org

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 06:25 PM

Dave Mallett's THE HAYING SONG

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Neighmond, whose dog has eaten his cookie.
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 06:46 PM

What of "Bringing in the Sheaves"?

Chaz

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Cruiser
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 06:47 PM

The CD by Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: 'Harvest Home' is a great one for reference. The Harvest Home Suite on that album, as well as the other tracks, should fit the bill perfectly, especially if you have a good fiddler.

Cruiser

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 07:13 PM

do searches for "harvest" and for "@farmer" and see whether you like any of them.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Peg
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 07:45 PM

Come Ye Thankful People Come is also known   as Harvest Home or    the Hymn of Harvest Home

John Wood is one about brewing beer and   the seasons...

Westlin' Winds/Song Composed in   August by Rabbie Burns mentions the fruits of the fields, weary   farmer, etc.

All Among the Barley (rec. by Nancy   Thym) mentioned   the   ripe and   bearded   barley, smiling on the scythe...

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 06:30 AM

I Sowed The Seeds Of Love, as in the harvest supper in the film of Far From The Madding Crowd.
Keith.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: IanC
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 06:46 AM

We Plough the Fields and Scatter. Much parodied of late.

:-)

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,squeezy
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 07:18 AM

"All among the barley" is my favourite harvest song of all time - the lyrics are on digitrad here

Cheers

Squeezy

Subject: ADD: Stixwould Harvest Song (Drink Good Ale)
From: gnomad
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 08:40 AM

I don't know about the church context, I guess it would depend on the attitude of the congregation & minister, but as a harvest song I find this one has a certain appeal (from the singing of Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher):

Stixwould Harvest Song
STIXWOULD HARVEST SONG (Drink Good Ale)

Drink good ale, drink the barrel dry,
Yonder field is where I've been,
I tore my shirt, and I tore my skin,
But I've got my master's harvest in,
So drink good ale.

Drink good ale, drink the barrel dry,
Harvest in, and harvest home,
The farmer can no longer moan,
We'll get a fat hen, and a bacon bone,
So drink good ale.

Drink good ale, drink the barrel dry,
Farmer, he has got his corn,
It's all well mown, and it's all well shorn,
We work each day from the break of dawn,
So drink good ale.

Drink good ale, drink the barrel dry,
Harvest has come home at last,
It's never turned over, and it's never stuck fast,
It's fuller than ever it was in the past,
So drink good ale.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,ADD: Stixwould Harvest Song
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 09:02 AM

Gnomad - do you have any way of posting the tune? Do you have dots?

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 09:40 AM

Old Cane Press

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,banjo 1925
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 09:42 AM

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,banjo 1925
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 09:43 AM

Shine on Harvest Moon!

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: mg
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 10:41 AM

the one that goes

and the sun is my only alarmer
so good people now here is God speed the plow
long life and success to the farmer

but there are two tunes...one is far better than the other but I don't know how to tell you which one is which. mg

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: zanderfish3 (inactive)
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 01:23 AM

' Country Life 'as recorded by the Watersons

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Sandy Paton
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 01:31 AM

Larry Hanks' delightful "Apple Picker's Reel" is on Michael Cooney's Folk-Legacy CD-35 - "The Cheese Stands Alone." "The Big Combine" is on Art Thieme's Folk-Legacy CD-90 - "That's the Ticket."

Sandy Paton, still cookieless

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,jannie
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 02:49 AM

Two kind of melancholy American ones: "Deportees," by Woody Guthrie (the crops are all in and the peaches are rotting), "Four Strong Winds" by Ian Tyson (I think), and Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty." Maybe a stretch on that last one.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 05:52 AM

Just a thought - Most Harvest Songs I know seem to be more secular than ecumenical. Do you need to check with the presiding minister of whatever church it is if these would be OK?

In the line Here's a health unto our Master, the founder of this feast. You could say the Master is God, but following it with We hope to God with all our hearts in heaven his soul will rest puts paid to that:-)

Good luck anyway.

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 11:06 AM

Dave.
Thanks for the thought but are your corrections refering to any particular harvest song?

Cheers

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 03:40 PM

Isn't the line quoted by DtG the one that starts out Sheep shearing's over the summer is past. Drink a health to our mistress in a full glass. She is a good woman and she brings us good cheer. Dring a health to our mistress with a full glass of beer. (or bear if you're in Hull)

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 06:49 PM

Not quite sure of the title - It's one I learned off an LP by Lancashire group 'The Wassailers'.

Here's a health unto our master the founder of this feast.
We hope to God in all our hearts in heaven his soul may rest.
And may he always prosper, whatever he takes in hand.
For we are all his servants and all at his command.

Cho.
So drink, boys, drink and see that you do not spill.
For if you do, you shall drink two. This is our masters will.

And now we've drunken our masters health Why should his missus go free?
Why shouldn't she go to heaven. To heaven the same as he.
She is a good provider, abroad as well as at home.
So fill your cup and drink it up. This is our harvest song.

Cho.

I did find another verse many years later but it somehow managed to bring Reynard the fox into it. Seemed a bit incongruous so I never learnt it!

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Glyn Owen
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 06:56 PM

Cheers Dave.
Great idea and I like the lyrics. We might try this or another possibility is HOPPING DOWN IN KENT ( either a song about travelling on one leg or harvesting hops). I'll let you know how things progress.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Peg
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 10:18 PM

I love those lyrics gnomad; any recommendations for how to obtain a recording of that one??? many thanks.

I am surprised no one (myself included) mentioned Corn Rigs by Rabbie Burns; the lovers in the song are making love among the harvested grain...

also, I used to sing in a pagan choral ensemble and we recorded something called "Lammas Night" which I am fairly certain was inspired by the aforementioned corn rigs ditty:

The grain was reaped, the bins were full
The country danced, I with the Harvest Queen
She took my hand and led me through the night
among the rigs of barleycorn...

Chorus:
'neath the rigs of bareycorn
Come my Harvest Queen and lay with me once more
and let me taste the honey of your love
among the rigs of barleycorn

She came to me on Lammas Night
I lay with her and nested in her down
The moon round and full caressed her swollen breasts
among the rigs of barleycorn...

chorus

The newly-turned earth became our summer's bed
I yearned so deeply for this night to never end
as she took me down within her rounded thighs
among the rigs of barleycorn

chorus

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Marion
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 11:10 PM

The hymn that IanC mentioned, "We Plough the Fields and Scatter", appears in the musical "Godspell" - possibly under the title "All Good Gifts". In Godspell it has a more modern, less hymny tune that I find quite pleasant.

What about Stan Rogers' "Field Behind the Plow"? It's not so much about harvest as it is about the challenges of farming life; but it would fit in at a point in the service where you're recognising eaters' debt to farmers.

Marion

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 01:12 AM

There are several versions of the "John Barleycorn" ballad in the file "Scarce Songs 2" at www.erols.com/olsonw, but having been at a few real harvests in Nebraska (fortunately for me, I was to young to do any of the very hard work involved) in the late 1930s, I don't think one could catch much of the real action in such a song.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: gnomad
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 04:43 AM

Re Stixwould Harvest Song

Being musically ill-educated I cannot offer the dots, but as one who learns the trad way (off other people's recordings, of course!) I can point to a recording:

Old Men & Love Songs    BILDA002 Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher   MCPS

Anyone in UK wanting it ADA keep it, but I'm unsure about the likes of Amazon.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: GUEST,BDog
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 04:49 AM

Put 'Harvest' into the DT search, and take your pick!

Brian

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Nov 21 - 09:37 AM

Refreshing this thread rather than starting a new one...

I was looking for harvest songs, and in running through my repertoire and this place, discovered that most of the Joy Of Full Granaries-type of harvest songs I sing are in French. Seems most of the English-language ones are hymns, not folk songs. Or praise god, not the labor.

Am I wrong?

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: RTim
Date: 16 Nov 21 - 10:11 AM

I rather like this one......

https://soundcloud.com/tim-radford/welcome-the-harvest-home

Tim Radford

Welcome The Harvest Home - Frank Harrington - Roud 1294
(GG/1/20/1243) – Tune & Words – Harrington – Sep 29 1908


Now come let us taste how your liquors be
Fill up your glasses and drink to the lasses
And merrily jog them on your knee
For it makes them a kinder grow.*

Chorus
For we are all the lads of the heigh down derry
Drinking beer as brown as a berry
It’s a good strong beer that’ll drown dull care
For to welcome the harvest home, home, home
For to welcome the harvest home.

Now Tom and Sue come tumbling in
With a large brown jug so neatly trimmed
And then the barleycorn was in
For this night they’d merry, merry be.
Chorus

Now Tom and Sue they call for a dance
It was agreed that they should by chance
To have it upon the grass
For this night they’d merry, merry be.
Then every lad took his lass,
Gently led her down the dance
Round went their tails like windmill sails
For to welcome the harvest home, home, home
For to welcome the harvest home.

Now just before the dance was done
You’re out, cries Dick, and you’re wrong cries Tom
And the fiddler he’s played it wrong cries John
And we’ll have it all over again.
Chorus

* Manuscript line is: For it gives them a kind of galore.

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 11:01 AM

Is this what is parodied in For tonight we'll merry merry be (3x) tomorrow we'll be sober, by Ed McCurdy?

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 11:06 AM

Harvest Away

Album: The Ever Decreasing Circle - Artist: The Kipper Family

Now harvest time is here, my boys, so raise a bumper do
The oats and beans and barley, oh, and to the turnips, too
Now early in the morning, oh, we rise up with the quail
A lump of greasy bacon fat and half a pint of ale

CHO: So drink, boys, drink, that is the master's brew
And if you do not drink it there'll be no more work for you

We stagger to the harvest field for to begin our labours
And carry heavy firkins each one bigger than his neighbour's
We've barely started working when we have to stop, I fear
For now that is our duty bound to drind a pint of beer

And at the hour of ten o'clock our progress is cut short
The foreman cries let to my boys, now you must drink a quart
The work is hard, the sun is hot, 'tis hard to keep your balance
Especially in the afternoon when you've had several gallons

When harvest time is over, boys, it's to the pub we'll steer
For there our master doth provide more barrels of strong beer
When closing time is here at last thawnk God we all can stop
For even if he paid us we couldn't drink another drop

Now we will have a holiday before our work's resumption
The doctor says we need the rest, we're suffering from consumption
My back is sore, my arms are stiff, my legs like lumps of lead
But all of that is nothing to the aching in my head

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 11:10 AM

Joan Sugarbeet

Album: The Ever Decreasing Circle - Artist: The Kipper Family

There were three men came out of the East
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
Joan Sugarbeet should die
They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed her in
Threw clods upon her head
And these three men made a solemn vow
Joan Sugarbeet was dead

They let her lie for a very long time
Till the rain from heaven did fall
Then little lady Joan sprung uo her head
And soon amazed them all
They let her stand till midwinter
Till she looked both flaccid and green
And little Lady Joan she grew a big bottom
And so became a queen

They hired men with hands so strong
To pull her out of bed
They cut her in half around the waist
And threw away her head
They hired men with sharp pitchforks
Who piled her by the road
But the driver he served her worse than that
For he threw her upon his load

They rolled her along and along the road
Till at Cantley they did meet
And there they made a bloody great stack
Of poor Joan Sugarbeet
They hired men with choppers so huge
To chop her into bits
And the Sugar Corporation served her worse than that
For they drowned her in a pit

Here's little Lady Joan in a china cup
And lumps all in a bowl
And little Lady Joan in the china cup
She proved the sweeter girl
For the office boy can't balance his books
Nor keep his desk so neat
And the housewife can't enjoy her cup of P. G. Tips
Without a little bit of Joan Sugarbeet

Joan Sugarbeet

Subject: RE: Harvest songs. Any good ones?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 11:19 AM

A Penny for the Ploughboys, by Colin Cater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQ0km0JVbk