CAPE BRETON LULLABY
(Kenneth Leslie)

Driftwood is burning blue
Wild walk the wall shadows
Night winds go riding by
Riding by the lochie meadows
On to the ring of day
Flows Mira's stream singing

(Chorus)
Cadil Gu La, laddie, la, laddie
Sleep the stars away.

Far on Beinn Bhreagh's side
Wander the lost lambies
Here, there and everywhere
Everywhere their troubled mammies
Find them and fold them deep
Fold them to sleep, singing

Cadil Gu La, laddie, la, laddie
Sleep the moon away.

Daddy is on the bay
He'll keep the pot brewing
Keep all from tumbling down
Tumbling down to rack and ruin
Pray, Mary, send him home
Safe from the foam singing

Cadil Gu La, laddie, la, laddie
Sleep the dark away.

Written by Kenneth Leslie, this lullaby is well known in eastern Canada. It first appeared in print in 1964 in "Songs of Nova Scotia", sung to a different melody. The melody used now is an old Scottish air, played slowly, which Leslie himself would sometimes use.

It was first recorded by Catherine MacKinnon in the 1960's on "The Voice of an Angel" Arc A-628, and has been recorded numerous times since. A good, fairly recent (and good) version is by Teresa Doyle, on "Forerunner", 1991, Bedlam Records TD002.

"Cadil Gu La ", apparently means "sleep until morning." It is apparently the title of a fiddle tune found in the Fraser Collection.