Songs about country crafts/occupations

Subject: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: sleepyjon
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 06:30 AM

I've been asked to come up with some songs about country crafts etc - but not including ploughing or shepherding (themes that we've had already) - and that seems to rule out everything I know! Mind gone blank!

Help! (please!)

SJ

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 06:51 AM

You could always try "Acorns" written by Eric Payne and recorded on his CD of the same name and on Bill Whaley and Dave Fletcher's CD Acorn to Oak. It references ostler, labourer, farrier, blacksmith, carter, herdsman, keeper, poacher, hawker, tramp and ploughman. (Sorry about the last one!)

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 07:10 AM

Hedging and Ditching?
The Hiring Fair?

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 08:51 AM

Waulking songs.

Lotsa songs about blacksmiths.

"My daddy's a delver of dykes"

"The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (spinning)

"The Weary Pund o Tow" (ditto)

"Clout the Cauldron" (tinkering)

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 09:10 AM

I'd sooner lay blackthorn

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 09:24 AM

walling thread.cfm?threadid=161028

hedging thread.cfm?threadid=107687
> Related threads:
Lyr Req: Blackthorn (from Anuna)
Lyr Req/Add: Blackthorn

THE NOBLEMAN AND THE THRESHER @displaysong.cfm?SongID=6757

HONEST LABOURER @displaysong.cfm?SongID=2707

THE SEASONS ROUND @displaysong.cfm?SongID=6953






There are probably more. Type a word into the "Lyrics & Knowledge Search" box.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 09:38 AM

Dick Gaughan - The Thatchers O'Glenrae

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 09:45 AM

Peg and Awl- Danu

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 09:45 AM

Hedger and Ditcher is a start

Poor Old Horse the canal shanty - there's a similar American one Erie Canal/Low Bridge/Mule Named Sal

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 10:01 AM

Jimmie Rodgers "Mule Skinner Blues"

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 10:08 AM

The Molecatcher [ trad ]

Dave H

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 10:08 AM

Sooz -Sue Dewsbury - wrote this song after talking to an old ploughman. theres only a fragment of it here - but its an impressive song. i'm sure she'll send the words. she's a generous soul.


http://www.gainsboroughfolkclub.com/stitherum/11six.mp3

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 10:47 AM

I don't know if there's a tune, but someone told me:-

I am a dry-stone waller,
All day I dry-stone wall,
Of all appalling callings,
Dry-Stone walling's worst of all

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 12:28 PM

check out dave goulders website i am sure there is a song about dry stone walling

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: eftifino
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 02:09 AM

Beekeeping: The Big Effen Bee by Matt McGinn



He kept bees in the old town of Effen
An Effen beekeeper was he
And one day this Effen beekeeper
Was stung by a big Effen bee


Now this big Effen beekeeper's wee Effen wife
For the big Effen polis she ran
For there's nobody can sort out a big Effen bee
Like a big Effen polisman can


The big Effen polisman, he did his nut
And he ran down the main Effen street
In his hand was a big Effen baton
He had big Effen boots on his feet


The polis got hold of this big Effen bee
And he twisted the Effen bee's wings
But this big Effen bee got his own back
For this big Effen bee had two stings


Now they're both in the Effen museum
Where the Effen folk often come see
The remains of the big Effen polis
Stung to death by the big Effen bee


That's the end of that wee Effen story
'Tis an innocent wee Effen tale
But if you ever tell it in Effen
You'll end up in the old Effen jail

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: eftifino
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 02:12 AM

Myriads of poems and tales about Shearing, droving and farming in Australia, or is the thread just UK?

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 03:59 AM

I'm sure Rambling Syd would also address your needs :-)

"The Ballad of the Woggler's Moulie" immediately springs to mind, but
"The Taddle Gropers' Dance", "Song of the Bogle Clencher" and "Runcorn Splod Cobbler's Song" would also fit the brief.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: sleepyjon
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 04:01 AM

Lots of great suggestions - some that I should have spotted! - kicking myself now!

Eftinfo, Yes, I was thinking of UK content, but the Aus connection is a good thought - especially songs with UK roots - any suggestions welcome - and prompted by your question I'll also have a look at the Sharp/Karpeles collection from the Appalachains.

SJ

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 04:44 AM

Hooks & Nets by the recently departed Ian (Woodsie) Woods about poaching

Mr Red's songs not trad per se, in context there is: "Merry Bookbinder", "Knittershanty", plus a couple of genuine, if off-piste, Pace Egging songs - (if you include carol singing for small boys ) and more urban are "Pure Finder" & "Old Rags & Bones".

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: CupOfTea
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 09:49 AM

Think of any field of endeavour, and search for worksongs relating - mining, sailing, oil drilling, fishing, house building, you likely know more songs than you can think of off the top of your head.

Lots of songs about mill work Weaver's Reverie, Cotton Mill Girls

The Copper Family repertoire has reference to some more specific crafts

And be sure to include the brewer! "Craft" beers proliferate like weeds around here. John Barleycorn covers several skills along the way from planting to drinking.

Ships afford a range from shipbuilding to all the tasks on board. Gordon Bok has several about shipbuilding. Dick Swain's setting of "Old Figurehead Carver"

Gotta get to work, and I admit, I do not know any work songs about church record keeping or bulletin writing.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 10:11 AM

Following on from Mr Red, of course "When Gamekeepers Lie A-sleeping"

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 10:12 AM

And Steve Knightley's "Long Dog".

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: sleepyjon
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 07:46 AM

Thanks for the suggestions so far - following up a couple of goodies - still room for more if anyone's got any.
Cheers
SJ

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 12:44 PM

Loads of songs about millers (or more often, their wives and daughters).

If you can play the pipes, the joke about the piper encountering the septic tank installers would give you a routine commemorating an otherwise unsung occupation.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Marje
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 01:56 PM

"Young Banker"
I understand that a banker was a man who built up the stone banks that border the narrow lanes in some country areas such as Devon.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Mo the caller
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 05:01 AM

Jack, your reference to the Rock and Wee Pickle Tow set me searching. I have a dance of that name in a BBC pamphlet from a series of Barn Dances that they did 20 or so years ago.
Mudcat Lyrics gives me a Scottish Nursery Rhyme to the tune Rock... (that I sing an English version of to Lilli Bolero, to my granddaughter), Google tells me who wrote the poem.
But I can't find the words so I still don't know what the title means and I've often wondered.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Gutcher
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 09:14 AM

Songs mentioning lassies milking include:--

"The {Old] Yellow Haired Laddie"    [at least two others with this name]
Mentioned by Allan Ramsay B.1686 as an old song in his day.

[1] The yellowed haired laddie sat doon on yon brae
    Cried milk the yowes lassie let nane o them gae
    And aye as she milket she merrily sang
    The yellow haired laddie shall be my gudeman.

On another recent thread I mentioned that I had a number of floating songs which, as far as I can determine, do not appear in any of the printed collections--one of them being:--

"Lassie Leave yer Milkin Pail"

[M] [1] O lassie lea yer milkin pail
         O lassie lea yer fee
         O lassie lea yer milkin pail
         An come awa wi me.

[F] [2]
[M] [3]----I have recently found this one verse in an 1820s.
            publication.
[F] [4]
[M] [5]
[F] {6]

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Paul Reade
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 09:36 AM

The excellent singer / songwriter Anna Shannon's CD "A Celebration of Old England" fits the bill for this thread perfectly.

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 12:34 PM

The Drovers' Way by Jim Boyes; it's on Coda by Coope Boyes and Simpson

The Ploughboy's Dream sung by Coope Boyes & Simpson 0n Triple Echo: Songs collected by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth and Grainger

The Drovers by Keith Marsden;
Oh the droving days are done, and the drover's way is run.
For there's railways laid and they've taken the trade,
And the droving days are done.

In the Droving Days - poem by Banjo Patterson

The Diamantina Drover written by Hugh McDonald

Search for drover/droving on DT index.

The Goodnight-Loving Trail by Utah Philips

The Old Changing Way by Richard Thompson; "I'm Darby the tinker"

Poor Ditching Boy by Richard Thompson

Shillingstone Moss by Tim Laycock

The Nutting Girl/A-Nutting We Will Go; from the singing of Cyril Poacher

The Spotted Cow; from the singing of Harry Cox

Lincolnshire Poacher; traditional song

Rufford Park Poachers; sung by Joseph Taylor, verses completed by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Search for poacher in DT index.

While the Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping; from the singing of George 'Pop' Maynard

Long Dog by Steve Knightley of Show of Hands

Country Life by Steve Knightley of Show of Hands

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 12:51 PM

And this is one you really could sing.

Click Go the Shears; first published in 1891 in the regional Victorian newspaper the Bacchus Marsh Express

Subject: RE: Songs about country crafts/occupations
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 08:55 PM

The Rock (or Roke) and Wee Pickle Tow is one of the town tunes of Linlithgow in West Lothian, and is played VERY early in the morning on Linlithgow Marches Day by whistlers, pipers an a'. It is almost identical to the Irish tune, "O'Sullivan's March".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCYaLwZf9Yo
Yes, that was 6 AM, and the flutes and whistles were at 5 AM!