Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men

Subject: song title? Help.! (based on Dives and Lazarus
From: GUEST,watcher
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 06:56 AM

I heard a song on Youtube and possibly Spotify using the tune based on "Dives and Lazarus"/"Star of County Down" with words about a shepherd. It was very well sung, I think it had an accompaniment on concertina but my memory is a bit hazy on that.
I had it bookmarked on my old computer which crashed, and I've tried searching for it with various key words but had no luck. Can anyone please put my mind at reat and identify the piece, and hopefully give a link to it.
thanks in anticipation......

Subject: RE: song title?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 12:54 PM

stormy winds?
http://open.spotify.com/track/4fnRpPUgrrrq3sxwueQDs6 

maybe something on the thread
songs to the tune of Star of the County Down 
thread.cfm?threadid=4083 
& see "related threads" there.

Subject: RE: song title?
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'

Subject: RE: song title?
From: GUEST,watcher
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 04:57 PM

thank you, yes that is the song. After a bit of searching I found the version by Gill Redmond and Dave Townsend on spotify (and it does have a concertina on it, plus cello,my memory isn't as bad as I feared)), though there it is listed as "shepherd's song".   It had been on youtube but now gives the message "video not available".
Thank you again for your help, I should have posted on Mudcat before I spent ages searching fruitlessly with vaguely remembered terms!!

Subject: ADD: The Shepherd's Song
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.


A man that is a shepherd
Does need a valiant heart,
He must not be faint-hearted,
But boldly do his part.
He must not be faint-hearted,
Be it rain, or frost, or snow,
With no ale on the wolds
Where the stormy winds do blow.

(Chorus)
He must not be faint-hearted,
Be it rain, or frost, or snow,
With no ale on the wolds
Where the stormy winds do blow.

When I kept sheep on Blockley Hills
It made my heart to ache
To see the ewes hang out their tongues
And hear the lambs to bleat;
Then I plucked up my courage
And o'er the hills did go,
And penned them in the fold
While the stormy winds did blow.

(Chorus)
Then I plucked up my courage
And o'er the hills did go,
And penned them in the fold
While the stormy winds did blow.


As soon as I had folded them
I turned me back in haste
Unto a jovial company
Good liquor for to taste;
For drink and jovial company
They are my heart's delight,
Whilst my sheep lie asleep
All the fore-part of the night.

(Chorus)
For drink and jovial company
They are my heart's delight,
Whilst my sheep lie asleep
All the fore-part of the night.


Source: Lucy Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland. 1893, English County Songs, Leadenhall Press, London

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on the song:

We Shepherds Are the Best of Men

DESCRIPTION: "We shepherds are the best of men that e'er trod English ground." We spend freely at the ale-house. We pen our sheep safely in spite of hale, rain and snow; then "unto a jovial company good liquor for to taste"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (according to Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: drink storm England nonballad sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland, pp. 82-83, "The Shepherd's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Thames, pp. 241-242, "Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 116)
Roud #284
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "We Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (on Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2] (stucture and theme:virtue and courage of an occupational group)
cf. "The Lonely Life a Shepherd Leads" (contrary viewpoint)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "Fred learnt this from the song-collector Fred Hamer, who had it from Lucy Broadwood's English County Songs [1893]." Broadwood said it was taken in 1793 in Gloucestershire (source: "The Shepherds' Song" in Song Database at the Folkinfo site).
Last updated in version 3.8
File: RcWSATBM

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Go to the Ballad Search form
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Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
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The Ballad Index Copyright 2017 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Also look at https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/stormywinds.html

Subject: RE: song title?-We shepherds are the best of men
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 04:59 AM

Back then (Mid Sixties) The Folk Division of the Camping Club had an Easter camp at Bloclkey in the Cotswiolds . Ron Shuttleworth ran the Song side , and I collected the song there aqs 'The Blockley Shepherd's Song

Subject: RE: song title?-We shepherds are the best of men
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 06:06 PM

The Fagans recorded it (in 4-part harmony) as Stormy Winds on their 1991 CD, Common Treasury.

Subject: RE: song title?-We shepherds are the best of men
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 11:13 PM

The Melrose Quartet recorded the Shepherd's Song in 2013 for their CD Fifty Verses. They commented in their liner notes:

Learnt from the singing of Ray ‘Moose’ Cope, the ‘fool’ of the Morris team Rich [Arrowsmith] grew up with. In a happy coincidence James [Fagan]'s Dad Bob spent time living on Blockley Hill in Gloucestershire as a child.

Melrose Quartet

Subject: RE: song title?-We shepherds are the best of men
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 11:45 PM

the fore-part of the night - and the latter-part

There is a current exhibition about sleep at the Elizabethan house Little Moreton Hall.

"For centuries we were accustomed to the idea of "first sleep" or "dead sleep" and "second sleep". It was accepted that between this first bout of slumber and the next there would lie an hour or so of quiet wakefulness, sometimes known as a "watch". This period was often used for prayer, or writing, or sex, or even for visiting the neighbours.

"But the idea of two sleeps dwindled in the late 17th century, so that by 1920 it was practically obsolete. For the last century or so we have been wedded to the idea of eight solid hours abed. And since the key to our sense of restedness often lies in our perception of how much sleep we have had, the figure of eight hours looms large."

From The Guardian Friday 24 February 2012

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: Greum
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 10:28 AM

Does anyone have chords for this song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: Greum
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 10:47 AM

Just realised how many tunes and variants there are for this song (I found 3 without looking), so I guess my question is in vain.

I'm making progress in working out suitable chords.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 05:24 AM

Steve... certainly not in the Copper Family repertoire. I'm pretty sure I've heard Bob Lewis singing it though. The Shepherd's Song, Shepherds Arise!, Shepherd of the Downs, Sheep Shearing Song...yes...but not this one. Hope you and yours are well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 02:41 PM

Hi, Jon
At my age the memory plays tricks. All well here. Hope your lot are keeping safe. In my head I can see and hear Bob and Ron singing it, but must be a phantom. I wonder who I heard singing it in harmony that mixed up my memory! Of course old Fred sang it but he got it out of English County Songs. I think I have Bob L singing it on a Veteran tape, but that won't be in harmony. I'll have a look at Mainly Norfolk site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 02:47 PM

Think I've solved it. The Watersons, who indeed inspired me to listen to your family's music, sang it and I was listening to you and them round about the same time and my mixed up memory must have compounded the two , as unlikely as this sounds.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: RTim
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 03:52 PM

Dr Gardiner collected it 4 times - 3 in Hampshire from William Cole, Benjamin Arnold and William Alexander, and also from Christopher Chalcraft over the border into Sussex.
Frank Purslow put these together in Marrowbones (New version - page 91) as Shepherds' Song.
He does also quote a verse came from Moses Mills, but I don't see this in the manuscripts or at least for Roud 284.
It seems Mills's verse is quoted as from Roud 1470..?? a different "Shepherd's Song"..??

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
From: GUEST,Brian Peters
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 06:04 PM

If I remember right, Bob Lewis sings a version very similar if not identical to to that in Marrowbones.