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Looking for Farm Songs
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Subject: Looking for Farm Songs From: Hyla Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:19 AM Over the years I have been collecting songs & singing songs about farms, farming, gardening, rural living and farmers markets. My buddy and I are putting together a set of songs to sing and play at our local farmers market in Emmaus, PA. I am sure a number of you mudcatters are aware of some great farm songs and I would love to hear about your favorites. Some of the farm songs I love to sing are as follows... Field Behind the Plow - Stan Rogers Houses in the Fields - John Gorka Cows - John Gorka Canned Goods - Greg Brown People of the Fields and Farms - Clay Riness Combine Boogie - Clay Riness Oozy Farm Creek - Clay Riness Grandma's Penny Sale - Larry Long The People are Scratching - Pete Seeger Pastures of Plenty - Woody Guthrie The Garden Song - David Mallett Any additional suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Jeff P.S. I used to be "Hyla" in a former mudcat life and would be interested in hearing from some of my old mudcat friends. Hi to WYSIWIG, Margaret V and Dharmabum if you are still out there! I now live a small farm in Berks County, PA. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Charmion Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:23 AM The Barnyards of Delgaty and a whole host of other bothy ballads. Scotland is full of farm songs. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Le Scaramouche Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:40 AM Charmion beat me to it. Barnyards is a great song about ploughboys whining after a hard day's work. The Scranky Black Farmer. The Working Chap. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,Mr Happy Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:43 AM Old McDonald? |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Richard Bridge Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:46 AM The Harvest of love |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: rumanci Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:52 AM "To Be A Farmer's Boy" from the singing of George Belton in West Sussex preceded by tales of his horse ploughing days wonderful stuff :-D rum |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Charley Noble Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:53 AM Kitty Donohoe from Michigan composed "Farmers in Florida" and "Waiting for Rain." Sally Rogers and others have recorded the former. Kitty's recordings can be ordered from Elderly Instruments in Lansing. There's also a number of songs about farm auctions. For traditional UK recording you could do worse than do a web search for "The Painful Plough." For southern tenant farming, there's the 1930's classic "Hard Times on Penny's Farm." Australia has a wealth of agricultural songs. Maybe you need to specify more clearly what you're after. Happy to help! Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 25 Jun 05 - 10:54 AM I used "The Farmer in the Dell" for the famous Mack the Cat series. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: bobad Date: 25 Jun 05 - 11:02 AM "Farmers Song" by Murray McLauchlan is a good one. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: An Englishman Abroad Date: 25 Jun 05 - 11:16 AM Hi Farmsong I have a copy of The Painful Plough, if you have problems getting it on the web contact me through here or go to my web site www.AnEnglishmanAbroad.com and I will get the songs to you some way I am only one State over from you. all the best John |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Charley Noble Date: 25 Jun 05 - 01:26 PM There is also a song Frank Warner collected called "Fod" which might be just the thing for the farmers' market. I'm sure it's in the DT or at least discussed in the threads but I'm too lazy to look. The first verse runs: As I went down to the mowing field, Tor-rih, tor-rih, foddy-dink-y-dy-do; As I went down to the mowing field, fod! As I went down to the mowing field, Big black snake bit me on the heel, Tor-rih, tor-rih, day! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Arkie Date: 25 Jun 05 - 01:33 PM Guy Clark's Homegrown Tomatoes and Fred Eaglesmith's Thirty Years of Farming. Also 'Dame Durden' and 'Springfield Mountain' have connections to farming. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Le Scaramouche Date: 25 Jun 05 - 01:40 PM Oh, and Copshawholme Fair. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Kitty Date: 25 Jun 05 - 01:45 PM Judy Small's From the Lambing to the Wool Pat Drummond's Laughter like a Shield |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,bfdk Date: 25 Jun 05 - 04:13 PM Nick Keir's "Song of the Plough" |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Little Robyn Date: 25 Jun 05 - 05:18 PM The Watersons sing one called (I think) "All the little chickens in the garden" Robyn |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: sixtieschick Date: 25 Jun 05 - 05:24 PM Maggie's Farm. LOL |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Janie Date: 25 Jun 05 - 11:09 PM How about Talkin' Harvest Time Blues by Stephanie Davis? Janie |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: SharonA Date: 26 Jun 05 - 12:16 AM "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", written by John Martin Sommers, recorded by John Denver among others. "The Auctioneer" by Gordon Lightfoot. "Don't Slay That Potato" by Tom Paxton. "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" "Don't Leave the Farm, Boys" by Clara F. Berry, 1871 -- see lyrics and link to sheet music on this page: Library of Congress page Here's a recording that may be helpful, if you don't have it already: "An Almanac of New England Farm Songs" by Margaret McArthur. See this page: An Almanac of New England Farm Songs Also, here's a page with lots and lots of farm-song titles and artists: www.topsoil.net/farmsongs.htm |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Charley Noble Date: 26 Jun 05 - 11:02 AM You'll also find this outrageous ditty discussed in the threads: Pass The Udder Udder 1.Oh, we grow things mighty big down in Kentucky, But there's nothing in that state that can compare To a cow that we once had us, And the name of her was Gladys, Boy, you should have seen the neighbors stop and stare. She stood 10 feet tall and had one purple eyeball; It took eight of us to milk her, here is why: She had 27 spigots, And the tourists all bought tickets Just to watch us milk and hear us loudly cry-y-y-y... (CHO) "Oh, pass the udder udder over to me udder brudder Pass the udder udder over dis-a-way; Pass the udder udder over to me udder brudder." Oh, we certainly had our hands full every day. Utterly distasteful to anyone who actually grew up on a dairy farm. The tune, of course, is an all too familar dairy-air. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: kansan Date: 26 Jun 05 - 11:31 AM I'm a neophyte on this forum, having only registered about 15 minutes ago. Have you heard the Allis Chalmers blues waltz? Don't know who wrote it, but heard it at Winfield about 20 years ago, and it sort of stuck. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: pdq Date: 26 Jun 05 - 12:26 PM "The Farmer Feeds Us All" - "Lower Forty" - Recent songs that might qualify: "Horsethief Moon" - Ian Tyson "Since the Rain" - Ian Tyson "Bakersfield Bound" - Chris Hillman |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,toenails John Date: 26 Jun 05 - 02:19 PM You could always try this one...... THE SALT FARMER Att. to Kevin Conneff/Mrs. Chrissie Cunningham Come all you young lads and young lassies, who hanker to work on the farm, Now, be careful when choosing a master, it might serve for to keep youse from harm. When I was a strapping young fellow, aged about seventeen I hired myself to a farmer at the horse fair in Ballinascreen. Now, his farm was way up the mountains and it all only heather and bog, And me job, well, I got to look after his donkey, his goat and his dog Now me, the farmer and his mother, we lived in a tumble-down shack, His mother was well over ninety with the bones sticking out from her back. It was only a tumble-down ruin, held up with ould yellow clay The roof it was past all repairin', for the goat had the thatch ate away. His poor mother, she'd sleep by the fire, for the rain it came down on her bed And when I'd get up every morning, she'd be sittin' there noddin' her head. The master was an awful ould skinflint, his heart was as hard as a stone He'd work me from daylight to darkness; in a month I was just skin and bone. And he fed me on nothin' but sheeps eyes, he said they would make me a man; Well, they damn near made me a dead one, eaten half raw off the pan! Now, he had three ould hens and a rooster, one day they all died in the coop, So he took them, he boiled them and salted them, we lived for a month on the soup! Bad luck now, it never comes single, for the next day the nanny goat died: So he skinned it, he boiled it and salted it, and made a bodhrán from the hide. It was then poor ould Neddy, the donkey, he broke his hind leg and suffered great pain, So he shot him, he skinned him and boiled him and called for the salt once again! I thought, now, his mind was affected and myself I was going insane, For when poor Fido died of distemper he called for the salt once again! When I thought what happened, poor ould Fido, I couldn't sleep thinking that night; And when I got up the next morning, I got a most horrible fright. His poor mother was dead by the fire, when I ran for the door he cried "Halt! Where are ye going so early? Come back here and help me to salt!" Well, I went through the door like a rocket, says He "where are you going boy, HALT!, I tripped in the yard with excitement and out he come runnin' with salt! I took to me heels like a cowboy and over the hills like a hare, I never stopped runnin' for a fortnight and I've never gone back to a fair! |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Hyla Date: 26 Jun 05 - 09:51 PM Thank you to all for all the great suggestions!! Jeff |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Rapparee Date: 26 Jun 05 - 10:16 PM Tom Paxton's "Who Will Feed The People?" but I can't find the lyrics for you. It's on "One Million Lawyers" and some other albums of his. SALT WATER FARM Words and Music by Tom Rowe He was well into his sixties when I first heard Grampa's dream; A farmhouse by the sea and some roots in the land, He never got the farm, what he got was a machine, In a factory at the edge of town and broken, calloused hands. It stole away his years and the music from his ears; And left him so he couldn't even hear the factory horn. Still he said someday he knew he'd get his way, And end up his days on a salt water farm. Salt water farm, salt water farm, A little bit of heaven, just a house and a barn. Mornins we'd go fishin', work the fields in the afternoon; And as the evening tide rolls in there'd be songs beneath the moon And later I would take you in my arms, And listen to the sounds of our salt water farm. He said he'd have a cow, some chickens and a hog; A barn filled up with hay and a boat down in the cove. Later in the fall he'd go hunting with the dog. Winter nights he'd sit around and read beside the stove. Well he was always kind of poor and he could have dreamed for more, Than a place where he would still have to work with his hands. But that never was his way and I can still hear him say, "Son, a man is at his best between the sea and the land." |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Tradsinger Date: 27 Jun 05 - 02:08 PM Dear Farmsong, Is it so that the songs you list in your original posting are all composed songs? Shouldn't you be instead looking in the traditional reportoire for farming songs. There are shedloads of farming songs in England, often of the type that praises certain trades "We're all jolly fellows that follow the plough", "There's none can lead a jollier life than Jim the Carter's Lad", "We shepherds are the best of men", etc. I'm not sure how these songs would play in PA as they sound very "English" to me. You could have a look at "The Farmer's Toast" (tune - Eric Winter, words trad). Most of the Copper family reportoire is about farming. My favourite is "Season Round", a real epic of the farming year. "Overseas in India" is a very evocative song - tune by Sarah Morgan based on a poem by ....? I will be in PA next April. Keep in touch and good luck. Gwilym |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Clinton Hammond Date: 27 Jun 05 - 02:17 PM "Fields Of Rock And Snow" By Tamarack "Teamwork" by same... Couple of really good songs about farming in Ontario... Last Of The Working Stetsons By Garmet Rogers And it's sequel Blue Smoke |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Clinton Hammond Date: 27 Jun 05 - 02:18 PM GAR-N-ET rogers.... Please, can we have the ability to edit our own posts like a decent message board?!?!?! |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Hyla Date: 27 Jun 05 - 03:12 PM Good question Tradsinger, but even traditional songs were once composed by someone. You are right though, I need to add some traditional farm songs to my repertoire and that is exactly why I started this thread. I am looking forward to expanding my awareness of the vast catalog of songs that have been written about farming. I started my farm song interest years ago, when I started my day job preserving farmland in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. We seem to be growing more houses these days in our farm fields than corn, soybeans and vegetables. Hence my particular love for John Gorka's "Houses in the Fields." I wonder if there are any traditional songs addressing the issues of urban sprawl and the loss of farmland? What part of PA are you visiting Gwilym? Maybe you can come for a visit and teach me some the traditional farm songs you know. Thanks much for your post. Jeff |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST Date: 27 Jun 05 - 03:15 PM The Haying Song - Dave Mallett |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Tradsinger Date: 27 Jun 05 - 05:10 PM I'll be in Mansfield and then a couple of venues in NY in April. Watch Mudcat for further details. Hope to see you then. Gwilym |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: katlaughing Date: 27 Jun 05 - 05:22 PM Mudcat's Art Thieme does a great rendition of Charley Maguire's song, Gettin' in the cows. If the link doesn't work, it's in the DigiTrad. Another one he does is Big Combine by Jock Coleman, also in the DT. Sorry if either of these are repeats.:-) kat |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Dave Sutherland Date: 27 Jun 05 - 05:28 PM "The Farm Servant" "The Thrashing Machine" "A Shepheard's Life" "Bonny Shepheard Lad o'the Hills" "Two Bretheren" "The Old Farmer in Yorkshire" "The Rocks of Bawn" "Sleepytoon" "Bogies Bonny Belle" |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Dani Date: 27 Jun 05 - 11:54 PM My favorite 'farm' song, which I actually find myself singing sometimes in the pure joy of the beautiful morning-wet grass of a field awakening with life for the day, is De Colores (in the database). Dnai |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,Fort Worth Guest Date: 28 Jun 05 - 12:15 AM How about, "Trouble In Our Fields" - Nanci Griffith? Also, you may stretch to includ Woody's, "Pretty Boy Floyd" a song about a man who tried to help out struggling farmers - albeit in a none-too-healthy fashion. Cheers, y'all. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 28 Jun 05 - 12:39 AM Lyrics from a British school text. A song I sang in First Grade.
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Ebbie Date: 28 Jun 05 - 05:56 PM I think it's Ginny Hawker who sings a tear-jerkin' song about a mother and daughter having to sell the house and farm after years of struggle, something like 'It's hard to leave this land.' It's been a long time and now I'm curious. I'll have to check my tapes and CDs. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: SharonA Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:17 PM Tradsinger/Gwilym: Mansfield is in WYSIWYG's neck of the woods (Penn's Woods, that is!), in Tioga County in north-central PA. Berks County, where farmsong's farm is, is in the southeastern part of the state (my neck of the woods), and it's adjacent to Chester County -- home of Mudcat Central. Here's a map of Pennsylvania's counties, for reference: Counties of PA |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Hyla Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:54 PM Thanks for the PA geography lesson SharonA. I wasn't quite sure where in PA Mansfield is located. I am originally from Western New York State. Maybe Gwilym would want to come further south to do some house concerts in our neck of Penn's Woods during her visit? Jeff |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: coldjam Date: 29 Jun 05 - 12:06 AM "My Land is a Good Land" by Eric Andersen, and "When I first Came to This Land" by Oscar Brand. (We do them as a medley.) |
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Subject: Lyr Add: JOLLY FELLOWS THAT FOLLOW THE PLOUGH From: GUEST,Mad Date: 29 Jun 05 - 12:43 PM Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough is a good song. According to Cecil Sharp it is a song every folk singer should know.. unfortunately although I have found the lyrics various places, I know very few people who actually sing it! If you want some idea of the tune, Encarta has a version here 'Twas early one morning at the break of the day The cocks were all crowing and the farmer did say Come rise my good fellows, come rise with good will Your horses want something their bellies to fill. When four o'clock comes, then up we do rise And off to our stable we merrily flies With rubbing and scrubbing our horses I'll vow That we're all jolly fellows that follow the plough. When six o'clock comes, for breakfast we meet With bread, beef and pud, boys, we heartily eat With a piece in our pocket, I'll swear and I'll vow That we're all jolly fellows that follow the plough. We harness our horses and away we do go We nip o'er the plains as nimbly as does And when we get there so jolly and bold To see which of us a straight furrow can hold. Our master come to us and this he did say What have you been doing boys, all this long day? If you've not ploughed your acre, I'll swear and I'll vow That you're damned idle fellows that follow the plough. I stepped up to him and made this reply We've all ploughed our acre, so you've told a damn lie We've all ploughed our acre, I'll swear and I'll vow we're all jolly fellows that follow the plough. He turned himself round and laughed at the joke It's past two o'clock, boys, it's time to unyoke Unharness your horses and rub them down well And I'll give you a jug of my very best ale. So all you brave fellows whoever you be Come take this advice and be ruled by me Never fear your master then I'll swear and I'll vow That you're all jolly fellows that follow the plough. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Tradsinger Date: 29 Jun 05 - 01:56 PM To Farmsong<, Who's the 'her' in your 28 June posting? I can assure you of my masculinity, at least when I last looked! Gwilym is Welsh for William. PM me and we'll discuss house concerts in PA. Gwilym |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 29 Jun 05 - 02:08 PM The Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band did a cracking version of this, but here's the marvellous original: Jollity Farm |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: SharonA Date: 29 Jun 05 - 09:13 PM Farmsong/Jeff: You're welcome. I'm a PA native, currently in Montgomery County, and I grew up on the small farm that my father grew up on (by the time I was a kid it was no longer a working farm, but my dad kept a '30s-era John Deere tractor in the barn and grew an acre's worth of garden). Can't think of any farm songs that we sang, though! :^) I've been to Mansfield, PA; it's about a 6-hour drive away, so I share your hope that Gwilym can make it down to our area to perform. Please keep me posted, Jeff and Gwilym, and let me know if you schedule a house concert in these parts! |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: Beer Date: 29 Jun 05 - 10:16 PM Jerry Jeff Walker does a song by Bill Stains titled "Quiet Faith of Man". Not all about farming but there is a verse in it that captures a picture in ones mind. Goes like this: A tractor makes its way along the fence line, And drops the seeds precisely in a row. If the rains are kind and the winds don't take the topsoil, Before too long the crops will start to show. The farmer sees the fields around him growin' He wispers something low beneath his breath. Perhaps a little prayer to help the growin' Perhaps a word of thanks for all the rest. Chorus You trust the moon to move the mighty oceans, You trust the sun to shine upon the land. You take the little that you know, And you do the best you can. You see the rest with the quiet faith of man. Beer |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 30 Jun 05 - 01:45 AM Pop Song - by Doug Walter
Movin' to the country
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,AnneMC Date: 30 Jun 05 - 05:10 AM A real farmer's song - shooting the rabbits that strip the grassland! Jack's Song (Martin Curtis- www. martincurtis.co.nz) Long before sunrise, we're out of the sack Throw tea and flour in your battered old pack Hang all your traps round your trusty old hack, Away to the brown hills of Pisa We eat rabbit curry, we eat rabbit stew We've tried rabbit roasted, and rabbit pie too Without us there wouldn't be one single ewe, Up in the brown hills of Pisa Chorus: And it's gut 'em and skin 'em, And five for a bob Some people say it's not much of a job But give me my freedom, Just me and me cob Up in the brown hills of Pisa A rabbit has never done me any harm His meat kept me fed and his fur kept me warm He gave me my living, he earned me my farm, Under the brown hills of Pisa We catch 'em by trapping, we kill 'em with shot, We'll send down a ferret and bring up the lot But now it's 1080 and leave them to rot, Up in the brown hills of Pisa CHORUS The rabbiter's life was the life that I knew A horse and my traps and my old 22 But myx is the next thing they're going to use, Up in the brown hills of Pisa * myxomatosis CHORUS |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST, Jos Date: 30 Jun 05 - 07:42 AM There is a 78 rpm Regal record of Albert Richardson with "Buttercup Joe" on one side and "Suzannah's a Funny 'Ole Man" on the other. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 30 Jun 05 - 08:53 AM "The Honest Farmer" and "Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All" by Fiddlin' John Carson. "The Bell Cow" -- New Lost City Ramblers do this and others. Check out any source of U.S. old time & folk music for great songs of the south and west. The Lomaxes collected such as "Starving to Death on a Government Claim," "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn," "Whoa, Buck," Leadbelly's "Pick a Bale of Cotton," "State of Arkansas." There's a great Irish farm-labor song, "Rocks of Baun" and many more about potato farming. That's only scratching the surface, pardon the pun. There are just a slew of such songs! Consult any folk music collection. |
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Subject: RE: Looking for Farm Songs From: GUEST,Mary in Kentucky Date: 30 Jun 05 - 11:10 AM Farmsong, you mentioned urban sprawl and loss of farmland. How about the idea of farmers encroaching on the range, considering the cowman's (rancher's) historical viewpoint? The Farmer and The Cowman from the musical, Oklahoma The farmer and the cowman should be friends, Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends. One man likes to push a plough, the other likes to chase a cow, But that's no reason why they cain't be friends. Territory folks should stick together, Territory folks should all be pals. Cowboys dance with farmer's daughters, Farmers dance with the ranchers' gals. I'd like to say a word for the farmer, He come out west and made a lot of changes He come out west and built a lot of fences, And built 'em right acrost our cattle ranges. The farmer and the cowman should be friends, Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends. The cowman ropes a cow with ease, the farmer steals her butter and cheese, But that's no reason why they cain't be friends Territory folks should stick together, Territory folks should all be pals. Cowboys dance with farmer's daughters, Farmers dance with the ranchers' gals. I'd like to teach you all a little sayin' And learn the words by heart the way you should I don't say I'm no better than anybody else, But I'll be damned if I ain't jist as good! I don't say I'm no better than anybody else, But I'll be damned if I ain't jist as good! Territory folks should stick together, Territory folks should all be pals. Cowboys dance with farmer's daughters, Farmers dance with the ranchers' gals! |
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