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09 Aug 13 - 12:29 PM (#3547281) Subject: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: Jacob B I came upon a reference to an old Scottish ballad called, Always Room For One More. When I couldn't find it in Mudcat, I went searching farther, and found the lyrics below. Here's what I found about the source: Written down from oral tradition by Sorche Nic Leodhas, in his childrens' book, "Always Room for One More." The author explains "....ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE is one of the many Scottish popular songs which have been preserved by oral tradition, being handed down by one generation to the next, but never appearing in print. My father sang it to us when we were children. He had been taught it by his father when he was a little boy, and my grandfather remembered it from his own early childhood. Because the Scottish words in which this merry little tune was written are somewhat difficult to understand, it was necessary to change many of them into others more familiar to American boys and girls. However, some of the Scottish words were left in the song because they sounded better than any new ones I might choose...." Does anyone know another version of this song, or how it went before it was anglicized? Can anyone provide a link to the melody? Always Room For One More 1. There was a wee house in the heather-- 'Twas a bit o' a but and a ben-- And in it there lived all together Lachie MacLachlan And his good wife, And his bairns to the number of ten. "There's a fire on the hearthstone to warm me, And porridge to spare in the pot," Said Lachie. "The weather is stormy, So me and my wife And our ten bairns, Will be sharing whatever we've got." So he hailed every traveler that passed by his door. Said Lachie MacLachlan, "There's room galore. Och, come awa' in! There's room for one more, Always room for one more!" A tinker came first, then a tailor, And a sailor with line and lead; A gallowglass and a fishing lass, With a creel o' fish on her head; A merry auld wife full o' banter, Four peat-cutters up from the bog, Piping Rury the Ranter, and a sheperd laddie Down from the brae, With his canny wee sheperd dog. He hailed them all as he stood at the door. Said Lachie MacLachlan, "There's room galore. Och, come awa' in! There's room for one more, Always room for one more!" 2. Rury's pipes set the rafters a-ringing Till the clock danced a reel on the shelf, And they all fell to dancing and singing, And the little dog danced by himself. Och, the walls they bulged out and bulged in then, The walls they bulged in and out. There will never be heard such a din, then, As came from the folks In the wee little house While they rollicked and frolicked about. They filled all the house up from door to door, But Lachie cried out, "There's room galore. 'Twould be a tight fit, but there's room for one more, Always room for one more!" Then the rafters they clappit like thunder, And folks in the nearby town Stood stock-still to listen and wonder, When the wee little house With its but and its ben And its walls and its roof DINGED DOWN! Then the tinker and the tailor, And the sailor with line and lead; The gallowglass, and the fishing lass, With the creel o' fish on her head; The auld wife full o' banter, The four peat-cutters up from the bog, 3. Piping Rury the Ranter, And the sheperd laddie down from the brae, With his canny wee sheperd dog, AND Lachie MachLachlan, His good wife, And his bairns to the number of ten, They all tumbled out again! And they gowked at the place where the house stood before. "Och, Lachie," they cried, "there was room galore, But worry and woe, there's no room no more, Never no room no more!" They wailed for a while in the heather, As glum as a grumpetie grouse, Then they shouted, "Have done with this blether! For Lachie MacLachlan, His wife and his bairns, We'll raise up a bonny new house." The house that they raised from the auld one Was double as wide and as high. Should an army come by it could hauld one, With Lachie MacLachlan, His wife and his bairns, And whoever else happened by. And then the whole lot of them stood at the door, And merrily shouted, "There's room galore! Now there will always be room for one more, Always room for one more!" |
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09 Aug 13 - 07:19 PM (#3547404) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: Jim Dixon I would dearly love to find this, but I am coming up with nothing. I tried searching in Google Books for various phrases such as "room for one more" changing the spelling to "room for ain mair" and various variations; also for "Lachie MacLachlan" and variants such as "MacLaughlan", "MacLoughlin", etc. Do you suppose Sorche Nic Leodhas was pulling our leg, and he made up the whole thing himself? |
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10 Aug 13 - 02:47 AM (#3547482) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: Mo the caller Similar to the Eleanor Farjeon poem Mrs. Malone though she had her reward in heaven. |
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10 Aug 13 - 08:37 AM (#3547538) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: maeve Jacob, here's a link to the melody as printed at the back of the book. "Always Room For One More" I have not yet found any other source for the song. |
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10 Aug 13 - 08:54 AM (#3547542) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: maeve Only, drat it, my link doesn't take you to the pages with the musical notation. Hmmm... http://books.google.com/books?id=YPa_BYYuZrQC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=%22always+room+for+one+more%22+folk+song&source=bl&ots=q3X85Z2 This appears to work. |
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08 Jan 21 - 05:51 PM (#4087124) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: GUEST,Bernice Hey Jacob, what is your source for the quote? I am trying to find more info on this author. And the author is a woman. Her English name is LeClaire Gowans Alger. Sorche Nic Leodhas means Claire daughter of Louis. |
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08 Jan 21 - 07:38 PM (#4087135) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: keberoxu I will have to go hunting for this, because it is indeed familiar. Not because I have Scottish forebears, but because a children's illustrated book presented this lyric. I remember seeing it decades ago. The bits of Braid Scot are as I recall them, right down to the canny wee shepherd dog who danced all by himself. The question is, by whom was the book published, and when, and so on: I shall report back should I locate anything. |
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08 Jan 21 - 07:45 PM (#4087138) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: keberoxu 1965, exactly so. The very book from which I learned it. And the book won the Caldecott Medal, which would explain how it ended up in the local library: we didn't own a copy in the house, we would have borrowed it from the library and had it for bedtime stories ... yes, in 1965, which definitely dates me. |
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08 Jan 21 - 07:53 PM (#4087139) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: keberoxu ... so, to answer Bernice's question, I would have to check the book which I don't have: my guess is that Jacob was quoting a preface or a foreword within the book itself. The Baltimore Sun printed the entire lyric in an issue of its newspaper some twenty-odd years ago, which you can pull up right here with 'goggle'. And, the newspaper's acknowledgment of copyright gives both the 'nom de plume' under which the book was published, and assigns the text copyright to the author by her actual name. Looks as though this author has a Wikipedia page but I have yet to check it out. The book was published in 1965 and the author died in 1969, it says. |
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08 Jan 21 - 08:01 PM (#4087141) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: keberoxu ... and, for what it's worth, Barnes & Noble's NOOK Books product makes available all this author's other collections of Scottish folk tales: there must be half a dozen such collections, with titles like Ghosts Go Haunting Sea-Spell and Moor-Magic Heather and Broom Claymore and Kilt ... |
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08 Jan 21 - 08:17 PM (#4087142) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: keberoxu LeClaire Gowans's first husband, Amos Risser Hoffman, died in 1918, according to webpages about authors in libraries: I wonder if it was the war? She was a widow at the age of twenty. She went from there to the Carnegie Library School and spent much of her life working in libraries. |
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05 May 22 - 03:46 PM (#4141204) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Always Room For One More From: GUEST I have a copy of the book and I would love to sing the song and figure out some guitar chords to go with it. I'm not very good at reading music (I usually learn by ear). Has anyone had a go at this, and could possibly share a audio file of what it sounds like? |