Lyr Req: Granville Pace

03 Jun 01 - 02:35 PM (#475848)
Subject: Granville Pace - lyrics required
From: GUEST,Roger Knowles

The Deseret String Band recorded this song 1980-1984- I cannot get all the words in the first line of the chorus, but would welcome any help with all of it. Can anyone assist? Thanks in advance, Roger Knowles

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19 Apr 02 - 08:19 PM (#694060)
Subject: RE: Granville Pace - lyrics required
From: Jim Dixon

For what it's worth, the Deseret String Band and "Granville Pace" are mentioned in this review in The Old-Time Herald, which refers to the song as a "tremendous sheep herding song ... which Hal Cannon collected in 1976."

Here's a bio of Hal Cannon. He's a folklorist and a member of the Deseret String Band.

Here's a discography for the Deseret String Band. I see that "Granville Pace" appears on 3 of their albums, but the only one still in print is "Utah: Songs of Statehood: The Deseret String Band Centennial Concert."

On this page I also found a reference to a song called "Herding Sheep for Granville Pace."

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20 Apr 02 - 02:26 AM (#694174)
Subject: Lyr add: HERDING SHEEP FOR GRANVILLE PACE
From: masato sakurai

HERDING SHEEP FOR GRANVILLE PACE
Lot Alexander

(This true song about the hypocritical Mormon sheep rancher has been kept alive by the author's niece, Della Turner, of Washington, Utah.)

[D]On the fourteenth of October, I [G]went a wild-goose chase,
From [A]Washington to Harmony, to work for Granville [D]Pace.
The evening I arrived there, he [G]counted out my sheep;
I [A]built my bed 'neath an old sage bush, but could not rest or [G]sleep.

Refrain:
[D]Dough gobs and boiled flank and [G]castlebloat for tea,
An [A]old sheep pelt and a ragged old quilt was all he'd furnish [D]me!
A frying pan with the handle gone, and [G]no pot to cook maize,
That's [A]all in this world you'll ever get if you work for Granville [D]Pace.

Now the first day that I herded, there came an awful fog;
I, of course, fell short some sheep, I did not have a dog.
When we got to the counting pen, Gran says," You're out two sheep!"
Granville swore and Granville cursed, but he did not find the sheep.

Now he sent me out a damned old dog, and said her name was Nell;
The first time I set her on the sheep, she scattered them to hell!
I up with my rifle and took a shot at her;
Granville never said a word, but he thought "You dirty cur!"

Refrain

On a Sunday we started for the desert, a-storming like hell,
Granville, he got momesick and said he wasn't well;
He went up to Pinto, and got in a heck of a fight,
Came sneaking back to the old sheep camp in the middle of the night.

Now when we got our new camp built, Gran often come around;
It was then Christmas time, of course we went to town;
We went up to Granville's to get a little "mon";
While we were a-sitting there, in the ward teachers come;
Granville says, "I pray each night, before I go to sleep."
But he forgot to tell of the time, when he stole Joe Prince's sheep!

Refrain

(From: Hal Cannon, ed., Old-Time Cowboy Songs, Gibbs-Smith, 1988, pp. 48-50; with music & chords)

~Masato

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