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The Shepherd's Song Sheet
The Shepherd's Song Sheet
Pastoral Songs & Songs of Sheep and Shepherding

•   Sheep Shearing - Jolly Boys: A fine English Sheep Shearing Song from the collection of the Copper Family who have preserved so many fine working songs.
•   The Sheep Shearing: This is a fine old folk song collected by Sharp about Sheepshearing
•   Tarry Wool: Song of a Shepherd from Scotland.  It is a celebration of wool
•   Gang Nae Mair Tae The Shearing: This is a traditional Scottish shearing song and a love song all in one!
•   Waulking Song: Here is a wonderful song that would have been sung while the people of the Isles beat the wool cloth on a table or with their feet to in order to full it.  These songs like Sea Chanties helped keep everyone working together and made the time pass with much more pleasure.  I have it here in English and Gaelic.
•   The Weary Pund O' Tow: The translation from Scots is Pound of Flax.  This is a song about a drunkin wife who will not spin.
•   Rosebud in June: Maddy Prior sings this on Below the Salt a favorite Steeleye Span tape of mine. It is another sheep shearing song collected by Sharp.
•   Geordie: --Type Summary Here--
•   Braw Lads O' Gala Water: This is a lowland Scots song quite famous as a pipe tune.
•   Queen Among The Heather: A song about a simple shepherd lass out herding her ewes together.
•   Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes: What can I say, another fine sheep song in Scottish dialect.
•   Broom Of The Cowdenknowes : This is a 17th Century Scottish Song. Child #217
•   The Laird O' Drum: A traditional Scottish Ballad Child #236.  This is a happy story of a young shepherd's daughter that is courted by a Laird.
•   Ewie Wi' The Crookit  Horn: This is a song about the loss of a ewe.  It is somewhat tongue in cheek.
•   Sheep-Crook and Black Dog: Here is another classic I learned from Steeleye Span and it is another fine song about a Shepherd and his dog.
•   Shepherd's Song: This is a moving song about the Shepherds Life which is a rather good pub song too!
•   Mouth Music-All the sheep have milk  : This is an example of "PUIRT A BEUL" or mouth music from the Isles of Scotland.  It means "Mouth Music"  These are very ancient and haunting.
•   What Will I Do Gin My Hoggie Die?: Burns Song that is really hardly known except as a poem. Hoggie is a ewe not a pig.
•   Up and waur them a', Jamie: Robert Burns Song about Jamie Stewart
•   Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight: This song is based loosely on the real life events of Lord Maxwell but takes a bit of liberty with the facts as so many old folksongs do.
•   For A' That: This famous song is known best as a Burns Poem.  It speaks frankly to the condition of man.
•   Border Widows Lament: Border Ballad from Scotland
•   O'wallywally: Famous Scottish tune often called The Water Is Wide.  Many English versions are well known.
•   The Holly and the Ivy: This has been my favorite carol since I was a small child.  It was collected in Cornwall, England in the 19th Century but is much older than that.  It has strong Celtic overtones.
•   Gloucestershire Wassail: --Type Summary Here--
•   In The Bleak Midwinter: --Type Summary Here--
•   Oxen Song: This is a great saga of an ox drover.  We have friends who work oxen and this song is dedicated to them!




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•   Morris Dancers, England

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