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The Morning Star

Idbury Hill

Job Jenkins

Barrel of Pork, The

Keyte, Higford

I Went to Market

Wassail Song (Randwick)

Hunt, William Edmund

Wassail Song (Maisemore)

William Arthur Newman

We Shepherds Be the Best of Men

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Performer: Chidlaw, Richard
Place Collected: Cheltenham
Date collected: 1980 (Oct)
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
Roud Number: 284

Versions in this form are found only in southern England since about 1880, but it is an adaptation of an earlier sailor ballad printed on broadsides ‘When the stormy winds do blow’. Interestingly we have the same sailor-shepherd pairing in the old saying ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s/shepherd’s delight, etc.).

Notes by Steve Gardham

Media & Downloads

Hear the song/tune as collected (mp3 stream):

See the song/tune as collected (PDF file)
Hear the song/tune (midi file)
Version to sing (PDF file)
Hear a version to sing (midi file)

Hear a modern recording (mp3 stream):

Song/tune as collected (abc file)
Version to sing (abc file)
Arrangement for choir
Arrangement for choir hear the high part
Arrangement for choir hear the mid part
Arrangement for choir hear the low part
Arrangement for choir hear the three parts