An Australian Folk Song A Day: A Bush Lullaby

Monday, January 9, 2012

A Bush Lullaby

Words: Thomas (Louis) Esson
Tune: Chris Kempster

Baby, O baby, fain you are for bed
Magpie to mopoke, busy as the bee
The little red calf's in the snug cow-shed
And the little brown bird's in the tree

Daddy's gone a-shearing down the Castlereagh
So we're all alone now, only you and me
All among the wool-O; keep your wide blades full-O!
Daddy loves his baby, parted tho' they be

Baby, my baby, rest your drowsy head
The one man that works here, tired you must be

The little red calf's in the snug cow-shed
And the little brown bird's in the tree

The illustration to this post is a photograph of Louis Esson. Follow this link to Chris Kempster's obituary by Keith McKenry. Below is a photograph of Chris.

1 comment:

NicoleJanuary 9, 2012 at 4:28 PM
I love your blog, its really diverting. Especially from the work I should be doing! I have made it my home page.
love
Nic
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The Idea

This blog was inspired by John Boden's "Folk Song A Day" blog, featuring mostly unaccompanied renditions of English folk songs.

I thought that Australia Day was a good time to start an Australian version*. While some of the songs will be previously-recorded songs, most will be recorded for this blog. I plan to use a variety of arrangement styles and recording approaches. While I will attempt to record versions of these songs which are pleasant to listen to, this is more of an archiving project than a recording venture.

I'm hoping that this will be a site where new and old songs can be gathered and where the visitors to the site will share in the rich history and texture of the lovely conglomeration that is Australian traditional song.

*Australia Day is January 26. My blog accounts time was set to UK time when I started the blog. This explains why the first entry is now marked January 27. Changing the time in February is also the reason there are 29 entries for February. You can't have too much of a good thing!