THREE PRAIRIE SONGS

by Trent Worthington

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Cypress Choral Music · Old Grandma – arr. Trent Worthington

Cypress Choral Music · Dying Outlaw – arr. Trent Worthington

Cypress Choral Music · Little Old Sod Shanty – arr. Trent Worthington

featuring the Richard Eaton Singers – directed by RJ Chambers – piano: Leanne Regehr

LYRICS

OLD GRANDMA

1. Old Grandma when the west was new

She wore hoop skirts and bustles too

When infants came and times got bad,

She stuck right on to old Granddad.

2. She worked hard seven days a week

To keep Granddad well-fed and sleek

Twenty-one children came to bless

Their happy home in the wilderness.

3. Twenty-one boys, oh, how they grew!

Big and strong, on bacon, too

They slept on the floor with the sheep and the goats

And they hunted in the woods in their oilskin coats.

4. Twenty-one necks grandma would scrub

Twenty-one shirts in the old washtub

Twenty-one meals three times a day –

It’s no wonder Grandma’s hair turned grey.

5. And what she did was quite all right,
She worked all day and slept all night
But young folk now are the other way
They’re up all night and they [sleep all day.

6. Old Grandma when the west was new
She wore hoop skirts and bustles too
When infants came and times got bad,
She stuck right on to old Granddad.

DYING OUTLAW

Come gather around me, my comrades and friends

The sun it is setting on life’s short day

For I’m wounded to die, and there’s nothing to do

but wait until my life ebbs away

O bury me on the lone prairie

where the hooves of the horses shall fall

Where the echoing tread falls over my head,

and a cowboy will carry me on

I have roved on the prairie by night and by day

No danger I’ve feared as I rode along

But a red-coated foeman has written my doom

and a cowboy will carry me on.

O bury me on the lone prairie
where the hooves of the horses shall fall
Where the echoing tread falls over my head,
and a cowboy will carry me on

Be kind to my pony while with you he stays

The bury him beside me when he must go

How often I’ve tried him, and I know he won’t fall

When we ride in the great rodeo

O bury me on the lone prairie
where the hooves of the horses shall fall
Where the echoing tread falls over my head,
and a cowboy will carry me on

LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY

I am looking rather seedy now
While holding down my claim
And my vittles are not always
Served the best
And the mice play shyly ’round me
As I nestle down to rest
In my little old sod shanty in the west

Oh the hinges are of leather
Ad the windows have no glass
While the board roof
Lets the howling blizzards in
And I hear the hungry coyote
As he slinks up through the grass
Round the little old sod shanty
On my claim

Yet I rather like the novelty
Of living in this way
Though my bill of fare
Is always rather tame
But I’m happy as can be
For I’m single and I¹m free
In the little old sod shanty on my claim

Oh the hinges are of leather
Ad the windows have no glass
While the board roof
Lets the howling blizzards in
And I hear the hungry coyote
As he slinks up through the grass
Round the little old sod shanty
On my claim

My clothes are plastered
O’er with dough, I’m looking like a fright
And everything is scattered
Round the room
But I wouldn’t give the freedom
That I have out in the west
For the table of the Eastern man’s
Old home

Oh the hinges are of leather
Ad the windows have no glass
While the board roof
Lets the howling blizzards in
And I hear the hungry coyote
As he slinks up through the grass
Round the little old sod shanty
On my claim

Still I wish that some kind-hearted girl
Would pity on me take
And relieve him from the mess that he is in

Oh, the mess that I am in
Oh, the angel, how I’d bless her
If this her home she’d make
In the little old sod shanty on my claim

Oh the hinges are of leather
Ad the windows have no glass
While the board roof
Lets the howling blizzards in
And I hear the hungry coyote
As he slinks up through the grass
Round the little old sod shanty
On my claim