Master of the Sheepfold, The

DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling...for them all to be gathering in." The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd says some are lost, but the rest will come. The Master goes out and gathers
AUTHOR: Sarah Pratt McLean Greene ? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (recording, Art Thieme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling, calling...for them all to be gathering in" The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd answers that some are wan, weathered, lost or good-for-nothing, but the rest will come. The Master goes out on the wind and rain path, lets down the bars to the sheepfold, and gently calls the sheep to come in; they do
KEYWORDS: religious sheep
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SHEEPFOL
RECORDINGS:
John Milnes Baker, "The Master of the Sheepfold" (Piotr-Archive #846, recorded 04/27/2024)
Art Thieme, "The Master of the Sheepfold" (on Thieme04) (on Thieme06)
NOTES [126 words]: Please pardon a personal remark: this song is unlike any other I've heard in the emotional effect it creates from a spare lyric; the only comparison, I think, is with Blind Willie Johnson. - PJS
Although Art Thieme comments that the song, "means different things to different folks," there is little doubt that it comes from the New Testament images of Jesus and the sheep, e.g. John 10:7-16, especially v. 14: "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me." Compare also the parable of the lost sheep (Matt. 18:12f., etc.).
Hymnary.org lists a song "The Master of the Sheepfold" as by S. P. Creasinger. But they have no text of the song, so I have gone with the attribution to Sarah Pratt McLean Greene that I have seen in "folk" sources. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: DTsheepf

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