Another Fall of Rain (Waiting for the Rain)

DESCRIPTION: "The weather had been sultry for a fortnight's time or more; The shearers had been driving might and main...." After so much work the shearers are tired and desperate for a break. At last the rain came, allowing them to relax and rest up
AUTHOR: a literary version is credited to John Shaw-Neilson
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 154-155, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 190-192, "Waiting for the Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 134-135, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 174-177, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 21, "Another Shower of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 174-175, "Waiting for the Rain" (1 text)
DT, FALLRAIN*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 64-65, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 293-294, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Roud #22614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [147 words]: The original Shaw-Neilson poem, "Waiting for the Rain" (the probable but not quite certain original) was rather long and involved, and even the early version printed by Paterson has generally been severely shortened by tradition. The basic plot, however, survives. That the song is relatively recent is shown by the fact that the shearers were paid during the rain. Shearers were paid by the piece, and until the Shearers' Union gained the concession that they be paid when they could not shear, rain meant only hardship.
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong calls Shaw-Neilson "John Neilson" rather than "Shaw-Neilsen" and says that he came to Australia as a boy in 1853 and began his writing career in 1876; Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads also uses the surname "Neilson" and says that the Neilson who wrote this song was the father of "the lyric poet Shaw Nielson." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA154

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