> Louis Killen > Songs > Bonny at Morn

Bonny at Morn

[ Roud 3064 ; Ballad Index Stor066 ; DT BONYMORN ; Mudcat 40539 ; trad.]

Fairport Convention Sheep in the Morning 2017 Come All Ye: The First Ten Years Alasdair Roberts Carousing 2003 Farewell Sorrow Annie Grace Bonny at Morn 2004 Take Me Out Drinking Tonight Barbara Dickson Bonny at Morn 2001 For the Record Hordon Raikes Bonny at Morn 1972 King Cotton Broom Bezzums Bonny at Morn 2015 No Smaller Than the World FolkESTRA North Bonny at Morn 2003 FolkESTRA North! Janet Russell and Christine Kydd Bonny at Morn 1987 Janet Russell & Christine Kydd Jess and Richard Arrowsmith Bonny at Morn 2014 Off We Go Again! The Home Service Bonny at Morn 2024 A Live Transmission Kathryn Tickell and Friends Bonny at Morn 1998 The Northumberland Collection Lucky Bags Bonny at Morn 1996 Food for Thought macAlias Bonny at Morn 2000 High Wired Magpie Lane Bonny at Morn 1994 Speed the Plough Martin Simpson Bonny at Morn 1991 When I Was on Horseback Twelfth Day Bonnie at Morn 2008 Twelfth Day Twelfth Day Bonnie at Morn 2010 Northern Quarter

Jack Armstrong played Bonny at Morn on his Northumbrian smallpipes in a Peter Kennedy recording on the 1964 album Northumbrian Minstrelsy.

Maureen Craik sang Bonny at Morn in 1965 on her Topic album with Harry Boardman and the Watersons, New Voices. The sleeve note commented:

Northumbria is the only part of England with its own regional music-dialect, its own stock of melodies that are distinct in style from tunes anywhere else in the country. And of this style, Bonny at Morn is one of the masterpieces. Its peculiarity no doubt derives from the character of the local northeastern bagpipe, and the tune was surely an instrumental one before words became attached to it. A great, if neglected, pioneer folk song collector, John Bell, noted the song at the outset of the nineteenth century, but it wasn’t printed until 1882, in the Northumbrian Minstrelsy. The poem takes a curious twofold form; in part it’s a lullaby addressed to a baby, and in part it’s reproach to a lazy son who is ’ower lang’ in his bed and won’t get up.

Ray Fisher sang Bonny at Morn, accompanied by Colin Ross on Northumbrian smallpipes, in 1970 on the Trailer compilation LP The Folk Trailer before this track was relewased in 1972 on her Trailer album The Bonny Birdy.

Louis Killen recorded Bonny at Morn in winter 1977 at the Eldron Fennig Folk Museum of American Ephemera for his album Old Songs, Old Friends. He wrote in his liner notes:

My oldest friends here are Bonny at Morn and Waltzing Matilda, both learned when I was a boy.

Bob Fox and Stu Luckley recorded Bonny at Morn in 1978 for their LP Nowt So Good’ll Pass, and Bob Fox sang it again in 2003 on his Topic CD Borrowed Moments. He noted:

Bonny at Morn is one of the most beautiful of Northumbrian songs and concerns a mother nursing a baby whilst chastising a lazy son.

Graham Metcalfe with Folly Bridge sang Bonny at Morn in 1991 on their WildGoose cassette All in the Same Tune.

Anni Fentiman sang Bonny at Morn in 1993 on her and Dave Webber’s album Together Solo. They noted:

Most children from the North East learned this song in school.

Bob Davenport and the Rakes sang Bonny at Morn in 1997 on their Fellside CD The Red Haired Lad.

Ushna sang Bonny at Morn on their 1998 Fellside CD of music and song from Northumbria, Twice Brewed. They noted:

An old Northumbrian song which captures, lyrically, a universal and recurring aspect of family life… the baby won’t sleep, the older children won’t get out of bed and, as a result, little household work gets done. As a mother of four children of varying ages, Jackie [Barry] is able to sing this with real feeling.

Carolyn Robson sang Bonny at Morn on her 1999 album All the Fine Young Men. She noted:

Probably Northumberland’s best loved lullaby, I may have sung this to Anna and Freya when they were tiny, but here they join me in harmony.

Lisa Knapp sang Bonnie at Morn in 2002 on Gerry Diver’s CD Diversions. She noted:

This well-known Northumbrian lullaby is unusual in that it is sung to wake a child as opposed to sending it to sleep. The mournful and piercing melody is what first appealed to me in singing this song which lends a bittersweet irony to the tender sentiment of the lyrics.

Wendy Weatherby sang Bonny at Morn in 2002 on her Lochshore album Two Loves.

The Witches of Elswick sang Bonny at Morn in 2003 on their first CD, Out of Bed. They commented in the liner notes:

Our token Geordie song learnt from a Southerner and sung with a Yorkshire accent. Hey ho, that’s oral transmission for you.

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset sang Bonny at Morn in 2005 on their first CD, Cruel Sister. Rachel noted:

The tradition of passing songs down through the generations seems in this day to have found its most comfortable place in the back of the car. A favourite in Northumberland, we learnt this song in the best of traditions; in the car on a long journey, where our parents, in an attempt to keep us quiet for more than five seconds, taught us many a good song.

Johnny Campbell sang Bonny at Morn on his 2024 album True North.

Lyrics

Louis Killen sings Bonny at Morn

𝄆 The yowie’s in the meadow and the kye is in the corn,
Thou’s ower lang in thee bad, bonny at morn. 𝄇

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
But thou’s canny at neet, bonny at morn,
Thou’s ower lang in thee bed, bonny at morn.

𝄆 The bordie’s in the bush and the troot’s in the born,
Thou hinders thee mither at mony’s a torn. 𝄇

𝄆 We’re all laid idle wi’ keeping the bairn,
The lad winnot work and the lass winnot learn. 𝄇

The Witches of Elswick sing Bonny at Morn

𝄆 The sheep in the meadow and the cattle in the corn,
Thou’s over long in thy bed, bonny at morn. 𝄇

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
Canny at night, bonny at morn,
Thou’s over long in thy bed, bonny at morn.

𝄆 The bird in the nest and the trout in the burn,
Thou hinders thy mother at many’s a turn. 𝄇

𝄆 We are all idle wi’ keeping the bairn,
The lad he won’t work and the lass she won’t learn. 𝄇

(repeat first verse)