> Louis Killen > Songs > Bonny at Morn

Bonny at Morn

[ Roud 3064 ; Ballad Index Stor066 ; Folkinfo 73 ; DT BONYMORN ; Mudcat 40539 ; trad.]

J. Collingwood Bruce, John Stokoe: Northumbrian Minstrelsy John Stokoe: Songs and Ballads of Northern England

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 released in 1972 on her Trailer album The Bonny Birdy on which she noted:

A lullaby taken from the Northumbrian Minstrelsy and accompanied by an instrument, indigenous to my adopted home, the Northumbrian small-pipes.

Horden Raikes sang Bonny at Morn in 1972 on their Folk-Heritage album of songs of the working classes during the period 1750-1850, King Cotton. They noted:

This song is peculiar in that it has a two fold story. It is both a lullaby for a young child and a rebuke for a lazy son and daughter who will not go to work. John Bell has the song in his book Northumbrian Minstrelsy.

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 noted:

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.

Janet Russell and Christine Kydd sang Bonny at Morn in 1987 on their eponymous Greentrax album Janet Russell & Christine Kydd. They noted:

A Northumbrian lullaby where the mother expresses both tenderness and exasperation at her children.

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

Martin Simpson played Bonny at Morn on his 1991 tune album When I Was on Horseback.

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.

Magpie Lane sang Bonny at Morn in 1994 on their Beautiful Jo album Speed the Plough. They noted:

One of the treasures of English folk music, this was sung to waken a child so that the family could get on with the day’s work. The song appears in the collection, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, published in 1882.

Lucky Bags sang Bonny at Morn in 1996 on their Fellside album Food for Thought. They noted:

A traditional Northumbrian folk song. Some things never change. Even in the 1890s children did not do anything around the house. Although often sung as a lullaby it is really quite an angry song.

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

Carolyn Robson sang Bonny at Morn in 1998 on Kathryn Tickell and Friends’ Park album The Northumberland Collection. They noted:

This beautiful old song reflects a mother’s efforts to wake her children and get them on with some work!

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.

macAlias (Gill Bowman and Karine Polwart) sang Fine Flooers in the Valley and one verse and the chorus of Bonny at Morn in 2000 on their Greentrax album Highwired. They noted:

Scottish balladry abounds with deaths caused by the ubiquitous wee pen-knife. Fine Floo’ers is probably the best known variant of The Cruel Mother ballad in which the victim is her own baby. We layer it with snatches of the lullaby Bonnie at Morn, because both the airs and the themes fit so well. Lullabies are often downright bleak or creepy affairs, revealing a great deal about the fears and stresses of parenthood. Just as well the wee ones can’t understand the words, really.

Barbara Dickson sang Bonny at Morn on the second, “in concert”, CD of her 2001 album For the Record.

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 Sage Gateshead’s youth folk ensemble, FolkESTRA North! sang Bonny at Morn, “a traditional Northumbrian lullany”, in 2003 on their Fellside album FolkESTRA North!.

Alasdair Roberts’ sang his own song Carousing on his 2003 album Farewell Sorrow; it incorporates portions of the melody of Bonny at Morn as played by Bob Fox and Stu Luckley.

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

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

Annie Grace sang Bonny at Morn in 2004 on her Greentrax album Take Me Out Drinking Tonight.

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.

Twelfth Day sang Bonnie at Morn in 2008 on their eponymous EP Twelfth Day, and in 2010 on their CD Northern Quarter.

Jess and Richard Arrowsmith sang Bonny at Morn in 2014 on their second album of nursery songs, rhymes and lullabies, Off We Go Again!.

Broom Bezzums sang Bonny at Morn on their 2015 album No Smaller Than the World.

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

The Home Service sang Bonny at Morn, by now with Bob Fox singing lead, live at The Bedford in Balham, Wavendon, and The Apex in Bury St. Edmunds in March 2024. The concerts’ recordings were released in 2024 on their Talking Elephant album A Live Transmission.

Lyrics

Each verse is sung twice.

Ray Fisher sings Bonny at Morn

The sheep’s in the meadow and the kye’s in the corn,
Thou’s ower lang in thy bed, bonny at morn

Chorus:
Canny at neet, bonny at morn,
Thou’s ower lang in thy bed, bonny at morn.

We’re all laid idle wi’ the keepin’ o’ the bairn;
The lad winnot work and the lass winnot learn.

The birdy’s in the nest and the trout’s in the burn;
Thou hinders thee mother at iverry turn.

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:
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:
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)

Broom Bezzums sing Bonny at Morn

The sheep’s in the meadow, the kye’s in the corn
Thou’s ower lang in thy bed, bonny at morn

Chorus:
Canny at neet, bonny at mom
Thou’s ower lang in thy bed, bonny at mom

We’re all laid idle, we’re keeping the bairn
The laddie winnot work and the lassie winnot lairn

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