Digital Tradition Mirror

Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

(alternate:)

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim

I am looking rather seedy now while holding down my claim
And my victuals 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.
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 a clam on the land of Uncle Sam
In my little old sod shanty on my claim.

cho: The hinges are of leather and the windows have no glass
     While the board roof lets the howling blizzard in;
     And I hear the hungry ki-yote as he slinks up in the grass
     'Round my little old sod shanty on my claim.

Oh when I left my eastern home, a bachelor so gay
To try and win my way to wealth and fame,
I little thought that I'd come down to burning twisted hay
In 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.

cho:

Still, I wish that some kind-hearted girl would pity on me take
And relieve me from the mess that I am in,
The angel, how I'd bless her, if this her home she'd make
In the little old sod shanty on my claim.
And we would make our fortunes on the prairies of the West;
Just as happy as two lovers we'd remain.
We'd forget the trials and troubles we endured at the first
In the little old sod shanty on my claim.

cho:

And if kindly fate should bless us with, now and then, an heir
To cheer our hearts with honest pride of fame,
O then we'd be contented for the toil that we had spent
In the little old sod shanty on our claim.
When time enough had lapsed, and all of those little brats
To noble man- and woman-hood had grown,
It wouldn't seem half so lonely as around us we should look
And see the little old shanty on our claim.

cho:

from "The Cowboy Sings", edited by Kenneth Clark (1932)
Tune same as LITTLEJO; repeat part A twice.
play.exe FALLRAIN
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!