THE MASTER OF THE SHEEPFOLD - from a poem, De Massa ob de Sheepfol’, by Sarah Pratt McLean Greene (1856-1935).
Sung by Stewart Hendrickson, recorded by Adam Miller; by Art Thieme; by Anne Hills and Cindy Mangsen. SheetMusic(pdf)

Chorus: Oh the master guards the sheepfold bin,
He wants to know, "Is my sheep brung in?"
And he's callin', callin'
Callin' softly, softly callin'
For them all to come gatherin' in.

Oh the master of the sheepfold, who guards the sheepfold bin
Went out on the wind and the rain path, where the long night's rain begins
And he said to his hireling shepherd, "Is my sheep, is they all brung in?"
Said to his hireling shepherd, "Is my sheep, is they all brung in?"

And the hireling shepherd answered, "There's some that's wan and thin
And some that's got all weathered and they won't come a gatherin' in
They is lost and good for nothing, but the rest they is all brung in
Lost and good for nothing, but the rest they is all brung in.

Then the master of the sheepfold, who guards the sheepfold bin
Went out on the wind and the rain path, where the long night's rain begins
And he let down the bars to the sheepfold, callin' soft, "Come in, come in"
He let down the bars to the sheepfold, callin' soft, "Come in, come in."

Then up through the gloom in the meadow, through the long night's rain and wind
Yes, up through the wind and the rain path, where the long night's rain begins
Came the long lost sheep of the sheepfold, they all come a gatherin' in
The long lost sheep of the sheepfold, they all come a gatherin' in.

This song came from a poem, De Massa ob de Sheepfol’, by Sarah Pratt McLean Greene (1856-1935) - from a genre of pseudo-black dialect "spirituals" in vogue around the turn of the century. Sheet music was published in 1895. "Bill and Gene Bonyun are the ones who dessiminated this song to many folk singers in New England in the 1950's and 1960's. They got the song from my mother Dahlov Ipcar, who in turn got the song from a friends of hers, Wendy Holt, who was said to have collected it in Texas." - Charley Ipcar. Art Thieme got the song from Jerry Epstein at Pinewoods Camp in Massachusetts and was the first to record it. Anne Hills and Cindy Mangsen learned the song from Art Thieme, and I learned it from their recording Never Grow Up (1998).

"Eventually, if we search long and hard enough, we will find that there is an author/composer for just about every song ever sung! I learned this song from Jerry Epstein at New York Pinewoods folk camp in Plymouth, Massachusetts in August of 1982. Jerry told me that it had been collected in Maine by Bill Bonyun years earlier. It had been brought to Pinewoods Camp by Susan Richardson. I was the first one to record the song." - Art Thieme-On the Wilderness Road (FSI-105, 1999) .

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