Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry
Go to sleepy, little baby
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
Blacks and the bays
Dapples and grays
Coach and six-a little horses
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry
Go to sleepy little baby.
Way down younder in the meadow
Poor little lambie crying mama,
The bees and the butterflies
Peekin’out it’s eyes
Poor little labie crying mama.
NOW THATS HOW YA SANG THIS SONG .. even tho lyrics vary & Ive got stanzas Ive never heard anyone else sing, this lady embues the entire melody with a subtle sorrow that was always there when I first heard it over 50yrs ago (I was10) sung by my first hero - an old black lady in Alabama. Her name was Snow. I adored her & still do. Lawdy Lawd Lawd, How she sang this song .. Mmm mm mm. She had her 12yro son write down the lyrics for me - cause she was denied an education & couldnt write. But ooohh how she could sing. She "flew over Jordan" a long time ago .. but I shall always Love me my Snow!
Perfect version of this deeply meaningful song. Odetta of course is wonderful. I hope people understand the underlying message of this song. It is about a black woman who is a slave, in the American South , tending to a white baby from a rich white family. While she must tend to this baby, her own baby is left alone, crying for her, and she cannot attend to her own precious child. Folk songs help us remember history....