the Darby Ram

Last week I played at a dinner for the Dutchess County Sheep & Wool Growers Association. In preparation for that gig I started listing off all the tunes and songs I could think of that related to sheep, shepherding and the wool trade and in sifting through the various things I’ve recorded over the last few years I brought this lovely tall tale out from a musty cupboard. This song bears the distinction of being specifically mentioned in an account of George Washington’s visit to a family friend in Hartford Connecticut in 1796; the nation’s first president apparently sang about the Darby Ram to the twin four-year-old sons of Oliver Ellsworth.