Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on October 5th 2004 by rfdarsie.
This tune has been added to 24 tunebooks.
Also known as The Dog's Tail, The Humours Of Donnybrook, The Old Horned Sheep.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: One-Horned Sheep, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
g2 G GFG|EGG DGG|g2 G GFG|EAG FED|
g2 G GFG|EGG DGG|EGG FGA|1 BGG G2 d:|2 BGG G2 D||
|:GBd dBG|GBd d2 D|GBd dcB|cBc A2 D|
GBd dBG|GBd def|gfe dcB|1 AGF G2 D:|2 ABc def||
One-Horned Sheep
I've played this one for years and was always clueless about the name - just figured it was a sheep with only one horn. Then an old Scottish fiddler I know told me that "one-horn sheep" is a slang term for a still (for making illicit whiskey) - the coil of wire is the "horn". Amazing what you can learn from the old guys...
# Posted on October 5th 2004 by rfdarsie
This is a great old tune - I believe it is Scottish, Aberdeenshire, or around the Buchan area, in origin.
# Posted on October 7th 2004 by Alf Tupper
One-horned Sheep
This tune is very well known throughout the Borders and down into Northumberland too.
I didn't know about the still reference, but illicit distillation of whisky was also carried out at least down as far as Durham at least up till 1900.
Noel
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by noelbats
The Old Horned Sheep
This is "The Old Horned Sheep" with the alternative title "The Humours of Donnybrook". I am doubtful of claims that it's a Scottish jig, although it has been known in Scotland for a while. It was played by a bothy band on one of the Scottish Traditions LPs, and they made it SOUND so Scottish that I wonder if that's the reason?
# Posted on December 19th 2005 by nigelg
The Dog's Tail
recorded by this name on the Evergreen album (http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/267), it is dentical to the transcription here except for the last bar, which goes:
1| CBC A2D :|2 A3 A3
# Posted on February 6th 2006 by sixholes