Here's a fun tune most of us know. Woody Guthrie brought it to prominence and Jan Sundqvist has lent his usual excellent touch this arrangement...Jack
Hobos Lullaby
Edited by - Jack Baker on 07/25/2026 08:15:27
Beautiful song by Gobel Reeves. I've hear it with other lyrics, including "Tinker's Lullaby" by the late, great Irish traveler musician Pecker Dunne, whom I had the pleasure of meeting and making music with at Haughey's Pub in Lisdoonvarna back in September of 1970. Many are the memories!
Thanks, Jack.
Gotta like guys named Gobel and Pecker!
I learned it from Pete Seeger on one of his American Favorite Ballads LP's, and Pete Seeger learned it from Woodie. Somewhere I read that the last time Pete went to visit Woodie at the hospital they sang Hobo's Lullaby together with Arlo. A few weeks later Woodie was gone.
Hobo's Lullaby derives from a Civil War song "Just Before The Battle, Mother", composed by George F. Root around 1863: https://www.sheetmusicsinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Just-Before-the-Battle-Mother-1864.pdf.
Pecker was his nickname -- had something to do with a job and the guy he worked for.
I seem to recall it was sometimes spelled "Pekar," or was just a, possibly deliberate, mispronunciation of "packer."
His best-known song is "Sullivan's John."
Pecker was a powerful man for the music altogether!
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