Hawker's Request is a song composed by Jon Woode for Lyrics by Robert Steven Hawker with the addition of a chorus by Jon Woode.

Written 6th Feb 2023
Recorded as a first take demo on the 21st Feb 2023

This song has been included in Del Osei-Owusu's  'Song Bird Session' at Islington Radio, Matt Hancock's BBC Introducing and Tom Brosseau's  'Great American Folk Show' in North Dakota, USA.

Hawker’s Request 

Sing from the chamber to the grave
Thus did the dead man say
A sound of melody I crave
Upon my burial-day
Bring forth some tuneful instruments
And let your voices rise
My spirit listened, as it went
To the music of the skies 

Chorus
Let’s sing a song for a passing 
One last song to lead us on
A Cornish song for our loved ones 
And to guide our spirits home

Sing sweetly while you travel on
And keep the funeral slow
The angels sing where I am gone
And you should sing below
Sing from the threshold to the porch
Until you hear the bell
And sing you loudly in the church
The Psalms I love so well

Chorus 

Then bear me gently to my grave
And as you pass along
Remember twas my wish to have
A pleasant funeral song
So earth to earth, and dust to dust
And though my flesh decay
My soul shall sing among the just
Until the Judgment-day Until the Judgment-day 

Chorus x2


Hawker's Request

Songwriter/Composer


Songs of Land and Sea
This is an album of my songs with other singers performing them, it will hopefully be released sometime in August 2025

Latest release:

Modern Traveller 
Released on the Factual label by Lift Music, published by Boost Music for use in TV and film.
My titles include:
1. Sitar Sunrise 

Beneath the Western Sky (21/06/2025)

Gone Fishing 
Released on the POKE music label by Lift Music and Boost Music library, for use in TV and film.
My titles include:
1. The Brook
2. Backwaters
3.  Castin' a Line
4. The Fishermen
5. Still Waters
6. Tales of the River Bank
7. Gone Fishing
8. Off the Beaten Track
9. Ripples

Whispers From A Pink Moon,
Released on The Box label at Bibliotheque Music, Published by Cavendish Music.
Tracks include:
1. Rolling Along 
6. Maybe Today 
9. Summer Skies 
link below (aka JGKT)

By The Wind Sailor, released by Will Keating on his album A Remembered Walk

Discography: 
(All available on Spotify and all the others)

Albums:

Beneath the Western Sky (2025) downloadable on Bandcamp see links

Into The Waves (2023)

Dystopian Landscapes (2020)

Little Hollow Farm, Instrumentals (2020) 

Full Circle (2020)

Dangling (2019)

The Rook (2012)

Country Roads (2008) 

Into the Wildness (2006) 

Dance To I love You (1990 -2005, very early rough demos from another lifetime J T).

New tracks tagged #thedirge