JESUS, JESUS, REST YOUR HEAD

Music: American folk carol 
Text: Traditional 
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

The Appalachian Christmas carol “Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head” was collected from Hardin County in central Kentucky in the early 20th century but, as with so many other folk carols and hymns, the song’s origins predate by many decades its collection and publication. This gentle lullaby is sometimes titled alternatively “The Manger Cradle Song,” as the lyrics of the refrain take the form a soothing serenade to the sleeping Christ Child on that first Christmas night. A single verse alludes to the disquieting conditions of the Holy Nativity—Mary’s and Joseph’s late arrival in Bethlehem, with an uncertain fate and (as the lyrics surmise) blowing winds—before concluding with the glorious serenity of the moment. 

Though still not widely known today, “Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head” began to gain an audience through solo and choral arrangements during the American folk revival of the 1950s and -60s. Mack Wilberg fashioned his a cappella arrangement of this soothing folk carol especially for this concert. Jesus, Jesus, rest your head, You have got a manger bed. All the little ones on Earth Sleep in comfort at their birth. 

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head,
You have got a manger bed.
All the little ones on Earth
Sleep in comfort at their birth.
Jesus, Jesus, rest your head,
You have got a manger bed.

Have you heard about our Jesus?
Have you heard about His fate?
How His mother went to the stable
On that Christmas Eve so late?
Winds were blowing, cows were lowing,
Stars were glowing, glowing, glowing.

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head,
You have got a manger bed.
All the little ones on Earth
Sleep in comfort at their birth.
Jesus, Jesus, rest your head,
You have got a manger bed.

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head,
You have got a manger bed.