1. |
Wayfaring stranger
03:48
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I am a poor wayfaring stranger
While traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil or danger
in that bright world to which I go.
I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home.
I know dark clouds will gather round me,
I know the way is rough and steep
But beauteous fields lie just before me
Where the redeemed their vigils keep.
I'm going there to see my mother
She said she'd meet me when I come
I'm only goin' over Jordan
I'm only goin' over home.
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2. |
Are you from Dixie?
02:46
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Hello stranger how do you do
there’s something I’d like to say to you
You seem surprised I recognize
I’m no detective but I just surmise
You’re from the place I’m longing to be
Your smiling face seems to say to me
You’re from my homeland my sunny homeland
tell me can it be?
(chorus)
Are you from Dixie I say from Dixie
Where the fields of cotton beckon to me
I’m glad to see you
Tell me how be you and the friends I’m longing to see?
Are you from Alabama, Tennessee, or Caroline
Any place below the Mason-Dixon Line
Are you from Dixie I say from Dixie
’Cause I’m from Dixie too.
It was a way back in old ’89
When first I crossed that Mason-Dixon Line
Gee but I yearn, long to return
To all those good old folks I left behind.
My home was way down in old Alabam’
On a plantation near Birmingham
and there’s one thing certain:
I’m surely flirtin’
With those southbound trains
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3. |
Old and in the way
03:41
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When you walk along the street
How often times you'll meet
Some poor old man whose life is fraught with woe.
His back with age is bent
In his pocket not a cent
And for shelter he has nowhere to go
His relations by the score
They'll turn him from the door
If they'll meet him on the street, they'll pass him by
If you ask them why they do
They'll answer you and say,
"He is poor, he's old, and only in the way"
Now let us cheer them on
They won't be with us long
Don't quarrel with them because they're old and grey
For remember while you're young
Old age to you will come
You'll be old and grey and only in the way
There was a time, I hear
When youth was not so queer
But since that time there's been an awful change.
Young men of strength and might
Their parents they would strike
If it happens every day, it's nothing strange.
Take this poor wreck of toil:
His children he did spoil
For death ofttimes I'm sure he did pray
Himself and faithful wife, after toiling all their lives
To find they're old and only in the way.
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4. |
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5. |
House carpenter
03:47
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"Well met, well met, said an old true love.
Well met, well met, said he.
I have just returned from the salt, salt sea.
And it's all for the love of thee."
"Come in, come in, my own true love,
And have a seat with me.
It's been three-fourths of a long, long year,
Since together we have been. "
"I can't come in nor I can't sit down,
For I haven't but a moment's time.
They say you're married to a house carpenter,
And your heart will never be mine."
"Now it's I could have married a King's daughter, dear,
And I'm sure she'd have married me,
But I've forsaken her crowns of gold,
And it's all for the love of thee."
"Now will you forsake your house carpenter,
And go along with me?
I'll take you where the grass grows green.
By the banks of the deep blue sea."
So she picked up her own little babe,
And kisses, she gave it three.
Saying "Stay right here, my darling little babe,
And keep your papa company."
They hadn't been on ship but about two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Till his own true love began to mourn,
And she wept most bitterly.
"Now it's are you weeping for your silver and your gold,
Or are you weeping for your store?
Or are you weeping for your house carpenter,
Whose face you'll never see any more?"
"No, I'm not weeping for my silver and gold,
Nor am I weeping for my store,
I am weeping for my darling little babe,
Whose face I'll never see any more."
They hadn't been on ship but about three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
When they sprang a leak in the bottom of the ship,
And it sank for to rise no more.
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6. |
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I wandered today to the hill, Maggie,
To watch the scene below;
The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie,
As we used to long ago.
The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung;
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.
A city so silent and lone, Maggie,
Where the young and the gay and the best,
In polished white mansions of stone, Maggie,
Have each found a place of rest,
Is built where the birds used to play, Maggie,
And join in the songs that were sung;
For we sang as lovely as they, Maggie,
When you and I were young.
They say I am feeble with age, Maggie,
My steps are less spritely than then
My face is a well written page, Maggie,
But time alone was the pen.
They say we are aged and gray, Maggie,
As sprays by the white breakers flung,
But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.
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7. |
Katy dear
03:22
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Oh Katie dear go ask your mamma
If you can be a bride of mine
If she says yes come back and tell me
If she says no we’ll run away.
Oh Willie dear there’s no use in asking
She’s in her room taking a rest
And by her side is a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best.
Oh Katie dear go ask your papa
If you can be a bride of mine
If he says yes come back and tell me
If he says no we’ll run away.
Oh Willie dear, there’s no use in asking
He’s in his room taking a rest
And by his side is a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best.
So he picked up that silver dagger
And plunged it through his troubled heart
Saying goodbye Katie, goodbye darlin’
It's now forever we must part.
Then she picked up that bloody dagger
And plunged it through her lily-white breast
Saying goodbye mamma, goodbye papa;
I’ll die with the one that I love best.
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8. |
Blue railroad train
03:10
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Blue railroad train
Going down the railroad tracks
It makes me feel so doggone blue
To listen to that old smokestack.
Come back again
Let me hear the whistle blow
You’re taking the sun and leaving the rain
And I hate to see you go.
Blue railroad train
Leaving me far behind
Gimme back the good old days
And let me ramble down the line
Blue railroad train
Leaving me here alone
You treat me good you treat me bad
You’re making me think of home.
I’ve got the blues
I’m longing for your company
It’s many miles from where I am
To the only one for me.
It’s lonely here
Waiting for the manifest
I hope that engineer is kind
Enough to let me be his guest.
I’m not as bad
As you might think I am
I hobo here I hobo there
I’ve traveled these states around.
Blue railroad train
A good old pal to me
You take me where I want to go
And the transportation’s free.
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9. |
Pretty Saro
04:17
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When I first came to this country in 1849
I saw many fair lovers but I never saw mine
I viewed all around me, I was quite alone
And me a poor stranger and a long way from home.
Oh my true love she won’t have me and this I understand
She wants a freeholder and I've got no land
But I could maintain her on silver and gold
And as many of the fine things that my love’s house could hold.
Oh, I wish I was a poet, could write some fine hand.
I would write my love a letter that she might understand.
I'd send it by the waters where the islands overflow.
And I'd think of my darling wherever she'd go.
Fair thee well to old father. Fare thee well to mother too.
I’m going for to ramble this wide world all through.
And when I get weary I’ll sit and shed a tear
And think of pretty Saro my darling my dear.
Oh I wish I was a turtle dove, had wings and could fly
Into my love’s bosom this night I’d draw nigh
And in her lily-white arms all night I would lay
And think of pretty Saro till the dawning of day.
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10. |
Step-stone
03:16
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11. |
Last chance (banjo)
02:47
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12. |
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Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus
'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus
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13. |
Baptist shout
02:25
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14. |
Whispering hope
02:40
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Soft as the voice of an angel,
Breathing a lesson unheard,
Hope with a gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting word:
Wait till the darkness is over,
Wait till the tempest is done,
Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,
After the shower is gone.
Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.
If, in the dusk of the twilight,
Dim be the region afar,
Will not the deepening darkness
Brighten the glimmering star?
Then when the night is upon us,
Why should the heart sink away?
When the dark midnight is over,
Watch for the breaking of day.
Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.
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Eulalie Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Eulalie (pronounce it "YOU-la-lee")
True blue. Guaranteed 100% irony-free.
Hauntingly
stark, sweetly sentimental, or just plain fun,
these old songs tell the stories of people's lives.
Ron & Donna treat these treasures with the love and respect of honest, straightforward arrangements inspired by the old masters of parlor, dance hall, and backwoods.
... more
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