It is well to remember that Bland was born a free man in Flushing, Long Island, and his 'Carry Me Back ...' was from the school of northern song writers who satisfied yearnings for simplicity and/or exoticism of a highly romanticised and mythic South. Bland spent considerable time in Europe, but did he ever journey to the South? There were hundreds of such songs by Yankee writers - a popular music industry of professional writers and publishers who seldom if ever ventured south of Manhattan yet capitalised on reinforcing the idea of a romantic South. 'Sweet sunny south' is one such with its 'cot', 'evergreen shade', 'cottage', 'river's green margin', 'old Massa' etc. It dates from the 1850s. Ironically, many of these compositions took permanent root in the rural South and endured there long after they had lost favour elsewhere. However, for a time, they had widespread appeal. As Bill Malone points out: 'Whatever the bases for its appeal, notions of an unchanging, placid, yet exotic Southland with gentle manners and contented, nostalgic "servants" became a perennially enduring myth of life in the United States'. [Bill C. Malone 'Southern Music American Music' revised edition p 23].

--Stewie.