Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River

20 Mar 00 - 07:48 AM (#198003)
Subject: Songs about the Ohio River
From: angel

I am working on a scrapbook with pictures of river boats (tug boats) and barges, in the locks of the dams on the Ohio River. I am interested in any songs that might relate to this subject and their lyrics.

Thanks, Angel

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20 Mar 00 - 08:00 AM (#198006)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

Angel, i just stumbled onto this site and saw your message about ohio river boats etc. if you are interested, my great grandfather was a river boat pilot, he was the original owner and pilot of The Donald B. one of the last few functional sternwheel paddleboats working the ohio river( ripley-maysville area, if you are interested in more information, email me and ill put you in touch with my family! also, if you have any of this stuff on the web, would you send me the url, im away from home and get home sick occasionally Thanks Grif

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20 Mar 00 - 09:00 AM (#198022)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Mary in Kentucky

Hi Angel,

The first song that comes to mind is FLORA THE LILY OF THE WEST. It mentions Louisville and was sung by Joan Baez at the First BBC Folk Music Awards recently.

If you put "Louisville" into the Digitrad search, you'll get ten songs that mention Louisville. Flora is one of them and can be found here.

For info about this award program:
Mudcatters win BBC Folk Final
The First BBC Folk Music Awards

Also, Art Thieme has a real cute joke on his CD about going through the locks at the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville.

Which reminds me, there is a wonderful museum at the Falls (New Albany, Indiana, just across the river from Louisville) which has tons of pictures and history.

Let me know if you need more stuff.

Mary in Kentucky (not far from Louisville)

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20 Mar 00 - 09:22 AM (#198032)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Susan of DT

Search for [dillon bustin]. He did some collecting of these songs, but then did not make it clear as to which he found vs added to vs wrote.

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20 Mar 00 - 11:38 AM (#198089)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Metchosin

The song "Down in the Canebrake" or (Come My Love, Come) as recorded by Frank Crumit, could probably be made PC with a few word changes without altering it significantly. Great tune and I love the chorus:
Come my love come
My boat lies low
She lies high and dry on the O-hi-o
Come my love come
Won't you come along with me
And I'll take you down to Tennessee.

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20 Mar 00 - 12:27 PM (#198118)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Uncle_DaveO

Not to do with riverboats as such, but "The Banks of the Ohio" is a great old-time song. Should be in the DT, if you don't know it.

As to that last message, "my boat lies low", of course that relates to the parts of the season when the falls of the Ohio were impassable in low water, and all traffic had to stop, often for months.

This brings me to a tale of Indiana history, which might be of interest.

New Albany, Indiana prospered in the old days, and was the metropolis of this part of the river, just because of the income from the stranded boatmen--bars, roominghouses, suppliers of various sorts, and from transporting cargo around the falls. New Albany looked forward to low water, as you can imagine.

Merchants from upriver, however, were hurt by this phenomenon, and a delegation from Cincinnati and other upstream cities visited the city fathers of prosperous and bustling New Albany, asking to have a canal built to get around the falls. The aforesaid city fathers in effect said, "Not on your tintype!" Although they may have been more tactful than that. There was no way they were going to finance a canal which would do them out of that low-water income!

The upriver merchants then went across and spoke to a tiny burg across the river, called Louisville. Louisville was interested.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, stands Louisville, and there stands New Albany, of which many people have never heard in their lives. The moral should not have to be underlined here.

True History.

Dave Oesterreich

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20 Mar 00 - 01:56 PM (#198160)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Sandy Paton

Get a copy of Mary Wheeler's Steamboatin' Days at your library, or via inter-library loan. Many of the songs are (as Art Thieme pointed out in a previous thread) fragmentary, but it contains a number of singable songs from Ohio River roustabouts.

Even harder to find is Carl Carmer's Songs of the Rivers of America, but worth all the hunting.

Sandy

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20 Mar 00 - 02:16 PM (#198167)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Mary in Kentucky

Dave--In western Louisville they have an area named "Portland", where the boat people had to "port" their cargo during low water. Also, folks out in cyberspace may not know that Kentucky claims its northern boundary as the northern shore of the Ohio River (accoring to some date in the 1800's) instead of the middle of the river as in most other cases. (hehe) The river has changed course over the last 100 years or so, which means that KY owns the land for the racetrack in Evansville.

Back to Angel's request. The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper has had several articles with lots of pictures and history of the falls, locks, bridges, tugs, etc.

Mary in Kentucky

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20 Mar 00 - 02:37 PM (#198177)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Mary in Kentucky

Angel-if you're interested in riverboats here is a link which also has addresses where you can write for more info.

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20 Mar 00 - 03:51 PM (#198219)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: tar_heel

there is an old song called "on the banks of the ohio". but it is about a guy named willie,who takes his girl for a walk by the river...stabs her with a knife ...and then dumps her body in the ohio river.not exactly a river boat song,but i will give the words to you ,if you want.........written in the early 1900's on the same theme as ,"down in the willow garden".

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20 Mar 00 - 05:57 PM (#198261)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Lonesome EJ

So, Dave, I gather from your tale that a canal was built on the Louisville side of the Ohio? I am from there, but don't recall a canal bypassing the Falls.

LEJ

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20 Mar 00 - 09:14 PM (#198368)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Uncle_DaveO

They did, and it MADE Louisville. Later dams and locks were built, but by then Louisville had a commanding lead on poor little old New Albany. If the canal is still there at all, it's irrelevant.

Dave Oesterreich

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21 Mar 00 - 01:54 AM (#198500)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Musicman

Here's one from 1910 era, called BEAUTIFUL OHIO, found in The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music: Click here

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21 Mar 00 - 02:12 AM (#198508)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: DougR

If it's the one I'm thinking about, the song "Beautiful Ohio" was a popular old song in the 1940's. "Drifting with the current down a moonlit stream, while above the heavens in their glory gleam, and the stars on high, twinkle in the sky ... Dreaming of a paradise of love divine, dreaming of a pair of eyes that looked in mine, Beautiful Ohio in dreams again I see, visions of what used to be.

DougR

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21 Mar 00 - 02:13 AM (#198509)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: DougR

Oops! I meant to say if it is the song Musicman is talking about.

DougR

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21 Mar 00 - 11:24 AM (#198664)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: folk1234

One of my favorite Ohio River songs is "New Harmony", I think by Dillon Bustin, and beautifully done by our own Sandy and Caroline in their album entitled New Harmony. Sandy was too modest to mention it in his earlier posting. I understand that Cathy Barton and Dave Para are putting the finishing touches on an album about River Songs to be released in a few months. We all sang New Harmony last month when Cathy & Dave were here, but I don't know if it will be included in their new album.

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21 Mar 00 - 11:31 AM (#198668)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: folk1234

Correction. New Harmony was written by Craig Johnson.

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21 Mar 00 - 11:38 AM (#198674)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Charlie Baum

Search for anything by Pearl Nye, a man who worked on the canal that connected the Ohio River with the Great Lakes at Cleveland (the canal ran through Roscoe Village & Coshocton, Ohio). Mr. Nye was a great singer, songwriter, and song collector, and some of his material deals with canal life. Admittedly, his canal served as a tributary of the Ohio River itself, but his profession was spot on to what you're searching for.

--Charlie Baum

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21 Mar 00 - 11:46 AM (#198681)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Charlie Baum

For a start on Pearl Nye, type his name in the Digitrad search box above for your first seven items. Then follow the bibliographic cues therein for more.

--Charlie Baum

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21 Mar 00 - 01:42 PM (#198756)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,Dan Keding

Angel, I went looking thru some of my old albums and found a record by Bob Gibson entitled "Folksongs of Ohio." I'm not sure if its still in print but my copy has red vinyl. It was on Stinson Records. There are a coule songs you may find interesting including "Working on a Push Boat" and "Ohio River." Dan

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21 Mar 00 - 01:56 PM (#198767)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Charlie Baum

PUSH BOAT is in the Digital Tradition.

--Charlie Baum

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21 Mar 00 - 03:38 PM (#198812)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,Barry Finn

the "Ohio Canal" (so it's a canal song & not a river o was in an old thread.

It's tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp
Tighten in the lines,
And watch the playful horse flies
As up the mules they climb,
Whoa back, cuss the mules
Forget it I never shall,
I'm every inch a sailor on the E-ri-e Canal.

Barry

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21 Mar 00 - 05:06 PM (#198850)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Art Thieme

"Whoa back and duck your nut..." is how I've heard it done.

Art

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21 Mar 00 - 05:22 PM (#198862)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: catspaw49

Tiny correction Charlie......The canal came to Roscoe and not to Coshocton which is across the river (actually the junction of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum rivers) and caused the town to boom. Coshocton was virtually unknown. The reason I mention this is that the demise of Roscoe and the growth of Coshocton is a perfect example of how things grew and died as transportation changed. The railroad elected to run through Coshocton and as the RR grew and the canals died, a similar thing of couse happened to the towns which they serviced.

As I'm sure you're aware, Roscoe Village has been rebuilt and does a thriving business in the tourist trade. There's a very fine dulcimer fest there every year sponsored partly by an EXCELLENT music store, Wildwood Music.

BTW...I hate "Beautiful Ohio" (the state song). How many other state songs are played at roller rinks?

Spaw

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21 Mar 00 - 11:54 PM (#199104)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: raredance

A great old song about the Ohio river is Dan Emmett's "Boatman Dance". It is in the DT. Another good song that is not tied down with geographical place name references so it could be used most any where is "Rock About My Saro Jane". It's also in the DT and has been recorded by Uncle Dave Macon, the Kingston Trio, and the Red Clay Ramblers to name a few. There is also a song in Jerry Silverman's book "Songs of the Sea, Rivers, Lakes & Canals" that is called "The Lovely Ohio". I think I may have put the words to this in a thread last year or so, but I haven't dug it out yet.

rich r

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21 Mar 00 - 11:58 PM (#199106)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: DougR

Don't know Spaw, I don't go to roller rinks :>)

DougR

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22 Mar 00 - 11:01 PM (#199639)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Pelrad

Well, I know the chorus (and chorus' tune) to one, but that's it...didn't see it in the database. I can dig up more if you're interested.

La Belle Riviere, the Great Shining Water,
Pasquimapugamu, [sp?] La Fleur de Saint Luis.
No matter the name, the meaning's the same
She's the beautiful river, the Ohio.

This might be the same song that a few others have referred to already, but just in case I thought I would submit it.

As for the Dillon Bustin songs, I know that he wrote "Shantyboating" and "Shawnee Town." Couldn't swear to any others.

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17 Jan 03 - 09:41 PM (#869220)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Mary in Kentucky

I just heard The Boatman's Dance which richr referred to above. Aaron Copland wrote an arrangement of it, and according to Karl Haas actually conducted a performance of his arrangement. I couldn't get into the DT just now...the minstrel song is there...so found an MP3 here. It takes forevever to download, but you can stop the download and listen to the first part. This is certainly a beautiful Ohio River song.

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17 Jan 03 - 10:56 PM (#869246)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Brían

Here it is: BANKS OF THE PLEASANT OHIO

Brían

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18 Jan 03 - 12:02 AM (#869275)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: masato sakurai

THE OHIO SONG COLLECTION (titles only). Some are about the Ohio River.

~Masato

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18 Jan 03 - 12:19 AM (#869283)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,Q

"Down the River, Down the Ohio," Christy's Plantation Melodies, Christy's Minstrels, 1854. Melody not bad. See Levy Colection- enter Ohio in Search.

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18 Jan 03 - 12:22 AM (#869284)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: michaelr

Brian -- it so happens that my good friend Chris Carney just released a very fine version of this song ("The Lovely Ohio" in his version) by his band
Dockside, on their new CD "Three Sheets to the Wind". (I'm planning to post a review.)

You can hear a bit of it by clicking here. It's a very nice album, featuring several of Chris Carney's wonderful original songs, such as "Grandfather's Song" and "The Fair That Summer".

Cheers,
Michael

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18 Jan 03 - 06:10 PM (#869617)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)

Here's a playparty song:

The river is up, the channel is deep,
The wind is steady and strong;
O won't we have a jolly time
As we go rolling along?

Down the river and down the river
And down the river we go-o-o,
Down the river and down the river
And down the O-hi-O.

Down the river, rickety, tickety-
Down the river, rickety, tickety-
Down the river, rickety, tickety-
Down the O-hi-O!

From,"Handy Play Party Book," World Around Songs, R.5, Burnsville,NC
28714

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18 Jan 03 - 11:29 PM (#869740)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Brían

Thanks, Michaelr

Brían

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20 May 04 - 11:23 PM (#1190414)
Subject: Lyr Add: ALL ON THE OHIO RIVER
From: Charlie Baum

This is an Ohio River song I learned from the singing of Helena Triplett (from her CD Green Are the Woods: Traditional Ballads & Songs From West Virginia). She learned it from a recording of Kate Toney of Kitchen in Logan County, WV, recorded August 1940, in the Chappell Collection at the University of West Virginia at Morgantown.

This is my transcription of Helena's performance. There are some words in the third line (in italics) that I'm uncertain about, or perhaps I should say I'm certainly unclear about. (Can anybody correct them?)

--Charlie Baum


ALL ON THE OHIO RIVER

All on the Ohio River as we were sailing down
We said to one another: we're past all danger gone
But we being young sosayed and then put on the shore for to see
the shore take us there for to know what the Indians do

They took us to their camps to their children and their squaws
It's there they all come running out giving warrior's great applause
They all got drunk by night and it was a horrible sight
Their squaws crying and their fire was killing for general light

The ropes were prepared and the stakes were driven down
It's there we lie all on our backs all on the cold ground
It's there we lie all night and expecting for to die
The rain all pouring down on their face and knives

At eight o'clock this morning our comrades were knocked down
The captain sought out who should die causing me to leave the ground
'Tis through the woods I rove and as lonesome as a dove
As one who had lost her mate and never could find her love

For six days then I traveled with nothing for to eat
Except it was six turkey eggs; I sighed for bread and meat
It's deer and bear were plenty but me afraid to shoot
Scared the Indians they hear me, and me they'd overtake

It's now I have escaped and my life is safe at home
I'll go no more to the Indian shore but here I'll live and die

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21 May 04 - 04:16 AM (#1190534)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

Re the song "New Harmony" mentioned above, nice song and a great version is that recorded by the late Jim Ringer. Available on Rounder/Philo.

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06 Nov 06 - 08:44 PM (#1877915)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boatman's dance
From: GUEST

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07 Nov 06 - 11:47 AM (#1878360)
Subject: Lyr Add: NEW HARMONY (Craig Johnson)
From: GUEST,Out West

Craig Johnson's NEW HARMONY


Evening hillsides in the summertime
The jars we filled with fireflies
I remember you and I
Say it's been a long, long time

Rain across the bottomland
Broken stones from an old mill dam
West wind blowin' in the dawnin' day
It's enough to blow the blues my way

I've been sittin' by the Ohio
Watchin' the towboats rollin' up slow
Thinkin' on places we used to go
You've been on my mind

Rusted rails in old river towns
A whistle blowin' New orleans bound
Cornfields waitin' for the plow
All those things I can't tell you now

I've been sittin' by the Ohio
Watchin' the towboats rollin' up slow
Thinkin' on places we used to go
You've been on my mind

Indiana backroads
That winter sky so bleak and cold
New moons arms are cradlin' the old
And there's come-home songs on the radio

I've been sittin' by the Ohio
Watchin' the towboats rollin' up slow
Thinkin' on places we used to go
You've been on my mind


I hope I recalled it correctly after all this time.

I learned this probably from the Jim Ringer version which was on the radio in the Bay Area back in the late 70s. I remember hearing at the time that Craig Johnson wrote it as a song for his Dad. I was a young guy, and still angry at my Dad, and - how can I put this, I've never really expressed it - sang this song as a way of admitting to myself a familial tenderness and longing.

I grew up in Ohio, and the imagery evokes so much. We had family in West Virginia as well, and in those days the trip was taken on two-lane roads beside the river.

A decade or so later, when things had gotten better between us, I sang it with my brother at Dad's retirement party, and he listened to a tape that was made of that song for years.

Thanks for bumping the memory.

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29 Oct 11 - 12:55 PM (#3246743)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST

How about "Shawnee Town" with its refrain ending line of .... "way down the Ohio in (to?) Shawnee Town". Malcolm Daglish and Grey Larson did the definitive version way back around 1980 or so.

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30 Oct 11 - 08:24 AM (#3246956)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: Keith A of Hertford

I do not think this Dillon Bustin song has been mentioned.
Also known as Cairo Town and Rolling and Flowing.
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5059

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28 Jan 21 - 10:11 PM (#4090428)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,Hungry Child

The lyrics posted by Charlie Baum are reminiscent of the harrowing experience of Mary Draper Inglis, who was captured by the Shawnees in 1791 and eventually escaped, walking about 500 miles along the Ohio back to her settlement. There is a Wikipedia article about her and an excellent fictionalized version of her escape by J.A. Thom, "Follow the River."

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29 Jan 21 - 12:34 PM (#4090526)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River
From: GUEST,#

https://www.marydraperinglestrail.com/about-mary

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