Away Up on the Yuba.
[AIR—Old folks at home.]

Away up the Yuba river,
Far up in the mines,
There's where I've been mining, ever
Since we dug our rockers out of pines;
All up and down the digger nation,
Many times I've roamed,
All dirt and rags, besides starvation,
Hair that seemed it never had been combed.

Chorus:
All the mines look hard and dreary,
Everywhere I roam;
Oh, miners, how my heart grows weary,
Ne'er a cent, and far away from home.

All around the northern mines I've wander'd,
With my blankets on my back;
All I made for whisky then I squandered,
Never had a dollar in my sack.
When I was fluming on the Feather,
I was going to make a strike,
Till drove out by the rainy weather,
Such thund'rin' luck, I never saw the like.
All the mines look hard and dreary, Everywhere I roam, etc.

When I was mining with my partner,
He and I could not agree;
I made all the bread, did this, that and t'other
He got mad if he had to make the tea;
He was lazy as the very devil,
Swore with me he wouldn't work;
We divided, he took tent, pick and shovel,
Away he went, the lazy, lousy shirk.
All the mines look hard and dreary, Everywhere I roam, etc.


Put's Original California Songster, p. 18

Lyrics and tune in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, pp. 66-67

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Click to play (pdmusic.org)

[Tune notes by Artful Codger]
"Old Folks at Home" (Swanee River) was written by Stephen Collins Foster in 1851.

Sheet music [PDF] in the Lester S. Levy Collection.
Digital Tradition: Old Folks at Home
Mudcat thread: Old Folks at Home
YouTube: Paul Robeson: Old Folks at Home
YouTube: Tome Roush: Old Folks at Home

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