Lyr Add: There's a Mother Always Waiting Here...

Subject: Lyr Add: THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS WAITING HERE...
From: GUEST,riverboat annie
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 07:24 PM

THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS WAITING HERE AT HOME
(by Doc Williams???)
As sung by Sara and Maybelle Carter

"So you're going to leave the old home, Jim. Today you're going away.
You're going among the city folks to dwell."
So spoke the kind old mother to her boy one summer day.
"If your mind's made up that way, I wish you well.
The old home will be lonely. We'll miss you when you're gone.
The birds won't sing so sweet when you're not nigh;
But if you get in trouble, Jim, just write and let me know."
She spoke these words and then she said goodbye.

CHORUS: If sickness overtakes you,
And old companions shake you,
As through this world you wander all alone,
When friends you haven't any,
In your pocket not a penny,
There's a mother always waiting here at home.

Ten years later to this village came a stranger no one knew.
His steps were halt and ragged clothes he wore.
The little children laughed at him as down the lane he trod.
At last he stopped before a cottage door.
He gently knocked. No sound he heard. He thought then she'd be dead;
But then he heard a voice well known to him.
'Twas his mother's voice, but her hair had silvered by the touch of time.
He said, "Thank God! They sent me home again." CHORUS.

Bear Family 1991

Sara & Maybelle Carter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: There's a mother always waiting here
From: Beer
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 08:33 PM

My oldest brother still sings this song today.
Great tearjerker.
Beer

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: There's a mother always waiting here
From: kendall
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 07:15 AM

I learned this as "The Tramp's Mother"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: There's a Mother Always Waiting Here...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 10:25 PM

There's a version of this song in the The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, with an mp3 file of a field recording made in Arkansas in 1959.

Subject: Lyr Add: THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS 'WAITING YOU...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 11:25 PM

From The Indiana University Sheet Music Collections: (I have boldfaced the differences between the sheet music and the version posted above.)

THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS 'WAITING YOU, AT HOME, SWEET HOME
James Thornton, 1912

"So you're going to leave the old home, Jim. Today you're going away.
You're going among the city folk to dwell."
So spoke a dear old mother to her boy one summer's day.
"If your mind's made up that way, I wish you well.
The old home will be lonely. We will miss you when you're gone.
The birds won't sing as sweet when you're not nigh;
But if you are in trouble, Jim, just write and let us know."
She spoke these words and then she said "goodbye."

CHORUS: "When sickness overtakes you,
When old companions shake you,
As through the world you wander all alone,
When friends you haven't any,
In your pocket not a penny,
There's a mother always waiting you at home, sweet home."

Ten years later to the village came a stranger no one knew.
His step was halt and ragged clothes he wore.
The little children laughed at him as down the lane he walked.
At last he stopped before a cottage door.
He gently knocked. No sound he heard. He thought, "Can she be dead?"
But soon he hears a voice well known to him.
'Twas Mother's voice. Her hair was silvered by the touch of time.
She said, "Thank God! They've sent us back our Jim. CHORUS.

[Note: The apostrophe before "waiting"—indicating that it's a contraction of "awaiting"—is present on the sheet music cover but not in the inside title or the lyrics. I suppose " 'waiting you" is some sort of dialect, but it's not one I'm familiar with, therefore I think "waiting here" is an improvement.

[Here's another instance where the "folk" version is stylistically superior to the original: "hears" in the original is an inexplicable shift from past tense to present tense, after which it goes back to past tense—but I suppose "hears" could simply be a typo for "heard."]

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-Joe Offer-