Best Homesick Songs

20 May 01 - 11:41 AM (#466802)
Subject: Best Homesick Songs
From: FrankieB

Greatest ever songs about homesickness (and we folkies know there are a lot out there...) Lets get a list going: My all time favourite must be Wild Geese (aka Norlan'Wind) by Violet Jacob/Jim Reid. It gets the tears going with me every time. FrankieB

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20 May 01 - 11:47 AM (#466804)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: SINSULL

"Kentucky" The Blue Sky Boys and the Everly Brothers both do it achingly well.

I'll be beaten senseless about this but Simon and Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound" always struck a chord (no pun intended) with me.

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20 May 01 - 11:57 AM (#466811)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Angie

when my dad sang "in my ain country" in bordeaux(is that how you spell it?) during the last world cup....bring a tear to a glass eye that would.Another sure fire greetin song for me has got to be Caledonia....sniff sniff!

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20 May 01 - 01:11 PM (#466837)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Shields Folk

'Keep yer feet still Geordie hinny' a Geordie dreaming of home.

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20 May 01 - 01:30 PM (#466853)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: MMario

it's not a homesickness song for most people - but for me...Old Cape Cod

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20 May 01 - 01:47 PM (#466859)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Mudlark

Miss the Mississippi (as sung by Emmy Lou) comes to mind....

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20 May 01 - 02:30 PM (#466882)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Mark Clark

I'd guess that half of all the bluegrass and country tunes ever written were homesick songs.

• I Want To Go Home - Bobby Bare
• I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home - Bill Monroe
• Green Green Grass Of Home - Porter Wagoner
• Blue Ridge Mountain Blues - Bill Clifton

      - Mark

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20 May 01 - 02:58 PM (#466895)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: dr soul

I know it's not really folk or blues, but I take a liberal view of the blues as including all of its cousins and daughters. "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare is a great tune homesick tune.

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20 May 01 - 03:16 PM (#466904)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Willa

The Quiet Land of Erin is one of my favourites.

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20 May 01 - 04:15 PM (#466924)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Marion

The final verse of Un Canadien Errant :

Si tu vois mon pays, mon pays malheureux
Si tu vois mon pays, mon pays malheureux
Va dire a mes amis que je me souviens d'eux

(If you see my country, my unhappy country,
Go and tell my friends that I remember them)

Marion

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20 May 01 - 09:07 PM (#467023)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Sorcha

Paint Me Back Home in Wyoming, sung by Chris LeDoux
Home Sweet Home, the classic
Columbus Stockade Blues
Summertime
lots and lots more!

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20 May 01 - 10:25 PM (#467046)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Matt_R

Frankie, I know exactly how you feel about that one. I sing "Norland Wind" at least once a day. I've sung it several times today, infact.

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21 May 01 - 01:12 AM (#467073)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Sandy Paton

"Scarborough Settler's Lament" (traditional)
Bill Staines' "Sweet Wyomin' Home"
Utah Phillips' "Green Rollin' Hills of West Virginia" Craig Johnson's "New Harmony"
Craig Johnson's "Goodbye to the Lowlands"
"Take Me Back to that Red Clay Country" (traditional)
"Where the Ghost River Flows" (traditional)
... and many more

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21 May 01 - 01:16 AM (#467075)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Bert

Mmmmm, I've just found a site for English evacuees in WWII. I'm thinking of writing a song about that FU[!^& train journey.

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21 May 01 - 04:43 AM (#467095)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Dave the Gnome

Dunno the proper title but it starts 'I wish I was in Lancashire a'hunting of the hare'. Even managed to sing it at the Yorkshire gathering without getting lynched;-)

Cheers

DtG

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21 May 01 - 05:58 AM (#467106)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Wavestar

"Caledonia" makes me homesick, and it's not even my home. What's more, I'm already here!

"Shenendoah" does it too.

I don't know many songs about Colorado, or Vermont... but I miss them both just the same. Gordon Bok's "Turning Towards the Morning" makes me think of winter in New England... and that's home.

-J

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21 May 01 - 10:24 AM (#467155)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Matt_R

Oh, did you mean songs that remind us of our OWN homes? Well!

As a military brat, I've never really had a "home". But there are songs that remind of places I've lived.

I can't hear Eddy Raven or Gary Morris or the Bellamy Brothers without thinking of our years in California.

"Crossroad" by Mr.Children, "Shima Uta" by The BooM, "My Heart Will Never Know" by Clay Walker, "Shoulda Been A Cowboy" by Toby Keith, "Southbound" by Sammy Kershaw, and the 3 Tenors Live at Dodger Stadium will forever signify living and leaving Okinawa, Japan.

Gosh, there are so many from Georgia..."She Came From Fort Worth" by Kathy Mattea, "Somewhere In My Broken Heart" by Billy Dean, "Tempted" by Marty Stuart, "Coulda Been Me" by Billy Ray Cyrus, "There's A First Time For Everything" by Little Texas...

North Carolina had so many too. I am happy that we are back here again. Alabama's whole album Roll On, anything by Earl Thomas Conley, John Conlee, Hank Williams Jr., The Judds, "America" by Waylon. After we had moved from here to California in '86, I used to cry at night missing NC and thinking of "Country Boy" by Glen Campbell. And the poem my sisters & mom wrote about the beauty of North Carolina kept up hopeful in the 10 years we were in exile from North Carolina. Other people obviously enjoyed it too. My mom sent it in to Highlights For Children magazine and it got printed. It should be in one of the '91 issues, along with my artwork...

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21 May 01 - 10:57 PM (#467573)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Rich(bodhránai gan ciall)

Éireann, grá mo chroí

One More Dollar by Gillian Welch



Rich

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21 May 01 - 11:20 PM (#467583)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Mudlark

Dear Willa...

The Quiet Land of Erin has been one of my favorites for many years...heartbreakingingly, achingly beautiful.

And for something totally diffierent...Abeline ("...crowded cities, aint nothin' free...nothin in this old town for me...guess I'll go back home to my home...in Abeline, my Abeline...")

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21 May 01 - 11:49 PM (#467595)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Sandy Paton

"I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina" sung by Frank Proffitt.
"Where the Silvery Colorado Winds It's Way" sung by my mother.
"The Housatonic Valley" from Songs of the Rivers of America by Carl Carmer (who wrote the book, not the song). That's the river that forms the eastern boundary of my home town in Connecticut.
"I'm Goin' Home to Georgia" by Lisa Null.
I sing "Abilene," too. But I always try to think of Kansas, not Texas, when I do. Is that heresy?

I'm also a child of government gypsies, Matt. When my father retired after thirty years in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, my poor mother counted and realized they had lived in forty-three different houses during his career. They never gathered books or records, like settled folks.

Sandy

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22 May 01 - 12:02 AM (#467597)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Amos

Country Road, The Gal from the North Country, Four Strong Winds, and Blow You Old Blue Northern all tuig on me to go bac to somewhere I ain't been.

A

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22 May 01 - 01:04 AM (#467620)
Subject: Lyr Add: CINCINNATI, OHIO^^
From: toadfrog

Country singers do it best. My favorite:

Cincinnati, Ohio

Sung by Kitty Wells

One more hour and I'll be home,
Close my eyes and rest my bones.
Can't be more than an hour or so,
From Cincinati, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, where the river winds,
'cross the Mason and the Dixon lines!
Heaven waits for me I know,
In Cincinati, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio

Well, I guess perhaps the memory got too strong,
Grabbed me by the heartstrings, and pulled me home,
Got to thinking 'bout some friends I know,
In Cincinati, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Another Army brat. Once of Abeline, Tex. But that was long, long ago.

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22 May 01 - 01:05 AM (#467623)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Lonesome EJ

When they play My Old Kentucky Home right before the running of the Kentucky Derby, I get chills up my spine and tears in my eyes.

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22 May 01 - 01:10 AM (#467627)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Bert

Miner's Dream of Home

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22 May 01 - 01:45 AM (#467646)
Subject: Lyr Add: SHE TRIES NOT TO CRY^^
From: Stewie

SHE TRIES NOT TO CRY
(James Talley)

Laurie, she tries not to cry
For she knows the kids don't realise
But now and then her mind starts to wander
Back to that east Kentucky line
And she thinks of her mama and her papa
And the friends and kin she left behind
There in the shadow of the mountains
And, Lord, it is enough to make to you cry

Chorus:
No the sun don't shine
On the forest pine in Cleveland
And the redbird don't greet the mornin' light
And the moon looks so lost up in Cleveland
And the stars, they don't shine at night

But I couldn't find no work in east Kentucky
And at least I've got a factory job at night
Six nights a week I'm working here in Cleveland
And sometimes I think I want to die

Oh I wish I could go back to east Kentucky
There's got to be a better way of life
But now and then I really have to wonder
Lord, it's enough to make you cry

Words and music by James Talley
Source: James Talley 'Got No Bread'/'Tryin' Like the Devil' Bear Family BCD 15433.

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22 May 01 - 02:53 AM (#467656)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,John Rose

- Carrickfergus

- Some song (don't know title) about a guy about to leave Ireland to go to America for good, and he's saying farewell to his wife's grave.

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22 May 01 - 02:58 AM (#467658)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: fat B****rd

"Keep the home fires burning" and "There's a long, long trail awinding"

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22 May 01 - 04:12 AM (#467694)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Lyndi-loo

The National Eisteddfod in Wales has an exiles' day on the Thursday of Eisteddfod week when everyone who has been away from Wales sings "Unwaith eto NGhymru Annwyl" which means "Once again dear Wales" which is really tearjerking. Incidentally we have a sepcial word for homesickness. we call it hiraeth

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22 May 01 - 04:48 AM (#467707)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,FrankieB(at work)

Some good ones out there! Somebody mentioned one about Colorado...you don't know where I could get a listen to it, do you-- being a Colorado kid myself, that could have some potential...

Yeah, Caledonia does it too, even though it's only my adopted home also. If anyone knows Far Down the Line, written by Nick Keir of the MacCalmans, that's a great one.

cheerio for now, FrankieB

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22 May 01 - 09:48 AM (#467807)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: folk1234

Who Will Watch The Home Place

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22 May 01 - 10:26 AM (#467821)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Matt_R

O Tha Mise Fo Ghruamhain

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07 Jul 02 - 09:41 PM (#744113)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Genie

"Georgia" - Hoagy Carmichael

"Country Roads" - John Denver et al.

"There's No Place Like Home"

"My Sweet Wyoming Home" - Bill Staines

"Rocky Mountain High" or "Starlight In Aspen" - John Denver

"California Dreamin'" - Mamas and Papas

"California, Here I Come"

"Missouri Waltz" (Harry S. Truman's favorite song and Missouri state song)

"Home On The Range" (Kansas state song)

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07 Jul 02 - 10:17 PM (#744127)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: masato sakurai

My Clinch Mountain Home by the Carter Family, A.P. singing the lead. Listen to it at the Honkingduck site.
I don't think "Home On the Range" is a song about homesickness.

~Masato

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08 Jul 02 - 07:17 AM (#744290)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Hrothgar

"The Reason I Left Mullingar."

The old "Caledonia" - "Farewell unto ye hills and dales of Caledonia." It's one of the convict songs.

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08 Jul 02 - 09:51 AM (#744332)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: beadie

Two by Lightfoot stand out for me:

"Alberta Bound" and "Steel Rail Blues."

As well, I've been rather partial to Dolly Parton's "My Tennessee Mountain Home."

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08 Jul 02 - 10:34 AM (#744347)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: C-flat

There doesn't seem to be many songs mentioning English towns or cities. Maybe the names aren't romantic enough. I can't think of a single one about my home town of Middlesbrough, although I can't think of a rhyme for it either!
Some say the best thing that came out of Middlesbrough is the road South!(I would ,naturally, disagree)

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08 Jul 02 - 11:30 AM (#744362)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Sonja

"Happiness Is Lubbock, Texas, In My Rear-view Mirror" (Mac Davis?)

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08 Jul 02 - 11:40 AM (#744370)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST

How about "Where The River Shannon Flows."?

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08 Jul 02 - 02:42 PM (#744491)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: SlickerBill

Shanendoah for sure. Also, check out Stephen Fearing's "So Many Miles" on his live cd of the same title. Great songs, and an unbelievable guitar player. Yikes. sb

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08 Jul 02 - 03:59 PM (#744559)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Genie

Percy French's "The Mountains O' Mourne" and "Come Back, Paddy Reilly" both fit.

Marion, the whole song "Un Canadien Errant" is a homesick tearjerker of the first degree.

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08 Jul 02 - 04:48 PM (#744589)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull

Back Home-Bert Jansh

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08 Jul 02 - 05:06 PM (#744600)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Bullfrog Jones

Dublin Blues by Guy Clark

BJ

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08 Jul 02 - 07:37 PM (#744720)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,WC Handy

I lump blues and folk together, so I consider "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" among the best.

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08 Jul 02 - 10:13 PM (#744790)
Subject: Lyr Add: DINK'S SONG
From: Robin2

"First Christmas" by Stan Rodgers...how much more homesick can you get?

I think "Dink's Song", the story of a real woman in the 1920's, is the story of a woman homesick for her past:

DINK'S SONG

If I had wings like Norah's dove
I'd fly up the river to the one I love
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

I've got a man, he's long and tall
Moves his body like a cannon ball
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

One of these days and it won't be long
Call my name and I'll be gone
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

I remember one night, a drizzling rain
Round my heart I felt a pain
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

When I wore my apron low
Couldn't keep you from my do'
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

Now I wear my apron high
Scarcely ever see you passing by
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

Now my apron's up to my chin
You pass my door and you won't come in
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

If I had listened to what my mama said
I'd be at home in my mama's bed
Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

Cooper and Nelson do an excellent version of this song, BTW

Robin

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09 Jul 02 - 08:33 AM (#745035)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Mr Red

SINSULL
I used tell people "Homeward Bound" was written on Wigan Station when Paul Simon was on a tour here in the UK with Don Partridge (the one-man band) and Roger McGoff (or was it Adrian Henry) the poet. However one folkie pointed out that Wigasn station had closed long before and anyway PS didn't play Wigan, but as it happened he did play Widnes FC because he wa the organiser that year and booked PS.

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10 Jul 02 - 04:31 AM (#745635)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Hrothgar

I seem to remember being on Wigan railway station waiting for a train to London at about two o'clock in the morning in the middle of winter in 1971, after watching a Rugby League World Cup match (Australia 47, New Zealand 7) at Central Park.

Wasn't "Homeward Bound" written before that?

Believe me, Wigan in midwinter is something one tries to forget, but it is not easy!

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10 Jul 02 - 06:37 AM (#745685)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST

Can't believe that no-ones yet mentioned Ralph McTell's "From Clare to Here" or Christy Moore's "Back Home in Derry"

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10 Jul 02 - 08:27 AM (#745729)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: masato sakurai

"White Christmas" may be one. Originally it has this verse prefixed:

The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it's December, the twenty-fourth,
And I'm longing to be up north.

~Masato

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10 Jul 02 - 08:36 AM (#745732)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: The Walrus at work

"Far, Far from Wipers (I long to be)" or perhaps "Farewell to Lochaber"

Walrus

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10 Jul 02 - 09:27 AM (#745758)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: rich-joy

Cancion Mixteca (Que Lejos estoy del pueblo donde nasido ...), popularised by (outside of Mexico), Ry Cooder's soundtrack for that depressing film "Paris, Texas" ...

(lyrics supplied upon request, but I'm tired tonight ...) Cheers! R-J

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10 Jul 02 - 10:35 AM (#745791)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Allan Dennehy

I'm surprised that none of the Americans mentioned Floyd Westermanns "Quiet Desperation" Its beautiful. Ive only heard Christy Moore sing it.

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10 Jul 02 - 08:10 PM (#746150)
Subject: Lyr Add: WEST VIRGINIA MY HOME (Hazel Dickens)
From: Ebbie

Chorus:

West Virginia. O my home. West Virginia. Where I belong.
In the dead of the night, in the still and the quiet,
I slip away like a bird in flight
Back to those hills, the place where I belong.

It's been years now since I left there
And the city life's 'bout got the best of me
I don't remember why I left so free,
what I wanted to do, what I wanted to see
But I can sure remember where I come from.

Well, I've paid a price for leaving
For the life I've had is not one I thought I'd find
Let me live and love, let me cry; When I go just let me die
Among those friends who'll remember when I'm gone.

Hazel Dickens

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10 Jul 02 - 11:34 PM (#746227)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Genie

Torna A Surriento (Come Back To Sorrento)

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10 Jul 02 - 11:36 PM (#746230)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Genie

Then there's "(I Want To Go Back To) My Little Grass Shack In Kealakekua, Hawaii."

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11 Jul 02 - 11:26 AM (#746538)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Hecate

There's a lot of Ivor Gurney poetry that Johnny Copin has set to music - that's very homesick - for those of you not familair, Ivor Gurney fought in (I think) the first world war, and spent most of his spare time writing longingly about Gloucestershire.

I'm homesick for my hills again, my hills again, to see above the Severn plain unscabbarded beneath the sky the long blue blade of cotswold lie and giant clouds go royally by, By jagged Malvern with a train of shadows where the land is low Like a huge imprisonning 'o'

I hear a heart that's sound and high I hear the heart within me cry, Cotswold, Malvern, sun or rain, My hills again.

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11 Jul 02 - 08:44 PM (#746875)
Subject: Lyr Add: KILKENNY? / KILKELLY
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey

The lyrics below I transcribed from a crappy old tape. The lines I'm not sure of I will put in brackets. The story I was told is that John died without ever returning to Ireland and the letters were found by his grandson, who wrote the song. On my tape the song is reportedly sung by Mick Maloney, Jimmy Keanne and Robbie O'Connell so it may have been one of them who wrote it but I don't know.

Kilkenny, Ireland 18 and 60, My dear loving son John,
your good friend the schoolmaster Pat (McMurrough) was so good as to write these words down.
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England, the house is so empty and sad.
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected, a third to a half of them bad.
And your sister Brigid and Patrick O'Donnell are going to be married in June.
Your mother says not to work on the railroad and be sure to come on home soon.
Kilkenny, Ireland 18 and 70, My dear loving son John,
Hello to your missus and to your four children, may they grow healthy and strong.
Michael has got in a wee bit of trouble, I suppose that he never will learn.
Because of the dampness there's no turf to speak of and now we have nothing to burn.
Brigid is happy you named the child for her although she's got six of her own.
You say you've found work but you don't say what kind.When will you be coming home?
Kilkenny, Ireland 18 and 80, Dear Michael and John,
My sons I'm sorry to give you the very bad news that your dear old mother has gone.
We buried her down at the church in Kilkenny, your brothers and Brigid were there.
You don't have to worry, she died very quickly, remmember her in your prayers.
And it's good to hear that Michael's returning, with money he's sure to buy land.
For the crop has been poor and the people are selling - for any price that they can.
Kilkenny, Ireland 18 and 90, My dear loving son John,
I suppose that I must close on eighty, it's thirty years since you're gone.
Because of all of the money you've sent me I'm still living out in my own.
Michael has built himself a fine house and Brigid's daughters are grown.
Thank you for sending your family picture - your lovely young women and men.
You say that you might even come for a visit - What joy to see you again.
Kilkenny, Ireland 1892, My dear brother John,
I'm sorry I didn't write sooner to tell you your father passed on.
He was living with Brigid, she says he was cheerful and healthy right down to the end.
You should have seen him playing with the grandchildren, (and Pat McMurrough, your friend)
And we buried him alongside of mother down at the KIlkenny churchyard.
He was a strong and a fiesty old man considering his life was so hard.
And it's funny the way he kept talking about you, he called for you at the end.
Why don't you think about coming to visit, we'd all love to see you again.

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11 Jul 02 - 09:01 PM (#746881)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey

No matter how many times you check it you always miss some bloody thing.
Second-last verse should read "I suppose I must BE close on eighty..." Different meaning altogether.
Also, sorry I neglected to space the verses.
It looks as bad as the tape sounds.

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21 Sep 06 - 02:42 PM (#1840209)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Auldgadgey

Middlesbrough songs how about " The Procession"
The procession it started at Ayersome past the park and museum as well, past Kirkups fruit stall, the Boro town hall and into the Baltic Hotel.
Not to mention "Ore Boats"
Ore boats hooting on the river, clatter of the rolling mills, echoing across the valley to the distant Eston Hills. It also includes the lines "Men of steel men of Teesside strong in muscle strong in heart"

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21 Sep 06 - 02:51 PM (#1840214)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Jim

I just skimmed through these, but didn't see Mississippi, You're On My Mind by Jesse Winchester or London Homesick Blues - Sorry, I forget who wrote it, but it's the theme song of Austin City Limits.

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21 Sep 06 - 03:07 PM (#1840225)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Liz the Squeak

The Dorset dialect poem by William Barnes ~ Linden Lea.

If I hear that in May, when the chestnut candles are out, it can make me go into an instant decline.

LTS

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21 Sep 06 - 03:08 PM (#1840226)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Scoville

"West Virginia, My Home" by Hazel Dickens

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21 Sep 06 - 03:40 PM (#1840240)
Subject: Lyr Add: LONDON HOMESICK BLUES
From: GUEST,Jim

LONDON HOMESICK BLUES
(Gary P. Nunn)


Well, when you're down on your luck,
and you ain't got a buck,
in London you're a goner.
Even London Bridge has fallen down,
and moved to Arizona,
now I know why.
And I'll substantiate the rumor
that the English sense of humor
is drier than the Texas sand.
You can put up your dukes,
and you can bet your boots,
that I'm leavin' just as fast as I can.

Chorus;
I wanna go home with the armadillo.
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene.
The friendliest people and the prettiest women
you've ever seen.

Well it's cold over here, and I swear,
I wish they'd turn the heat on.
And where in the world is that English girl,
I promised I would meet on the third floor.
And of the whole damn lot, the only friend I got,
is a smoke and a cheap guitar.
My mind keeps roamin', my heart keeps longin'
to be home in a Texas bar.

Chorus

Well, I decided that, I'd get my cowboy hat
and go down to Marble Arch Station.
'Cause when a Texan fancies, he'll take his chances,
and chances will be takin, now that's for sure.
And them Limey eyes, they were eyein' a prize,
that some people call manly footwear.
And they said you're from down South,
and when you open your mouth,
you always seem to put your foot there.

Chorus

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21 Sep 06 - 03:43 PM (#1840243)
Subject: Lyr Add: MISSISSIPPI, YOU'RE ON MY MIND
From: GUEST,Jim

Jesse Winchester wrote this, I believe, while living in Montreal as a conscientious objector to the Viet Nam war.

MISSISSIPPI, YOU'RE ON MY MIND

I think I see a wagon rutted road
With the weeds growing tall between the tracks
And along one side runs a rusty barbed wire fence
And beyond that sits an old tar paper shack

Mississippi you're on my mind
Mississippi you're on my mind
Oh, Mississippi you're on my mind

I think I hear a noisy old John Deere
In a field specked with dirty cotton lint
And below the field runs a little shady creek
And there you'll find the cool green leaves of mint

Mississippi you're on my mind
Mississippi you're on my mind
Oh, Mississippi you're on my mind

I think I smell the honeysuckle vine
The heavy sweetness like to make me sick
And the dogs, my God, they're hungry all the time
And the snakes are sleeping where the weeds are thick

Mississippi you're on my mind
Mississippi you're on my mind
Oh, Mississippi you're on my mind

I think I feel an angry oven heat
The Southern Sun just blazes in the sky
In the dusty weeds an old fat grasshopper jumps
I want to make it to that creek before I fry

Mississippi you're on my mind
Mississippi you're on my mind
Oh, Mississippi you're on my mind

©1974 Jesse Winchester From the LP "Learn To Love It"

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21 Sep 06 - 03:53 PM (#1840250)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: eddie1

The McCalmans have a great song – "Festival Lights" written I think, by Nick Keir. I caught up with them in Wurzburg in Germany when I was living there and they sang it just for me – in August – while the Edinburgh Festival was in full flow – Sods!

Eddie

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21 Sep 06 - 05:01 PM (#1840283)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: bfdk

Aye, Festival Lights is a great song.

Nick Keir also wrote one called "Running Home" which is on the CD "Where the Sky Meets the Sea". So far, there aren't any lyrics for that song on the Macs homepage, though.

Best wishes,

Bente

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21 Sep 06 - 11:25 PM (#1840500)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joe_F

Newborn breezes swell to take us
To our childhood's welcome skies,
To the glow of friendly faces
And the glance of loving eyes.
-- "Rolling Home" (to various places)

It's sugarin' time up country, though, an' memories like the sap
Rise up and set me longin' for Mother Nature's lap,
An him an' Jim -- the farm, the hens, the horses in the stall.
I wisht Josiah and me was back, a-workin' hard and all.
-- "In Sugarin' Time" by Helen Winslow, set to music by Margaret MacArthur of blessed memory

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22 Sep 06 - 04:00 AM (#1840589)
Subject: Lyr Add: FOR THE SPECIAL FRIENDS
From: eddie1

This is not strictly a song about homesickness but expresses the same sentiments. Written by the late Iain Mackintosh (see his Obit). In typical Iain fashion, he was surprised that I placed such value on it – he preferred "All The Good People" by Ken Hicks but I can think of a few, a very few, people in my life I would sing this one for

FOR THE SPECIAL FRIENDS
•        (Iain C. MacKintosh)
I tried to write a song about the things I've seen and done
And the places that I've been to on the way
But I'd need another year and I'd need another beer
To tell you all about those yesterdays
Chorus:
It's not the towns I've been to that make my life so fine
It's not the beer, the whisky, or the wine
The towns are just the places where I go to meet my friends
So this song's for the special friends of mine
For the friends who make me welcome when I come into their home
For home is where I lay my banjo down
Say, Hello Iain, glad you're here, have some wine or have some beer
Sit down, take off your shoes and stay around
We'll maybe sing a song or two, but just if that's the mood
We'll talk of other friends and days gone by
Of the happy times, the sad times, the bad times and the good
And before we say goodnight, the bottle's dry
I wake up in the morning with an idea for a song
So I put some lines together as I drive
About how good it was to see you when you opened up the door
And how difficult it is to say goodbye.

Eddie

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26 Sep 06 - 03:53 PM (#1843987)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,IBO

CUMBERLAND GAP BY LONNIE DONEGAN MENTIONS 15 MILES FROM MIDDLESBROUGH

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26 Sep 06 - 05:26 PM (#1844039)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Scoville

"Shackles & Chains"



"When the Sugar Cane's Tall" and "Parting Waltz".

At least, I think "Parting Waltz" is; my Cajun isn't so great and I can't understand most of it, but the melody sure sounds homesick.

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26 Sep 06 - 06:28 PM (#1844077)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: bobad

In my mind Im goin to carolina
Cant you see the sunshine
Cant you just feel the moonshine
Maybe just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
Yes Im goin to carolina in my mind

James Taylor "Carolina In My Mind"


Going home, running home
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Going home, and Im running home
Down to gasoline alley where I was born

Rod Stewart "Gasoline Alley"

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27 Sep 06 - 01:27 PM (#1844208)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,ibo

CHRIS REA,STEEL RIVER,FOR ALL YOU BORO LADS AND LASSES OUT THERE,

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27 Sep 06 - 01:33 PM (#1844211)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: dick greenhaus

And nobody's mentioned "Heading for Halifax"

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27 Sep 06 - 05:29 PM (#1844475)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,IBO

IS THAT THE HALIFAX BANK IN MIDDLESBROUGH? WHY I WAS THERE ONLY THIS MORNING

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27 Sep 06 - 05:37 PM (#1844487)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,lox

"A song for Ireland"

maybe not intended as homesick song but works well for nostalgia's sake

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27 Sep 06 - 05:50 PM (#1844497)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Chef I. Etta

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27 Sep 06 - 05:52 PM (#1844500)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Chef I. Etta

When I here "There's No Place LIke Nome For The Hollandaize" I miss the cooking gig I had in Alaska.

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09 Jun 11 - 06:04 PM (#3167970)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Joe

The Show Must Go On - Queen. not really about homesickness, but gives the sense that regardless of where you are, when you are, who you are, you grit your teeth and bear through it, because you will see home again, and that's all that truly counts...

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09 Jun 11 - 06:10 PM (#3167977)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Amergin

Gordon's Early Morning Rain....

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09 Jun 11 - 07:22 PM (#3168026)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: kendall

The Green rolling hills of West Virginia, Utah Phillips

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10 Jun 11 - 10:26 AM (#3168405)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Elmore

" I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool" by Stan Kelly, Sung by The Dubliners and others.

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10 Jun 11 - 10:51 AM (#3168409)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: John on the Sunset Coast

These may duplicate others; if so, sorry.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco
My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight
Take Me Back to Tulsa
Saginaw, Michigan
I'm On a Hill Overlooking El Cajon
(So far it consists of three lines inspired when I was driving home to San Diego, and actually was driving down through El Cajon...you've probably never heard it.)

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10 Jun 11 - 12:40 PM (#3168463)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,TomC

I'm Going Home by Jon Chandler.

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10 Jun 11 - 08:30 PM (#3168691)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joe_F

"The Idiot" by Stan Rogers.

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07 Aug 12 - 01:50 PM (#3387239)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,nathan

my tenesse moutain home dolly parton

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08 Aug 12 - 12:10 PM (#3387649)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Bert

The miner's dream of home.
Away out on the mountain.
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner.
The Ship John B.

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08 Aug 12 - 08:29 PM (#3387820)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joe_F

It's a long way to Tipperary.

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08 Aug 12 - 08:36 PM (#3387821)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joybell

Isle of Beauty Fare Thee Well
by Thomas Haynes Bayley

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08 Aug 12 - 09:01 PM (#3387827)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: ranger1

Dark Island
Caledonia
Scarborough Settler's Lament
Highland Widow's Lament - that last one kills me, she's lost everything, husband, house, and homeland.

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19 May 14 - 06:11 PM (#3627216)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Steve Gardham

It has had one mention earlier under another title but Payne and Bishop's 'Home, Sweet Home' has got to be one of the earliest of its type, from the early nineteenth century. Bishop's tune in particular is iconic.

Funnily enough the 18th century is chock full of sentimental twaddle, but I can't remember seeing much about homesickness, plenty of sickness evoked though.

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19 May 14 - 09:09 PM (#3627254)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joe_F

Einmal werden froh wir sagen:
"Heimat, du bist wieder mein!"

-- Die Moorsoldaten

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19 May 14 - 11:02 PM (#3627261)
Subject: Lyr Add: YOU GAVE ME A SONG (Alice Gerrard)
From: Janie

From the same album as Hazel Dickens "West Virginia, Oh My Home" (and that is a great one for this expat West Virginian) is another, this one written by Alice Gerrard.

YOU GAVE ME A SONG

We used to be a family
In our little cabin home
Whose windows they are broken
And whose chimney's dark and cold
But jobs were hard to find back then
It wasn't easy to survive
So one by one we all left home
To change our way of life.


I got a job in a factory
On that old assembly line
Gonna climb on up the hill
And leave my past behind
But the only climbing that I did
Was five flights up the stairs
And the past I thought I'd left behind
Went with me everywhere.
--------------
   Chorus:

Cause you gave me a song
Of a place that I call home
A song of then
A song of now
A song of yet to come
---------------

So here we are my past and me
A-working in this bar
Sing a song of broken hills
And streams that once ran clear
Sing a song of you my friend
Lonely like me
The city's taken all we had
But sweet sad memories.

But someday I'll go home again
Lord, it's been a long hard road
I'm not sayin' that I'll stay
But I know now if I go
I'm gonna take you on with me
And what you gave when I was young
Others held me for a while
But you held me all along

-------------
repeat Chorus

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19 May 14 - 11:12 PM (#3627262)
Subject: Lyr Add: WEST VIRGINIA CHOSE ME (Colleen Anderson)
From: Janie

Another song specifically about West Virginia that always makes me want to cry (and fills me with guilt that I have such longing, but don't really ever want to have to move back - I just always want to be from there.)

WEST VIRGINIA CHOSE ME

By Colleen Anderson

Someone's always leaving here, it's just that kind of place
It's just that kind of world today you learn to live with loss
The grass is always greener there, just on the other side
The air is always cleaner there, the sky is twice as wide
I'm not the type to argue, I won't say it isn't true
It's just the kind of place for passing through.

Tom's in California now, and John's up north in Maine
Will went down to Raleigh, says he won't be back again
Annie's in Chicago and she likes it by the lake
Even Katie crossed the border, finally made the break
And if I had a dollar for every time I've said goodbye
There's nothing in this world I couldn't buy.

Chorus
But a few of us are staying and it's not a point of choice
It's not we who do the choosing we are chosen by the place
And West Virginia Chose Me, sure as my own mother knows me
If I leave you West Virginia, it don't matter where I roam
I don't know where I'm going, but I know I'm coming home.

They say home is where the heart is, and I guess that's true enough
But the heart's a stubborn muscle and there's no explaining love
I dream of higher mountains, and a cottage by the sea
But West Virginia won't let go of me.

Chorus

And a few of us are staying and it's not a point of choice
It's not we who do the choosing we are chosen by the place
And West Virginia Chose Me, sure as my own mother knows me
If I leave you West Virginia, it don't matter where I roam
I don't know where I'm going, but I know I'm coming home.

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05 Oct 15 - 11:25 AM (#3741904)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: wysiwyg

Anyone have lyrics to a song referenced upthread? Craig Johnson's "Goodbye to the Lowlands"

~S~

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05 Oct 15 - 04:16 PM (#3741959)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Young Buchan

Bert has already had Miner's Dam of Home, so I'll bid Song of the Thrush.

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06 Oct 15 - 08:57 AM (#3742052)
Subject: Lyr Add: HOME (Van Steeden/Clarkson/Clarkson)
From: PHJim

Has the song "Home" been mentioned? I learned it from a Cheap Suit Serenaders record. I included chords for one of my students who wanted to learn the song.

Home    Van Steeden, Clarkson, Clarkson   1931
                   from R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders

(G) When shadows (F#) fall
And (Am7) trees whisper, (Bbm7) "Day is (Bm7) end(D7)ing",
(Am7) My thoughts are (Bbm7) ever (Bm7) wen(D7)ding
(G) Home.(G#°) (Am7) (D7)

(G) When crickets (F#) call,
My (Am7) heart is for(Bbm7)ever (Bm7) year(D7)ning
(Am7) Once more to (Bbm7) be re(Bm7)turning
(G) Home. (C) (G) (G7)

(C) When the hills conceal the setting (G) sun, (C) (G) (G7)
(C) Stars begin a-peeping, one by (D7) one. (D#7) (D7)

(G) Night covers (F#) all,
And (Am7) though fortune (Bbm7) may for(Bm7)sake (D7) me,
(Am7) Sweet dreams will (Bbm7) ever (Bm7) take (D7) me
(G) Home.

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06 Oct 15 - 10:44 AM (#3742070)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

This one from the Kings of Convenience is pretty nice. It is called "Homesick"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oll6UfK6iUg

R

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06 Oct 15 - 04:46 PM (#3742135)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Jack Campin

This is a classic nostalgia song for Arabic-speaking exiles from the Middle East:

Fairouz: Nassam Aleyna El Hawa

lyrics and translation

staff notation

Fairouz is a Lebanese Christian, but the song has always been popular with Palestinians of all persuasions. Just about all Syrians will know it. It would be a good one to know if you're somewhere Syrian refugees will go to.

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06 Oct 15 - 11:27 PM (#3742175)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: PHJim

Home by The Cheap Suit Serenaders

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07 Oct 15 - 05:06 AM (#3742197)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,HiLo

The May Morning Dew. A sad reminder that you cannot step into the same river twice.

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07 Oct 15 - 06:44 AM (#3742202)
Subject: Lyr Add: GOODBYE TO THE LOWLANDS
From: cnd

Well, this version was recorded by Cathy Barton, Dave Para, Caroline Patton, David Patton, Sandy Patton, Ed Trickett, and Harry Tuft, but let me know if the lyrics are significantly different

GOODBYE TO THE LOWLANDS

My hometown's been tore down, I can't find my way
With its high gates and houses and my grand-dad's old place
And the last old log house has been bull-dozed away
And lately I wonder just why I should stay

Goodbye to the Lowlands and the green fields of old
Goodbye to the long roads I love to roam
Goodbye to the good friends and the good times I've known
Rollin' away, maybe goin' home

They've landscaped the cornfields, the back roads are paved
And they built lots of houses with false country names
Names of the farms and the fields that they've changed
But they can't hide the truth with what little remains

Goodbye to the Lowlands and the green fields of old
Goodbye to the long roads I love to roam
Goodbye to the good friends and the good times I've known
Rollin' away, maybe goin' home

There's a lot I remember when I told him goodbye
With the deep hurt of parting, I was too lost to cry
There's a lot I remember for a place and a time
They're gone like the rains that once passed in the night

Goodbye to the Lowlands and the green fields of old
Goodbye to the long roads I love to roam
Goodbye to the good friends and the good times I've known
Rollin' away, maybe goin' home

Goodbye to the Lowlands and the green fields of old
Goodbye to the long roads I love to roam
Goodbye to the good friends and the good times I've known
Rollin' away, maybe goin' home

Goodbye to the Lowlands and the green fields of old
Goodbye to the long roads I love to roam
Goodbye to the good friends and the good times I've known
Rollin' away, maybe goin' home

Lyrics transcribed by ear from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ2czPhGp8o

---

07 Oct 15 - 10:16 AM (#3742246)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: wysiwyg

Thanks!

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10 Oct 15 - 06:43 PM (#3742908)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,DTM

"The Boys Of Cally Burn"
"Wild Geese" - Jim Reid
"Going Home" - Runrig
"The Broom Of Cowdenknowes"

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10 Oct 15 - 07:33 PM (#3742915)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Mehitabel

Kate and Anna McGarrigle's "Talk to me of Mendocino" does it for me every time I hear it.

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23 Feb 16 - 06:51 AM (#3774495)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,FLUSH

Across the Hills of Home, Eric Bogle

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23 Feb 16 - 07:36 AM (#3774507)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: gillymor

This one makes the tears well up and takes me back to my childhood home in Maryland for some reason, Erin Gra Mo Chroi.

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23 Feb 16 - 09:43 AM (#3774524)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,Tunesmith

I haven't read through all the previous postings on this topic, but I've loved this Jimmie Rodgers for nearly 60 yrs.
Homesick Jimmie

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23 Feb 16 - 10:30 AM (#3774539)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: kendall

The town I love so well.

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23 Feb 16 - 04:29 PM (#3774605)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: Joe_F

The Jamestown Homeward Bound

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26 Feb 16 - 08:06 AM (#3775151)
Subject: RE: Best Homesick Songs
From: GUEST,jonesnudger

'Windy Town' by Chris Rea is a lament for Middlesborough, I believe.

---