Our Singing Country
Complete Text, Lyrics & Sheet Music
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I CAME TO THIS COUNTRY IN 1865
B. No. 1548. Tune and first four stanzas from Jimmy Morris, Hazard, Ky.$ stanza 6 from Shoemaker's Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania. See Ri, p. 132; Cox, p. 4045 Ga.2, p. 407.
Eighteen miles of rocky road, Sixteen miles of sand; If I ever travel this road againy Pll be a married man.
In pioneer days the teamster combined all the functions nowadays fulÂfilled by the fireman, the engineer, the roundhouse crew, the conductor, the express agent, the baggagemaster, and the door-to-door deliveryman. His was a proud profession and a responsible post. The man who could work a team of horses or a yoke of oxen over a wilderness road without injuring them had to have all the qualities of sensitive craftsmanship of the modern air pilot. As the song indicates, however, he had a little more leeway in his moments of relaxation.
One of the sturdiest indigenous folk songs, this ballad is said to have originated in the Green Mountains of Vermont. We have noted its occurÂrence in Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, New York, and Michigan. |
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