Bluegrass Messengers

Red River Shore- Glenn (AR) 1954 Parler E

[Ozark Folksong Collection- Reel 187 Item 1. Collected by Mary Celestia Parler.

Parler collected at least three version of the Bold Soldier (The Soldier's Wife) and she and her assistants collected a number of variants of this branch of The Bold Soldier, titled usually red River Shore. It sometimes ends with the floating verses found in Wagoner's Lad.

R. Matteson 2014]


Red River Shore- Sung by Mrs. Birdia Glenn;  Fayetteville, Ark., April 29, 1954

At the foot of yon mountain, where the fountain does flow,
The greatest creation where the soft wind does blow,
There lives a fair maiden, she's the girl I adore,
She's the girl I'll marry on Red River Shore.

I asked her old father to give her to me,
"No, sir, she'll not marry no cowboy-ee,"
So I jumped on my bronco and away I did ride,
And left my truelove weeping on Red River Side.

She wrote me a letter, she wrote it so kind,
And in this letter those words you could find,
"Come back to me, Sweetheart, you're the man I adore,
You're the man I will marry on Red River Shore."

I read it o'er till my heart grew sad,
And none of my cumyers[1] could make my heart glad,
So I jumped on my bronco and away I did ride,
To marry my truelove on Red River Side.

Her cruel old father the secret did know,
He gathered a army of twenty and four,
He gathered a army of twenty and four,
To fight the lone cowboy on Red River Shore.

I drew out my six-shooter and shot round and round,
Till six were wounded and seven were down,
There's no use a-gatherin' a army of twenty and four
For I'm bound for my truelove on Red River Shore.

1. comrades