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Bring Back My Boy/ Wandering Boy
Old-Time song and fiddle tune based on "Somebody's Boy is Homeless Tonight" by R.S. Hanna
ARTIST: Vance Randoplph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. IV, No. 845 [pp. 370-371] (text only, no notes)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 song by R.S. Hanna (Meade); Recorded by Frank Jenkins as fiddle solo "Wandering Boy" 1927
RECORDING INFO: Bring Back My Wandering Boy [Me II-M17] - Hanna, R. S.
At - Somebody's Boy [Is Homeless Tonight]
Rm - Down on the Farm
Albert E Brumley's Songs of the Pioneers, Brumley, Fol (1970), 53 (Bring Back My Wandering Boy)
Cahan, Andy. Old Five String, Heritage (Galax) 039, LP (1981), trk# 14
Carter Family. My Old Cottage Home, RCA Camden ACL1-0047(e), LP (1973), trk# 8 [1927/08/02]
Carter Family. Bristol Sessions. Vol 2, Country Music Foundation CMF 011C2, Cas (1987), trk# A.03 [1927/08/02]
Flatt, Lester; & Earl Scruggs. Fabulous Sound of Flatt & Scruggs, Columbia CS 9055, LP (1964), trk# B.01 (My Wandering Boy)
Hotmud Family. Till We Meet Here Again, or Above, Vetco LP 501, LP (1974), trk# 3 (My Wandering Boy)
Kentucky Ramblers. Paramount Old Time Recordings, JSP 7774A-D, CD( (2006), trk# D.06 [1930/09ca] (Some Mother's Boy)
McCullough, Pauline. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p370/#845 [1938/06/06]
McKinney, "Tip" Lee Finis Cameron. I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough, MFFA 1001, LP (1977), trk# 20
Melton, Ivor. Galax Virginia; Old Fiddler's Convention, Folkways FA 2435, LP (1964), trk# B.02 [1961-63]
Molsky, Bruce. Soon Be Time, Compass 7 4432 2, CD (2006), trk# 2
Montgomery, Chris. Faded Memories, Star SLP12690, Cas (1990), trk# 4
Seeger, Mike; and Paul Brown. Way Down in North Carolina, Rounder 0383, CD (1996), trk# 1
Woltz, DaCosta;'s Southern Broadcasters. DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, County 524, LP (1972), trk# B.02 [1927/05ca]
Emry Arthur, "Bring Back to Me My Wandering Boy" (Vocalion 5244, 1928)
Blue Sky Boys, "Brink Back My Wandering Boy" (Bluebird B-8128, 1939)
W. C. Childers, "Bring Back My Wandering Boy" (Champion 16052, 1930)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Bring Back My Wandering Boy" (Paramount, unissued, rec. 1927)
Wandering Boy- Holcomb, Roscoe. High Lonesome Sound, Folkways FA 2368, LP (1965), trk# A.03
Holcomb, Roscoe. High Lonesome Sound, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40104, CD (1998), trk# 6
OTHER NAMES: Out in the Cold World; Some Mother's Boy; Somebody's Boy; Bring Back my Boy;
RELATED TO: Down on the Farm
SOURCES: Folk Index; Kuntz; Bruce Molsky notes;
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 845, "The Wandering Boy" (1 text)
Fuson, p. 149, "The Wandering Boy" (1 short text)
NOTES: "Wandering Boy" is based on "Somebody's Boy is Homeless Tonight" by R.S. Hanna in 1884 and is not the same song as "Where is my Wandering Boy Tonight?" by Rev. Robert Lowry.
"Down in a Licensed Saloon" is based on "Where is my Wandering Boy Tonight?" and is also a different song. The words and music of Down in a Licensed Saloon by W.A. Williams, who copyrighted it in 1892, appeared in Prohibition Songs, edited by Charles M. and J.H. Fillmore (Cincinnati, 1903, No. 15), under the caption 'An answer to, "Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?"'
Wandering Boy was first recorded as a fiddle solo from Frank Jenkins, issued on Gennett 6165, recorded in Richmond, Indiana in May 1927 as part of the sole recording session by one of the greatest of all string bands, Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters, of which Jenkins was a member, primarily as a banjo player.
Frank Jenkins was born August 27, 1888 in Dobson, Surry County, North Carolina and died on April 8, 1945. You can listen to his wonderful banjo solo Babtist [sic] Shout, from that same May 1927 recording session, on Rounder CD 0439/0440, The North Carolina Banjo Collection. He also fronted Frank Jenkins’ Pilot Mountaineers. Jenkins’ recording of Wandering Boy was also issued as Challenge 15305 (as by John Burham); Silvertone 5083 and 8177, and Supertone 9175 (as by Louis Watson). It also may be heard on Document CD 8023 Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters & Frank Jenkins’ Pilot Mountaineers, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, 1927-1929.
A few months after Jenkins waxed his side, the best-known recording of it was being made in Bristol, Tennessee by The Carter Family. The Carters recorded it again in 1938 as Bring Back My Boy, but it seems that nearly everyone under the sun was either recording it, singing it on the radio, or performing it in personal appearances throughout the remainder of the 1920s and through the ‘thirties, sometimes with these names, but often under other titles. A select list of artists who recorded it would include Emry Arthur, Mac and Bob, Goebel Reeves, The Blue Sky Boys, and Lulu Belle & Scott.
The song is a bluegrass standard and Tommy Jarrell, Bruce Molsky and The Red Clay Ramblers have recorded solo instrumental versions fashioned after Jenkin's rendition.
WANDERING BOY- Collected by Vance Randolph (Sung by Miss Pauline McCullough, Blue Eye, Mo., June 6, 1938)
Out in this cold world and far away from home,
Somebody's boy is wandering alone,
No one to guide him and keep his footsteps right,
Somebody's boy is homeless tonight.
Bring back to me my wandering boy,
He's all that's left to give me joy,
Tell him his mother, with faded cheeks and hair
Is at the old home, a-waiting for him there.
Oh I'd love to see him, clasp him to my breast,
Gladly I'd close my eyes and be at rest,
There is no other that's left to give me joy,
Bring back to me my wandering boy.
Out in the hallway there stands a vacant chair,
There are the shoes that once he used to wear,
Empty is the cradle that once he loved so well,
Oh how I miss him, there's no one can tell.
How well I remember those parting words he said,
We'll meet up there where no farewell tears are shed,
There'll be no goodbyes in that bright land so fair,
When we're through with life I'll meet you up there.
Oh I'd love to see him and call him my dear,
As in other times once, when he was here,
Although he has wandered in darkness and in sin,
Bring him to me, I'll welcome him in.
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