Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: Singer (presumably the mother, although it's not stated) weeps for her wandering boy, saying he was once "my joy and light". She begs the listener to find her boy and "tell him I love him still"
AUTHOR: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 ("Fountain of Song," according to John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness rambling separation mother children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 270, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 269-270, "Where Is My Boy Tonight?" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (Little Wonder 226, 1915) (Resona 75016, 1919) (Standard 199, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Columbia 15072-D, 1926; Harmony 767-H, 1928)
Edison Mixed Quartet, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (CYL: Edison Blue Amberol 2125, n.d.)
Giddens Sisters, "Where Is My Wandering Boy?" (OKeh 45143, 1927)
Hall & Ryan, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Globe 4066, c. 1924)
Sid Harkreader, "Where Is My Boy Tonight" (Vocalion 15075, 1925)
Harry Macdonough, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (CYL: Edison 1559, c. 1898)
J. W. Myers, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (CYL: Columbia 31357, c. 1900) (Berliner 0918, rec. 1896)
Peerless Quartet, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Paramount 33010, 1919)
Riley Puckett, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Columbia 15004-D, rec. 1924)
Unidentified baritone "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-Night" (Busy Bee 1120, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (quotes this song)
SAME TUNE:
Where Is My Wandering Boy (IWW) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 176)
NOTES [82 words]: This should not be confused with "The Wandering Boy," a different song from the looks of it. - PJS
They are indeed different, though the concept is similar.
For background on composer Robert Lowry, see the notes to "How Can I Keep from Singing." According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 237, Lowry's title for the piece was "The Absent Child." Which I think proves that one can be a good songwriter without being a good title-writer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB270

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