Rolling Stone, The [Laws B25]

DESCRIPTION: Hard times leave a husband wanting to move to (Kentucky/California/Wisconsin); his wife wishes to stay at home. She wins the argument by pointing out that they might be killed by Indians on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (The Complete Pocket Songbook)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes travel settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws B25, "The Rolling Stone"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 57, "Wisconsin" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 351-352, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Randolph 194, "The Rolling Stone" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 186-188, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 194A)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 100, "The Stone that Is Rolling" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 87, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 106-108, "The Wisconsin Emigrant's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 14, "The California Song" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 43, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #162, "A Rolling Stone Will Gather No Moss" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 428-429, "[Wisconsin] Emigrant's Song" (1 text plus an excerpt and a text of a possible English source from 1734)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 18-19, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 161-163, "The Wisconsin Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 387, ROLLNGST*
ADDITIONAL: Eliphalet Mason, _The Complete Pocket Song Book_, Andrew Wright (Northampton, MA), 1802 (available on Internet Archive), pp 23-28, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 50-51, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #710
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Husband's Departure" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: The 1802 version of this has the emigrant heading for Kentucky; it would appear it was revised as the frontier moved west. Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing out the 1802 Complete Pocket Songbook edition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB25

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography