Old Folks Are Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far in many lands I’ve wander’d, Sadly and lone, My heart was ever turning southward, To all the dear ones at home." He has come back, but "All the old folks are gone." He looks at the old places with regret; soon he will go where they are
AUTHOR: "G. F. Wurzel" (George F. Root) (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (sheet music published by William Hall & Son)
KEYWORDS: home travel return mother death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Oh-How-Is-That-For-High-Songster, p. 8, "The Old Folks Are Gone" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 39 and #2/64, p. 39, "The Old Folks Are Gone" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1706, p. 115, "'The Old Folks Are Gone" (2 references)
Roud #32586
NOTES [60 words]: George F. Root sometimes used the pseudonym "Wurzel" because "Wurzel" is German for "Root"; for background on this, see the notes to "Rosalie the Prairie Flower."
There is another nineteenth century song called "The Old Folks Are Gone," with words by Samuel Callen and music by J. S. Cox. It is not this piece; it begins, "Sweetly now the birds are singing." - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: OHTH008

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