Red River Valley, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his love are parting (either may be singing, and either may be leaving). "Come and sit by my side [ere you leave me]; do not hasten to bid me adieu; just remember the Red River Valley, And the (sweetheart) who loved you so true..."
AUTHOR:
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (as "Billy's Parting" in the New Orleans "Daily Item" for November 25, 1879)
KEYWORDS: separation river farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Randolph 730, "The Red River Valley" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 260, "Red River Valley" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 260, "Red RIver Valley" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 182, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #59, "The Red River Valley" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 81-82, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 88-89, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 52, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 56, pp. 74-75, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 130-131, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 65, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 274-276, "This Little Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, probably rewritten by or for Jennie Devlin)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 56, "Red River Valley" (3 texts, 1 tune; the first text is "Red River Valley" and the third is the variant "Lost River Desert"; the second is a variant of "Nobody's Darling on Earth"); also 102, "Red River Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of square dance instructions set to this rune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 32-34, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 511-512, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 190-192, "Bright Sherman Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 98-99, "Bright Sherman Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 148-149, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 208-211, "Red RIver Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 124, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 46-47, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 115, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 146, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 27, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 457, "Red River Valley"
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "Red River Valley" (source notes only)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 53, 176, 474, "Red River Valley" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 76, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 44, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 73-74, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 32)
OneTuneMore, p. 20, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, REDRIVAL*
ST R730 (Full)
Roud #756
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 20085/Columbia 37184, 1946)
Bascom & Blackwell, "Sherman Valley" (OKeh 45008, 1925)
Beverly Hillbillies, "Red River Valley" (Brunswick 421/Supertone S-2049 [as Stone Mountain Boys], 1930;Vocalion 03164, 1936)
Bud Billings Trio, "Red River Valley" (Victor V-40267, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4058, 1933) [Bud Billings is a pseudonym for Frank Luther; record may have been issued as by Bud Billings & Carson Robison]
Bob Brooks, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 15689-D, 1931)
[Bill] Childers & [Clyde] White, "Red River Valley" (OKeh 45208, 1928)
Luther Clarke & the Blue Ridge Highballers, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Columbia 15069-D, 1926)
Ned Cobben, "Red River Valley" (Harmony 901-H, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Red River Valley" (Harmony 901-H/Velvet Tone 1901-V/Diva 2901-G/Puritone 1089-S, 1929)
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "Red River Valley" (Piotr-Archive #626, recorded 08/01/2023)
Charlie Glenn, "Red River Valley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #5, recorded 07/14/2020)
Sid Harkreader, "Red River Valley" (Paramount 3141, 1928; Broadway 8202, c. 1930)
Kelly Harrell, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Fran Hendrickson, Derek Piotr, "Red River Valley" (Piotr-Archive #415, recorded 01/05/2023. N.B. Hendrickson plays accordion, but it is Piotr who does all the singing, so the traditionality of the recording is uncertain)
Hill Billies, "Red River Valley" (Regal Zonophone [UK] MR-1698, 1935)
Bradley Kincaid, "Red River Valley" (Champion 15710 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9403, 1929; Champion 45098, c. 1935) (Vocalion 5476, c. 1930/Vocalion 04647, 1939) (Decca 5048, 1934)
Dr. Lloyd & Howard Maxey [Massey], "Bright Sherman Valley" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Sherman Valley" (OKeh 45008, 1926)
Frank Luther & Zora Layman, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Decca 5028, 1934)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Red River Valley" (Victor 21421, 1928)
Lester McFarland & Robert A. Gardner, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Brunswick 169/Vocalion 5174, 1927; Supertone S-2031 [as Kentucky Mountain Boys], 1930)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Red River Valley" (Imperial 1096, n.d. but post-World War II)
Holland Puckett, "The Bright Sherman Valley" (Challenge 329 [as by Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6433/Herwin 75562 [as by Robert Howell]/Silvertone 5064, 25064, 8153, 1927/Supertone 9254 [as by Si Puckett; issued 1929])
[Hugh Cross &] Riley Puckett, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 15206-D, 1927) (Bluebird B-8335/Montgomery Ward M-8481, 1940; rec. 1939)
Ranch Boys, "Red River Valley" (Decca 5045, 1934)
Goebel Reeves, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Melotone M-12186, 1931)
Texas Jim Robertson, "Red River Valley" (Victor 27552, 1941)
Carson Robison Trio, "Red River Valley" (Romeo 1233/Banner 0615/Perfect 12591/Jewel 5871/Conqueror 7492, 1930) (Clarion 5109-C, 1930) (Crown 3025, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Red River Valley" (on PeteSeeger32)
Leo Soileau & his Four Aces, "Red River Valley" (Decca 5182, 1936; rec. 1935)
Carl T. Sprague, "Cowboy Love Song" (Victor 20067, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Edison 51951, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5383, 1927)
Sunshine Sue w. Joe Maphis, "Red River Valley" (Astra 1215, n.d.)
Texas Drifter, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Melotone M-12186, 1931)
Art Thieme, "Red River Valley" [instrumental version] (on Thieme02)
Vagabonds, "Red River Valley" (Bluebird B-5297/Montgomery Ward M-4479, 1934)
SAME TUNE:
Oh Come Sit By My Side If You Love Me (File: WJL244C)
When It's Hogcalling Time (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 158)
Gene Autry & Jimmie Long, "Answer to Red River Valley" (OKeh 03101/Vocalion 03101/Conqueror 8485, 1935; ARC 6-08-51, 1936; Conqueror 9512, 1940)
Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers, "New Red River Valley" (Bluebird B-6162, 1935' Bluebird B-8894 [as Tennessee Ramblers], 1941)
NOTES [1291 words]: The Fifes consider their "Little Darling" text ("Come sit by my side, little darling, Come lay your cool hand on my brow, And promise me that you will never Be nobody's darling but Mine") to be a Red River Valley variant. As, however, the chorus does not fit the "Red River Valley" tune, and the rest of the words go with this "Nobody's Darling on Earth," I classify it there.
Many, many claims have been made about the origins of this song. Some of them are probably the dates of particular rewrites, but they are not the original song.
The Lomaxes are responsible for the claim that the original of this was James Kerrigan's "Bright Mohawk Valley" text of 1896. This really did seem to be the earliest known version for a long time, but we can now show that the song is at least sixteen years older.
Fuld reports a claim by Fowke that this song predates the Kerrigan text, and that the original was sung as early as 1869 in Canada, referring to the Red River of the North. Certainly there are early Canadian versions. Plus the song was recorded repeatedly in the early part of the twentieth century, with major variants in text and few versions mentioning the Mohawk Valley. The Red River is indeed the river most often cited, and given the nature of the texts found by Fowke, I think the reference in her versions at least is indeed to the Red River of the North, not to the southern Red River.
Fowke's claim has been strongly supported by John Garst, whose research is far more detailed than mine; he deserves credit for searching through Fowke's work and pointing it out to me.
But that still doesn't prove that the original referred to any Red River -- just that the references to the Red are independent of the Kerrigan text, which doesn't seem to have had much traditional vogue.
In an interesting footnote, A. T. Emery and O. C. Jillson in 1863 published a song, "The Indian Lover," in which an Indian man courts a white woman. And Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 259, says that the tune of that piece "bears some resemblance to the tune of 'Red River Valley.'" Given that the Canadian versions involve an Indian WOMAN and a British MAN, did someone take the tune and reverse the roles? I don't know; I would say that the traditional song is much better, lyrically.
The "Sherman Valley" variant is interesting, because there is no significant river by that name. There is a town called Sherman in Texas, though, not far south of the Red River (it's almost due north of Dallas). There is also a Sherman Peak in Colorado, southwest of Denver; it has no connection with the Red River that I can see. - RBW
Polk Brockman, an early producer of country records, claimed to have changed the song's title to "Red River Valley" in order to make it more marketable, since there are so many Red Rivers in North America. His claim is not substantiated, and should probably be taken with many grains of salt.
[Similarly,] The record producer Frank Walker, who worked for Columbia during the 1920s, claimed in a 1962 interview that he had learned the song in his childhood and taught it to Riley Puckett as "Bright Mohawk Valley," but he (Walker) had changed the name to Red River Valley as that would appeal to more customers "because there was no one Red River in the United States but probably eight or ten. ... There is only one Mohawk River." Since Puckett's recording was made on November 3, 1927, and Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag had published it as "Red River Valley" earlier that year, Walker's claim is doubtful. Still, it's interesting that Puckett's 1927 Columbia recording (with Hugh Cross) seems to have been the first one to bear that title. -PJS
The above summarizes the status of research as it stood c. 2024. But Bonnie Taylor-Blake, searching newspapers.com, was able to demonstrate that the song predates all the above citations except perhaps the earliest one by Fowke. She pointed me to the November 25, 1879 edition of the New Orleans Daily Item, which had a text entitled "Billy's Parting":
It's a long time, you know, I have waited,
For those words that you never would say,
But alas! all my fond hopes are vanished
For they tell me you're going away.
CHORUS
Then sit down a while ere you leave me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
But remember the dear little valley,
And the girl that has loved you so true.
There are two other verses. These, like the first verse, are close to the modern texts and those in Fowke -- *except* that it refers to "the dear little valley" rather than "the Red Rver valley."
From 1886, Taylor-Blake found a version of "The Red River Valley" in Sergeant L. Dixon, "Halifax to the Saskatchewan: 'Our boys' in the Riel Rebellion: A musical and dramatique burlesque," with songs from R. Blackmore, C. Munroe, and S. H. Romans (available on the Internet Archive). The text of this song, sung by L. J. Mylius, is on pp. 31-32, and its six-verse text is so close to the six verse text I reconstructed from Fowke's various version as to have been almost spooky. So Fowke is right that there was a version, in existence by 1886, referring to the Red River of the North.
In 1887, The Weekly Wisconsin September 17, 1887, had a text from E. M. H. of Mondovi, Wisconsin (available on Newspapers.com). This is similar to the "Billy's Parting" text (three verses), but this time it's the Red River Valley.
Continuing with items Taylor-Blake found on newspapers.com, the Rolla Herald for September 22, 1881, mentions someone singing "Bright Little Valley," but no text is offered. The Osawatomie Graphic, November 25, 1887, has an item reading, "Miss Mattie Bartlett considered for a long time whom she was leaving, but concluded to take her departure from the bright little Valley where her 'blue eyes and bright smiles' will be very much missed for 'to know her was to love her.'"
Most interesting of all is a text in the Delphi Journal, Delphi, Indiana, October 27, 1887. This contains a text (three verses and chorus) from a pocket memorandum book found on the body of a man who was lynched. The man signed it F. C. Hartman and dated it June 22, 1887. It is a "Bright Little Valley" text, and the chorus concludes "and the cow boys that love you so true." The dead man's real name was Green, but he had been in Texas, and used the name "Hartman" while living there, hinting that this was a Texas version.
So: We don't know the original, and we don't know its date, but it certainly wasn't Kerrigan. It is possible that the Fowke/Red River family is original, and someone cut out all the local references. But this strikes me as unlikely. Putting it all together, my guess (informed very much by Taylor-Blake's suggestions) would be that:
1. The original of the song, in existence by 1879 at the latest and probably several decades earlier, probably had three verses and a chorus, and the chorus referred to the "Bright Little Valley" or perhaps the "Dear Little Valley."
2. By 1885 at the latest, and probably several years earlier, this had been expanded and localized to the Red River of the North and events around the time of the Riel Rebellion.
3. The original text continued to circulate, and spun off variants like Kerrigan's "Bright Mohawk Valley," as well as Texas versions. One of these probably replaced the "Bright Little Valley" with the Sherman Valley.
4. The Texas versions somehow plugged in the Red River rather than the generic Bright Little Valley. This very likely arose from someone hearing the Canadian version and adopting the name of the river, although very little else came over. This is the version that was usually printed and recorded, and that we generally know today. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: R730

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