Health to the Company, A (Come All My Old Comrades)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, preparing to emigrate, gives a toast: "Come all my old comrades, Come now let us join, Come blend your sweet voices in chorus with mine.... So here's a health to the company, and one to my lass... For we may and might never all meet here again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Greig/Duncan8); Ord claims a report from 1836
KEYWORDS: emigration drink farewell
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #59, pp. 1-2, "The Donside Emigrant's Farewell" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan8 1516, "The Emigrant's Farewell to Donside" (13 texts, 10 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 222-223, "Come All My Old Comrades" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 59, "Come All Ye Old Comrades" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 152-153, "Come All Ye Old Comrades" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 350-351, "The Emigrant's Farewell to Donside" (1 text plus sundry stanzas, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 172, "Kind Friends and Companions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 50, "We May and Might Never All Meet Here Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 29, "Good Friends and Companions" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HLTHCOMP*

Roud #1801
RECORDINGS:
Marge Steiner, "Friends and Companions" (on Steiner01)
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "The Parting Song" (on SCStewartsBlair01)

NOTES [127 words]: There is a broadside, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(41b), "Drink and be Merry, or The Bold 42!," (There was a puir lassie, I pity her lot"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, which has this chorus, but the rest is about a girl saying goodbye to a soldier off to the wars. It's not clear which is earlier, but the broadside is quite commonplace. - RBW
Lines, by no means in all versions, that may be unique to this song are "There is an old proverb I believe it is true That 'Love is more precious than the gold of Peru'" (Greig/Duncan6 1516A-C,K-M and Greig #59; Ord-BothySongsAndBallads; Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia text B); Tunney's version is: "I have read that old proverb, I have read it so true My love she's as far [sic] as the bright morning dew." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrSe222

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

The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.