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