Rio Grande

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "[Heave] away, Rio... And we're bound for the Rio Grande." Most versions revolve about a sailor preparing to leave port, and the girl (or girls) he is about to leave behind (with or without regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("One a Week")
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor parting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England) West Indies(St Vincent) Ireland
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 64-66, "Rio Grande" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 34-36 "Rio Grande" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 114-115, "The Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 86-87, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 111-112, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 87-96, "Rio Grande" (8 texts plus several fragments, 2 tunes; the 5th text is a Norwegian version, "Opsang for 'Preciosa'") [AbEd, pp. 80-87]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 28, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXI, p.24, "Rio Grand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 66-68, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 125-126, "Oh, the anchor is weighed and the sails they are set" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 146-148, "Rio Grande" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp.197-198, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 21-23, "Away, Rio!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 488-489, "The Rio Grande" (1 text+floating verses, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 20, "Bound to Rio" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 104, "The Rio Grande" (2 texts, 2 tunes); "I'm Bound For the Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #2, "Bound for the Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 82-83, "Royo Groun'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 34-35, "Away Rio" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 138-139, "RIo Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 451, "Were You Ever in Rio Grand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 140, "The Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 93, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 70-71, "We're Bound for Rio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 33, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 34, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 6, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 27, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RIOGRAN
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, "(To Rio Grande we're bound away, away to Rio") (1 excerpt)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Rio Grande" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 321-322, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 267, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #317
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Away, Rio" (General 5017A, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Tom Cornelly, "Rio Grande" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Fishermen's Group, Cadgwith, "Rio Grande" (on LastDays)
Joseph Hyson, "Rio Grande" (on NovaScotia1)
Minster Singers, "Rio Grande" [medley w. "Blow the Man Down"] (Victor 61148, n.d.; prob. c. 1903)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Away Rio" (AFS 4232 A, 1939; on LC27 as "Rio Grande"; in AMMEM/Cowell)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Away for Rio,
Bound for the Rio Grande
Oh, Aye, Rio
NOTES [27 words]: The "Rio Grande" of this song is almost certainly not the river of southwestern North America, but rather the province Rio Grande do Sul of southern Brazil. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe064

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