Sweet Roseanne(Traditional) |
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Alan Lomax heard part of this song in 1960 from the Bright Light Quartet in Weems, Va., where the Rappahannock River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Convinced he was hearing the next national big folk hit, he added some verses of his own and published it for the group in his extensive series of field recordings, "Southern Journey" (Rounder CD 1701). Why the hit never happened is beyond us, because it is a fun song for any gathering. Pete Seeger has sung it many times, especially in his Clearwater concerts along the Hudson River. |
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Pat Holland of Paris, Kentucky has provided us with this additional information:
"My grandfather, Capt. George H. Nowell, before WWII was the captain of a steamboat called the S.S.Northland owned and operated by the Norfolk & Washington Steamship Line. At the beginning of WWII, the Northland was commissioned by the U.S. Navy and used as a troop ship. It carried U.S. soldiers to the beaches of Normandy---and carried many troops back to safety in England after D Day. After the war, once the U.S. Navy had decommissioned the ship and it had been refurbished, it was apparently renamed "S.S. District of Columbia." In the 1950's when I was a small child, I travelled to Norfolk, Va. on the boat several times. I remember hearing the negro waiters sing "Sweet Roseanne" as they set the tables for supper in the salon. Families with young children were always assigned the first seating, couples and businessmen usually asked for the second seating. So as soon as some of the first diners departed, the waiters would quickly clear their tables and lay fresh white tablecloths and linens. Between the first and second seating, whenever there were fractious, sleepy children in the dining room, the waiters would sing lullabies, including "All the pretty little ponies" and "Sweet Roseanne." Incidentally, "Sweet Roseanne" was always stretched out by humming a chorus or two. By the way, they also sang "Carry Me Back to Ole' Virginia" with great feeling and would gently kid Granddad about the time his ship was run aground and lost in the fog---by singing "The Ship that Never Returned." The lyrics to the chorus of that song sounded a lot like the Kingston Trio's MTA song---which became popular about 10 years later. The ship made two trips to Norfolk and back each week. It left the Washington Shipyards at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Friday nights, going down the Potomac River and then down the Chesapeake Bay, a 200-mile trip to Norfolk. During the summer, most of the passengers were Washington-area families on their way to the beach. Some (deck passengers) got off the boat at Point Lookout, while most (with staterooms) traveled on to Norfolk and went from there to Virginia Beach. Some passengers even took their cars along. (In 1935, the company charged a modest $1 fee to carry a car.) I took a look at a map of the steamboat route my Grandad used to get from Washington D.C. to Norfolk and back. The route took him right past Weems, Virgina, where the Rappahanock River empties into the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, I think there was a steamboat landing there. Passengers didn't disembark there, but the boat took on fresh fish, crabmeat in the summer and oysters (in the R months). The dining was fine on the S.S. Northland! My great-grandfather, Captain Nowell and his side-wheeler, the S.S. Armenia, also carried passengers on the Chesapeake in the 1890's. I think this verse and chorus may have come from that time, when the Armenia stopped at the steamboat landing at the mouth of the Rappahannock to take on loads of wood. |
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Sweet Roseanne, sweet Roseanne, Bye-bye sweet Roseanna. I thought I heard my baby say: I won't be home tomorrow.
Sweet Roseanne, my darlin' child,
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-byeThe steamboat's comin' 'round the bend, Bye-bye sweet Roseanna. She's loaded down with harvestmen, I won't be home tomorrow.
Don't you want to go home on your next payday?
I'm goin' away but not to stay,
Sweet Roseanne, sweet Roseanne,
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