Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Day 240 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag in 1927.
Railroad switchmen at Illinois and Iowa division points sang this on nights in the 1890's when their gloves froze to the coupling pins between coal cars, and it was fun to reach a shanty stove. ...
Paperhangers, ice wagon drivers, hash slingers and short order cooks have joined up and sung it on summer evenings for good people gathered under the Chinese lanterns of a lawn sociable, with ice cream served by the Ladies' Aid Society. ...
Henry Joslyn sets it here as a four-part piece for quartets.
Day 240 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag in 1927.
Railroad switchmen at Illinois and Iowa division points sang this on nights in the 1890's when their gloves froze to the coupling pins between coal cars, and it was fun to reach a shanty stove. ...
Paperhangers, ice wagon drivers, hash slingers and short order cooks have joined up and sung it on summer evenings for good people gathered under the Chinese lanterns of a lawn sociable, with ice cream served by the Ladies' Aid Society. ...
Henry Joslyn sets it here as a four-part piece for quartets.

![Little Turtle Dove
NOTES: Hes Gone Away from Carl Sandburgs 1927 The American Songbag.
Sandburg begins his first chapter DRAMAS AND PORTRAITS with the song Hes Gone Away. In studying the roots of Sandburgs selection, several songs show up as closely related.
According to The Traditional Ballad Index, This song (which includes the variation represented in Carl Sandburgs 1927 American Songbag), is officially a catch-all. Other song titles in this category are The True Lovers Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, and Turtle Dove.
Little Turtle Dove, listed in this category was collected by Bascom Lamar Lunsford [who lived just a stones throw from my home] in his 1929 30 and 1 Folk Songs from the Southern Mountains.
Others collected this song as well, including famed British song-catcher Cecil Sharp who collected nine variants in the Appalachian Mountains from 1916-1918.
Perhaps because of Biblical references (especially verse 2:12 from the Song of Songs: The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.)... its mournful voice, and the fact that it forms strong pair bonds, European turtle doves have become emblems of devoted love.
There are tentacles going back to the British Isles, but this will be elaborated upon at a later date. Little Turtle Dove](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HxkpYk-bLz4/mqdefault.jpg)





![Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her
Day 258 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
According to Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors (2002) by Ivan H. Watson and Joe Grimm [with music transcriptions by Lee Murdock], this shanty was saved for the last duty of a voyage: Pumping out a ship after she reached port and was unloaded. Since the sailors wanted to get ashore, this was considered a particularly unpleasant task hence this song, about getting away from the work. Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JwTGyahokjQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![C C Rider (A) & (B)
Day 156 and 157 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Ive redone the (A) version of C.C. Rider because I left out the main verse (Oh C. C. Rider, now see what you done, done. so today Im combining text A and B).
Sandburg writes: John Lomax and I heard this song (A) in Austin, Texas, in an old saloon, The Silver King, operated as a soft drink parlor by a Mexican black, Martinez. After two blacks with guitars had sung The Original Blues/ Franky and Johnny, Boll Weevil, and other pieces, Martinez himself favored us with C. C. Rider, which may derive from easy rider. . . .
The Sunshine Special, a crack railroad train, has crossed Texas every day for many years. ... In the last line of the first verse the word blowed is given long, slow, controlled and powerful, like the whistle of an onrushing overland train on a southwestern prairie; likewise the word shine in the last line of the second verse. . . . Text B is from Gates Thomas and his south Texas songs.
The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slangs b definition [of easy rider], a woman who is sexually promiscuous or easily seduced, is the one that applies here. (Another definition, interestingly enough, is guitar.) (from the Traditional Ballad index) C C Rider (A) & (B)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KC6BRauBdm8/mqdefault.jpg)

