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Mainsail Café / Songs / Shenandoah

Shenandoah

(Shanadore; Shanadar)

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Several distinct melodies and verses have developed from this song, which has occasionally been called the first American folk song. Traditionally, Shenandoah (which is also a river, a river valley, and a mountain range in Virginia) refers to an Indian chief.

The river Missouri is typically pronounced Mi-zoo'-rye. Frank Shay adds that the pronunciation Shannadore was ubiquitous among the old sailors.

In Songs of the Sea, Stan Hugill writes that this shanty version was used when drawing a ship nearer to her anchor. The version probably came into circulation from the American boatsmen of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers in the 1840s.

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O Shanadar, I love your daughter
Ch: Hooray, you rolling river
Shanadar, I love your daughter
Ch: Ha Ha... I'm bound away
to the wild Missouri

O seven years I courted Sally.

And seven more I couldn't gain her.

She said I was a tarry sailor.

Farewell my dear I'm bound to leave you;
I'm bound away but will ne'er deceive you.

From English Folk-Chanteys by Cecil Sharp (1914)

Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Ch: Away, you rolling river.
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.
Ch: Away, I'm bound to go... cross the wide Missouri

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter.

'Tis seven long years since last I see thee,
'Tis seven long years since last I see thee.

Oh Shenandoah, I took a notion
To sail across the stormy ocean.

Oh Shenandoah, I'm bound to leave you.
Oh Shenandoah, I'll not deceive you.

Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you,
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.

From The Shanty Book by Richard Runciman Terry (1921 and 1926)

Metadata

Heaving shanty, Capstan shanty, Windlass shanty
Popular

Selected recordings:

Rolling Down Before the Mast
Whaling and Sailing Songs Paul Clayton
Short Sharp Shanties, Vol. 2 Various artists

External links:

Charles Rosher recorded by Grainger (1906)
Seán Dagher's Shanty of the Week #32

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