}
Old Folks at Home (also known as "Swanee River", "Swanee Ribber" or "Suwannee River") is a minstrel song written byStephen Foster in 1851.
As the official state song of Florida, Old Folks at Home has traditionally been sung as part of a Florida governor's inauguration ceremony. However, over time, the lyrics were progressively altered to be less offensive;
In his 2007 inauguration ceremony, Charlie Crist decided to not include the state song, but rather to use in its place, "The Florida Song," a composition written by a black Floridian jazz musician, Charles Atkins. Crist then encouraged state Senator Tony Hill, who was the leader of the legislature's Black Caucus, to find a new song. Hill joined forces with state Representative Ed Homan and the Florida Music Educators Association to sponsor a contest for a new state song; on January 11, 2008, the song "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" was selected as the winner. The Florida legislature considered the issue and ultimately adopted it as the state anthem while retaining Old Folks at Home as the state song, replacing its original lyrics with a bowdlerized version approved by scholars at the Stephen Foster Memorial at the University of Pittsburgh. Governor Crist stated that he was not pleased by the "two songs" decision, but signed the bill, creating a new state anthem and establishing the reworded version of the State Song by state statute, rather than by resolution, like the 1935 decision.
Then if you like this song, you can try to play it and here we provide you Old Folks at Home stave which is really easy to learn.
The lyrics of Old Folks at Home:
Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.
Chorus
All de world am sad and dreary,
Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!
2nd verse
All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I;
Oh, take me to my kind old mudder!
Dere let me live and die.
3rd Verse
One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love
Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see de bees a-humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?
