Down Where The Swanee River Flows

Performed by George Wilton Ballard
Recorded 1916
Written by Andrew B. Sterling, Harry Von Tilzer

Where the sweet magnolia blows, where the Swanee River flows,
Where the birds are singing songs of Dixieland,
down an old plantation way, at the closing of the day,
I wandered with a letter in my hand;
They just wrote, my boy come home, mammy's waiting all alone,
And she wants you here before she goes away;
For she wants to know the bliss, of her baby's good-night kiss,
Of the boy who went away to wear the gray.

[chorus]
Down where the Swanee River flows,
Down where the Cotton blossom grows,
I can hear the darkies singing,
In my old plantation home,
Down where the Swanee River flows.

Where the sweet magnolia blows, where the Swanee River flows,
There's a lonesome little cabin on the hill,
'Tis the hold home of my birth, but no fires on the hearth,
No mammy's there the place is cold and still;
On the mantlepiece unred, lay the note in which I said,
"Mother darling I am coming, wait for me;"
But I found a vacant chair, standing by the fireside there,
And I knelt and said a prayer on bended knee.