Home On The Range (James Richardson)

Prison recording
Performer: James Richardson
Date: 6/3/1939
Location: State Farm, Raiford, Union County, Florida
Traditional Cowboy Song - Author Unknown
Taken from The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. 
(The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions on the materials in the Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.)

Home On The Range

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Oh,give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all the cities so bright.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Oh, I love those wild flow'rs in this dear land of ours
The curlew*, I love to hear scream
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountaintops green

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

(*Curlew - common name for the bird genus Numenius, a group of eight wader species, characterised by a long slender downcurved bill and mainly brown plumage with little seasonal change. Courtesy: Wikipedia)
Curlew
Curlew


Credit for some: Library of Congress, Music Division.