Gila River Highway - New Arrangement

Jack Swilling's Lament - Mountain Banjo

Lyrics by John A. Stone ("Old Put") Musical Setting and Performance by Robert T. Gibney @copyright melody and arrangement Robert T. Gibney June 2013
This song relates many of the experience of the placer miners during the last years of California's Gold Rush.  The narrator reminisces about the simpler days of 1849-50.  He laments the coming of the railroad, competition from Chinese laborers, the high price of food, the imposition of taxes, and the political corruption of the time.  The song was published in "Put's Original California Songster" - D.E. Appleton & Co. 1855

California As It Is And Was key of C

Many folk songs deal with the separation and reunion of loved ones.  We will never know the experience of long-term separation in this age of connectivity.  Prior to the modern era, people who were separated by great distances never knew if they would ever see each other again.  People have been writing versions of this story since writing was invented.  

BobGibney