Red River Valley (traditional)

Images from the Red River Valley in NW Louisiana set to dulcimer/harmonica instrumentals... Images provided by Cloud 9 Photography

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• mountain
• dulcimer
• Red
• River
• Valley
• Louisiana
• folk
• music
• images
• photographs

[Artay72]

But where is the Red river valley? I have just finished reading John Grisham's 'The Confession' and there are frequent references to 'the red river' in Eastern Texas. That apart, it is a beautiful sone - the Jo Stafford version for me, but I like this.

[MrSteve55]

@Artay72 The Red River starts in Ok, Tx, or N Mex (opinions differ) flows across TX panhandle, is the border with OK, snips a tiny corner off of AR the flows diagonally across LA and hooks up with the Big Muddy...The scenes are from Texarkana, Bradley (AR), Shreveport, Coushatta (LA), Natchitoches (LA)..mostly from my clients farms or near my home, I live about a mile..

[MrSteve55]

@Artay72 btw I am a Big Band Era buff and Jo Stafford, in my opinion, had the best voice of any of that era...she did an album of Celtic Songs that will never be topped....so to be put in the same comment with her is okay by me....

[nemo1588]

This is a lovely version - thanks for posting

[MrSteve55]

@nemo1588 thank you for the comments, hope you are having a nice weekend...

[NorthAmericanSkies]

I grew up believing this, too, and have marveled at the thought many times in crossing the Red River just north of Texanarkana, but in reality this is the not Red River the song refers to. I wish it were, but it is a favorite old song of my youth and I was always so proud to think it was local. But alas, it is from up North.

[kingsindiandefence]

@donadthegonad Yes, it's a Canadian song, sung from the point of view of a native girl saying goodbye to a British soldier; this is well documented. It made its way over the border and the years all the way down to Texas (all the campfires it must have graced) where it became a well know song. But your Red river home is where it began. Before the creeps come out and start arguing, it's a beautiful song with a universal theme that has no real location.

[donadthegonad]

@JonahtheFigPucker Check this out, I'm a Manitoban (Red River Valley) living in Spain and I heard this song, en voz, at a Catalan funeral today and could not believe my ears, it was heart wrenching. That's what led me here. Now to find a Catalan version.

[donadthegonad]

@JonahtheFigPucker Check this out, I'm a Manitoban (Red River Valley) living in Spain and I heard this song, en voz, at a Catalan funeral today and could not believe my ears, it was heart wrenching. That's what led me here. Now to find a Catalan version.

[JonahtheFigPucker]

@JonahtheFigPucker Irish soldiers, so it seems, have won wars for every kingdom and nation on earth except for Ireland. (ok, with the new Irish Republic that might be a bit dated) The one time I heard it in a version of Spanish I actually understand, was in a movie that was on late-night TV and involved a Texas youth going to Mexico to retrieve a stolen horse, and got sentenced to a couple years in Mexican prison for his troubles. The plot and title were forgettable, the song, not so.

[JonahtheFigPucker]

@MrSteve55 It fits the Texas/Oklahoma river as well as the original. Which I'm trying to find the Spanish words for it. El Valle Rio Rojo was a Catalans/Irish song commemorating one of the battles in Spain in the early 1820s according to all I've found out about it. Translates well into English though. I only heard it in Spanish once and my God it's beautiful. There's supposed to be an Irish Gaelic version too. The battle commemorated involved Irish volunteers.