RANDY VANWARMER: An Unfinished Life (Part3)

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD NIGHT



The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,

’Tis summer, the children all play,

The corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom

While the birds make music all the day.

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,

All merry, all happy, and bright:

By’n by Hard Times come a knocking at the door,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:

Weep no more, my lady,

Oh! weep no more today!

We will sing one song

For the old Kentucky Home,

For the old Kentucky Home, far away.

They hunt no more for the possum and the coon

On meadow, the hill and the shore,

They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,

On the bench by that old cabin door.

The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,

With sorrow where all was delight:

The time has come when old friends have to part,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:

The head must bow and the back will have to bend,

Wherever the weary may go:

A few more days, and the trouble all will end

In the field where sugar-canes may grow.

A few more days for to tote the weary load,

No matter ’twill never be light,

A few more days till we totter on the road,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:


HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

While we all sup sorrow with the poor:

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

CHORUS

'Tis the song the sigh of the weary;

Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more;

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door,

Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

2

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay

There are frail forms fainting at the door:

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say

Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

Chorus

3

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away

With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day

Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

Chorus

4

'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,

'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,

'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave,

Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

Chorus

On the date of Randy's death in 2004, what more perfectly demonstrates that his, is an unfinished life, than to hear the combination of Stephen Foster's historic music and Randy Vanwarmer's original interpretations of these songs.  The world must come to know Randy Vanwarmer.

(Special thanks for YouTube uploader Farnicles1, who posted these great videos.  Please be sure to visit this person's YouTube channel and consider subscribing.  Some great Randy Vanwarme music there, especially Stephen Foster interpretations.)