Origin: Happy on the Mississippi Shore (Delmore)

Subject: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Brian Peters
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 07:53 AM

I'm looking for an accurate composer credit for "Happy on the Mississipi Shore" by the Delmore Brothers, also publisher if known.

Thanks,

Brian

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 09:39 AM

Whoops, I thought I could help. I THINK it's just Alton and Rabon Delmore and i think they were in Ralph Peer's publishing company, but I am not sure enough of myself to claim accuracy. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Gene
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:40 AM

That information is available at -

* www.BMI.com *

Search the TITLES category for
[happy on the mississippi]

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 10:29 PM

I called up Lionel Delmore's publishing company (on the BMI site) and got a Nashville car wash (or something) I'd kill to get another copy of "Truth is Stranger than Publicity". The autobiography of my hero Alton Delmore.

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Dale Rose
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 10:59 PM

Better to buy a copy. Winds up being cheaper in the long run. County Sales has it for sale, and I am sure there are others as well. You can get it from Amazon, for example, though it is priced higher than at County ~~ plus buying from County supports the industry a bit more.

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:15 PM

Dale, you're a Godsend! Thought it was long out of print. Thanks
rick

Subject: RE: Delmore Brothers' Missippi Shore
From: JOField
Date: 01 May 99 - 06:07 AM

Speaking of 'Mississippi Shore' -- I used to sing it with a local hero in the Boston area named Joe Val, and he played it with a quick 3-chord as the second chord in the chorus, so that, if you were playing in D for instance, you played two quick beats in F on 'sip-pee'. I now have the Delmore Brothers version, and they do no such thing. Anyone else heard this nice little variation?

James.

P.S. -- I borrowed (filched) from a friend an independent-label CD by a Japanese architect-bluegrass-old-timey musician named Masuo Sasabe. I used to have a very chauvinist attitude about foreigners doing traditional American music -- they didn't 'get it'. I put on HIS version of 'Mississippi Shore' -- he sings and plays all the parts -- and tears came to my eyes. The guy is great. I hope to meet him someday.

Subject: RE: Origin: Happy on the Mississippi Shore (Delmore)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 07 - 08:14 PM

BMI credits Alton Delmore and Rabon Delmore.

(Oddly, though, there is a second listing--apparently a different song with the same title--where the songwriter is Paul Edgar Johnson.)

I listened to a few sound samples and this is what I heard:

Pickaninnies [or "little children"*] playin' around that cabin door.
Darkies [or "old folks"*] singin' on that river shore.
Happiness is with them every night and day.
On that river they will stay.
Hear that steamboat blowin' on the Mississippi shore.
I love that river and will forever.
It's calling everywhere I go.
To that land I'm going. Never gonna roam no more.
I'll be so happy with Mammy and Pappy
On the Mississippi shore.
[Yodel]

[The Delmore Brothers' recording appears on "Classic Cuts: 1933-1941" and "Brown's Ferry Blues." Also recorded by Cathy Varton and Dave Para on the various-artists album "Great Takes: Traditional Acoustic Music;" by Jim Barnett and Tom Mindte on their album "Duets;" and by The Nashville Bluegrass Band on "Home of the Blues."

[*Note: "Pickaninnies" and "darkies" are what the Delmores originally sang; "Little children" and "old folks" are what Varton & Para sing--a necessary improvement, in my opinion.]