![]() This became possible through copyright laws and the introduction of new printing technologies, coupled, of course, with his extraordinary talent for giving audiences what they wanted He attempted-and succeeded for a time-to earn his living by composing, rather than performing or publishing his songs. As Foster wrote it, “My Old Kentucky Home” is actually the lament of an enslaved person who has been forcibly separated from his family and his painful longing to return to the cabin with his wife and children.Ī Pennsylvanian by birth, Foster became America’s first professional songwriter by his own design. ![]() We will sing one song for the old Kentucky homeįew of those singing along, however, may realize that the original lyrics were not a “Dixie”-esque paean but actually a condemnation of Kentucky’s enslavers who sold husbands away from their wives and mothers away from their children. The young folks roll on the little cabin floorīy'n by hard times comes a knocking at the door The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, ![]() When the brightly decorated horses leave the stables at the re-scheduled Kentucky Derby this weekend, they’ll parade to the starting gates to the familiar tune “My Old Kentucky Home.” This year, in a tradition dating back to 1921, will mark the 100th time that the Stephen Foster song has been played before the race, the longest, continuously held sporting event in the United States.īecause of the pandemic, no fans will populate the stands of Churchill Downs to sing along this time, leaving just the millions of television viewers to share the seeming wistfulness for mythic “old” Kentucky:
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