Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody

A tender song about the south, 1918.
words by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young
music by Jean Schwartz

This song quotes three Stephen Foster songs from the 1850s: My Old Kentucky Home, Old Black Joe, and Swanee River. It shows a fascination the public had with slavery settings.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment:


Lyrics

  1. Mammy mine, your little rollin’ stone that rolled away
    Strolled away
    Mammy mine your rollin’ stone is rollin’ home today
    There to stay
    Just to see your smilin’ face, smile a welcome sign
    When I’m in your fond embrace, listen Mammy mine

Chorus
Rock-a-bye your baby with a Dixie melody
When you croon, croon a tune, from the heart of Dixie
Just hang my cradle, Mammy mine, right on that Mason Dixon line
And swing it from Virginia, to Tennessee
With all the love that’s in yer
“Weep no more my lady” sing that song again for me
And “Old Black Joe” just as though you had me on your knee
A million baby kisses, I’ll deliver
The minute that you sing the Swanee River
Rock-a-bye your rock-a-bye baby with a Dixie melody

  1. Any time, I hear a Mammy sing her babe to sleep
    Slumber deep
    That’s the time the shadows ’round my heart begin to creep
    And I weep
    Wonder why I went away, what a fool I’ve been
    Take me back to yesterday, in your arms again

Sung here by Fred Feild: