Yellow Rose of Texas – On the Rocks

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Cahoots: Marilyn Meilee

Key of C

Written by an anonymous songwriter known as J.K., the earliest known version of this American folk song was found in Edwin Pearce Christy’s 1853 songbook Christy’s Plantation Melodies, No. 2. Christy was a balladeer and was widely known for Christy’s Minstrels, a blackface minstrel show that started out of New York City in 1847. Sung from the perspective of an African American narrator, the tune follows his quest to find his lost love, a biracial woman he calls “The Yellow Rose of Texas.”
For these days of political correctness, common renditions have replaced lines such as “She’s the sweetest rose of color” with “She’s the sweetest little flower – or rosebud.”

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The Yellow Rose of Texas - 1853
American / Texas Folk Music
 
There's a [F] yellow rose of Texas that I am going for to see.  No [C] body else could miss her, [C7] not half as much as me.   She [F] cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,  and [C7] if I ever [F] find her, we [C] never [C7] more will [F] part.  
  
She's the [F] sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew.   Her [C] eyes are bright as diamonds, they [C7] sparkle like the dew.  You may [F] talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosalie,  but the [C7] yellow [F] rose of [C] Texas is the [C7] only girl [F] for me.

Where the [F] Rio Grande is flowing and starry skies are bright;  she [C] walks along the river in the [C7] quiet summer night. I [F] know that she remembers when we parted long ago;  I [C7] promised [F] to come [C] back to [C7] her and [F] never leave her so.    
 
I [F] know I'm going to find her, my heart is full of woe; we'll [C] do the things together we [C7] did so long ago.
We'll [F] play the banjo gaily and sing just like before,  and the [C] yellow [F] rose of [C] Texas will be [C7] mine forever [F] more.    
 
She's the [F] sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew. Her [C] eyes are bright as diamonds, they [C7] sparkle like the dew. You may [F] talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosalie, but the [C7] yellow [F] rose of [C] Texas is the [C7] only girl [F] for me.