Composed by Mrs. E.A. Parkhurst in 1866,
Father's a Drunkard, and Mother Is Dead is horrifyingly modernly-incorrect in two regards: it's sentimental in the extreme, and it dares to criticize alcohol use. I hope no one faints, reading this.
The Temperance movement, though relentlessly portrayed by historians as a fun-hating effort organized by do-gooders with too much time on their hands, was in fact an attempt to prevent greedy and inhumane companies from stealing wages back from their employees with (you guessed it) alcohol. Picture a company-run bar patronized by tired, overworked, and just-paid men blowing their wages on booze. The theme of a drunken father staggering home to a starving family was straight out of real life; songs like
Father's a Drunkard documented a sad and sorry reality, one that persisted for decades. Sad to say, drinking wasn't always the hip, super-sophisticated pastime it is today. (And there were no 12-step meetings to be found in the latter half of the 1800s).
Notice how "country" the lyrics sound, beyond the sheer C&W-weeper quality of their subject(s).
Father's a Drunkard was subsequently recorded by Dock Boggs as
Drunkard's Lone Child (a phrase from the chorus), by Jimmie Rodgers as
A Drunkard's Child, and by Hank Snow as
The Drunkard's Son.
A shocker from the past, rendered here by Charley Vaughn on the famous-for-its-lousy-sound Conqueror label. From 1929.
http://box.net/public/lee/files/263762.html Father's a Drunkard, and Mother Is Dead, Charley Vaughn, 1929.
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Lee
Here are four more fiddle numbers by Don, recorded for Columbia in 1921. Keep in mind, as you listen to these sides, that some folks don't consider them to be country music. I'm not sure what they are, if they're not country. People can be silly, sometimes.