In the fall of 1929, a young cowboy crooner named Gene Autry strolled into New York City and recorded a couple of songs in a German . One of them was called “My Alabama Home,” which sounds an awful lot like what “Sweet Home Alabama” might’ve sounded like had it been written thirty-five years earlier.
I’m longing for the old plantation, where they sing “Sweet Adeline,”
The best place in all creation, that Alabama home of mine,
It seems I can wait no longer, for the sun to shine,
‘Till I get back to my mammy, and that Alabama home of mine.
Written by his songwriting partner Jimmy Long, Autry’s “My Alabama Home” is an infectious blend of country pop and minstrel balladry. In Autry’s tune you can hear the high-lonesome dusty yodel of Jimmy Rodgers, the sophisticated song-craft of Stephen Foster, and the anxious showmanship of Al Jolson. I discovered the song six months ago and haven’t been able to forget about it since.
I was able to buy the song a few months ago, but for some reason it now seems to be unavailable for purchase, digitally or physically, anywhere in the United States, so this stream’ll have to do.
I talk more about “My Alabama Home,” and many more songs about fraught “Alabama homes” in Sweet Home Everywhere. (Kindle version)
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