The Lakes of Pontchartrain is a wonderful ballad with Irish/English/Scottish origins that has crossed the Atlantic several times to arrive at the version we know today.
It’s thought the song probably dates back to the 1870s as it references the rail line from New Orleans to Jackson Town, which was a recent development at that time.
The reference to “foreign money” not being accepted may date the song at around the time of the American Civil War, when US or Confederate currency was used in different areas.
Many banks also issued their own notes, which were often rejected in different towns.
Thankfully for the singer, the Creole girl comes to his rescue and offers him refuge in her humble log cabin by the ‘Lakes of Pontchartrain’.
He falls in love with her but sadly for him, she already has a lover, a sailor who is out at sea.
Unlike with many love songs, they part on good terms. I love that kind of positive approach to a broken relationship. How many people are rejected by a lover yet vow to drink their health forever more.
The lyrics are brilliant in my opinion but sadly we don’t know the author, but then again, there probably was no one author. The song undoubtedly underwent several revisions and changes over a period of maybe 100 years or more, just as with so many great folk songs.
There’s no information about the composer of the wonderful melody either. It’s Irish/British folk tune, Lily of the West, although that too is now best known as an American tune, having been made popular by singers like Joan Baez.
I say Irish/British because the melody was popular across Ireland and the British Isles and no one knows for sure where it originated.
It’s likely to be either Ireland or Scotland though because most versions of Lily of the West have the young man arriving in England rather than America.
For example, A Scottish version from 1857 begins:
It’s when I came to England some pleasure for to find,
When I espied a damsel most pleasing to my mind,
Her rosy cheeks, and rolling eyes like arrows pierced my breast,
And they called her lovely Flora, the Lily of the West.
It’s easy to see how that was soon adapted to states like Louisiana as emigrants travelled to America, and how the song changed its name to Lakes of Pontchartrain suit its new surroundings.
The Lakes of Pontchartrain was revived by Irish singers like Christy Moore, Paul Brady and Planxty in the 1970s.
It has also been recorded Bob Dylan, and Mark Knopfler with the Chieftains, and Celtic Woman.
This is my version with the video giving some background information.