Come Again No More
Life in America’s early days was not quite as easy as it is today.

“There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears,
Oh, Hard times come again no more.“

Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) was one of America’s most prolific and best songwriters, leaving behind more than 300 songs of many varieties. As he aged, Foster focused on writing nostalgia songs with feelings of lost youth, home, family, and friends. Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” (published 1855) falls into that category. The basis for the melody was a tune that Stephen Foster had heard as a small child in an Negro church in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.

Foster was writing of the “hard times” in America, prior to the Civil War. He sang this particular song quite often in his latter days, which proved tragically prophetic for Foster as when he died on January 13, 1864, at the age of 37, he had only 38 cents to his name.

Hard Times, Come Again No More” has always been one of my favorites, bringing tears to my eyes as I think of the “hard times” endured by my family who trod this Virginia soil during the era after the War Between the States. This song is performed by vocalist Thomas Hampson and instrumentalist Craig Rutenberg. It is from the Library of Congress, courtesy of the Van Cliburn Foundation, Cliburn Concerts and the Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, Texas.