R.S. Hanna
Musician
Best known for
Songwriter
R.S. Hanna was a late-nineteenth-century American gospel and parlor-song writer credited with “The Wandering Boy” (1884) — published originally as “Somebody’s Boy is Homeless Tonight” and opening on the line “Out in the cold world and far from home.” The song became one of the most-recorded laments of the early commercial country era and is often misattributed to A.P. Carter because of his 1927 arrangement.
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- Wrote “The Wandering Boy” in 1884, originally under the title “Somebody’s Boy is Homeless Tonight.”
- The song was first commercially recorded in 1927 by Frank Jenkins of Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters.
- A.P. Carter arranged the lyric for the Carter Family’s August 1927 recording and registered the song under his name, leading to a long-standing misattribution.
- Later recorded by Roscoe Holcomb, Bruce Molsky, Sheryl Crow, and many country, bluegrass, and folk-revival artists.
