“Fare Thee Well” is a traditional song of parting whose roots reach back to old English balladry. It belongs to a tangled family of farewell songs — sharing verses and sentiment with pieces known as “The Turtle Dove” and “Ten Thousand Miles” — and like most songs of that tradition it carries no single, firmly documented author.
The lyric is a lover’s leave-taking. The singer must go, and promises to return however far the road runs — even ten thousand miles — while admitting that the true sorrow is not the leaving itself but the sweetheart who must stay behind. That bittersweet image, of devotion stretched across distance, has kept the song alive through generations of folk and revival singers.
The version heard here is by the guitarist Tony Rice, who recorded it for his 1984 album “Cold on the Shoulder.” That record drew heavily on the work of modern folk songwriters, and Rice set this older traditional piece among them, giving it the clear voice and fluid, jazz-touched flatpicking that defined his solo recordings.
