“Old Riverman,” also called “Old Riverman Blues,” is a song associated with Bill Monroe and John Hartford. The two recorded it together in the 1980s; Hartford, a licensed riverboat pilot with a deep knowledge of river lore, was a natural partner for such a song.
The song is the testimony of a lifelong riverman. It names the great American rivers one after another — the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Allegheny — and follows the lonesome, restless life of a man who has spent his years on the water.
The song joined the body of river songs that run through American roots music.
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