“Shenandoah” — also “Oh Shenandoah” — is one of the best-loved traditional songs in North America, and one of the most mysterious. It dates to the early nineteenth century, and its origins are uncertain; the most common account traces it to the American and Canadian fur traders and voyageurs who traveled the Missouri River by canoe.
In its older versions the lyric tells of a trader in love with the daughter of a Native American chief named Shenandoah, and of the wide Missouri that separates them. By the mid-1800s the song had been taken up by sailors and become a widely sung sea shanty, gathering new verses as it traveled.
The song’s broad, yearning melody has made it a standard across folk, classical, and country music.
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