Camptown Races

Stephen Foster, Arranged by John Bryant

Instrumentation: Brass Band

Length: 3 Minutes

Difficulty: C Grade

"Camptown Races", sometimes referred to as "Camptown Ladies", is a comic song in broad, stereotyped African American "dialect" by Stephen Foster (1826 – 1864), known as the "father of American music," who was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century.

It was published in 1850 in Foster's Plantation Melodies as sung by the Christy & Campbell Minstrels and New Orleans Serenaders, Written Composed and Arranged by Stephen C. Foster (Baltimore: F. D. Benteen; New Orleans: W. T. Mayo, 1850). Its official title was "Gwine to Run All Night", and is also known as "De Camptown Races". The Camptown of Foster's own experience was in Pennsylvania, but a "camptown", or tent city was a temporary workingmen's accommodation familiar in many parts of the United States, especially along the rapidly expanding railroad network. The rag-tag mix of horses that are racing, and the disorder of the racing conditions at the ramshackle camptown track provide the fun, with the usual unspoken undercurrent of superiority among the entertained hearers.

The present day-version of the Camptown Races, a cross country foot race, is the region's oldest 10 K race and one of the most challenging. It's held every year, the first weekend in September and includes the community's annual Old Home Day celebration.

See the Scorch version below. For a larger, clearer version, click here!