Motherless Children

When Johnny Cash spoke with his daughter, Roseanne Cash, about her future in music, he gave her a list of his top ten songs he believed she should know and perform.  One of them is the song "Motherless Children."

The song is a traditional folk song, but one that steps beyond the usual to focus on the lot of children everywhere.  Cash was a sensitive, religious man whose love for others radiated from his music.  "Motherless Children" is a song that takes us on a journey of how children are deprived and how important it is to provide that mothering many have lost.

Roseanne Cash recorded the song as did Blind Willie Johnson, Eric Clapton.  Blind Willie recorded the song first in 1927, but it had been written years before that recording.

No one knows who wrote the song, but folks who have heard or have performed the song recognize it as a classic in its message and its melody.  Here it is in its traditional form.