Alberta Folksong, My name is Dan Gold, an old bach'-lor I am

One of Canada's authorities on folk music, Edith Fowke, defined folk songs this way: "A genuine folk song is not a song written within recent memory for commercial profit, but rather a song handed down by oral tradition, usually of unknown authorship and found in more than one version - since as with anything passed on by word of mouth or ear, no two people remember it exactly the same way." Canadians have a rich trove of folk music and these important links with our past are now celebrated in four commemorative stamps, each featuring a different song. This is the fourth and last issue in the popular Canadian folklore series. The third stamp is dedicated to the farming and ranching songs of the West. The "Alberta Homesteader", a delightfully comic tune, was based on a song from Texas called "The Greer County Bachelor". This cross-border connection was not uncommon as some ranchers and homesteaders who established themselves in Alberta came from Texas originally. Other Albertans came from Eastern Canada and Europe, and of course, they brought their songs with them - songs that were rewritten and adapted to the Prairie land.