There is a strong possibility that this well-known cowboy love song is actually Canadian in origin and that the Red River referred to is the one in Manitoba, not the one in Texas. The singer is a Metis girl who, at the end of a military expedition in 1870, pleads with her soldier-lover, “Do not hasten to bid me adieu”. “Adieu” is French for “goodbye” and seems an unlikely word for a Texan cowboy to use. In any case, with slightly altered lyrics, it is firmly a part of the American folk canon now and the Red River is definitely the one of the south.