"Let the rest of the world go by"

In memory of my maternal grandmother. This was the favorite song of my grandmother, Ida Amanda Nelson Russell, who was born in rural northern Arizona in 1893. She loved to play it on the piano.

The music was written by Ernest R. Ball, who also composed music for "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and other songs popular in the "Roaring 20s," when grandma was dating and married Grandpa in 1926..

Although what I have is a piano piece, I played it on the 1926 Wangrin sample set, which I think makes sounds that my grandmother could relate to.

The lyrics are by J. Keirn Brennan:

"Is the struggle and strife we find in this life
Really worth while, after all?
I've been wishing today I could just run away,
Out where the west winds call.

Refrain:
With someone like you, a pal good and true,
I'd like to leave it all behind,
And go and find some place that's known
to God alone, just a spot to call our own.
We'll find perfect peace, where joys never cease, our there beneath a kindly sky,
We'll build a sweet little nest some where in the west, and let the rest of the world go by.

Is the future to hold just struggles for gold
While the real world waits outside,
Away out on the breast of the wonderful west, across the great Divide?

Repeat Refrain