Cowboy Songs

Cowboy Songs, by Various

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Title: Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
Author: Various
Release Date: May 4, 2007 [EBook #21300]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COWBOY
SONGS ***

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net. Music transcribed by Linda Cantoni, Joyce
Wilson, Espe (Nada Prodanovic), and the PG Finale Project Team.

[Transcriber's notes: -Page vii: The word following "view of what
Owen" was unclear, and may not be the "Writes" which has been
chosen. -(Mus. Not.) following a title means that the original book
contains musical notation for that song.]

COWBOY SONGS
AND OTHER FRONTIER BALLADS

What keeps the herd from running, Stampeding far and wide? The
cowboy's long, low whistle, And singing by their side.

COWBOY SONGS
AND OTHER FRONTIER BALLADS

COLLECTED BY
JOHN A. LOMAX, M.A.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SHELDON FELLOW FOR THE
INVESTIGATION OF AMERICAN BALLADS, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BARRETT WENDELL

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1929
All rights reserved
COPYRIGHT, 1910, 1916, By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1910. Reprinted April,
1911; January, 1915.

New Edition with additions, March, 1916; April, 1917; December,
1918; July, 1919.
Reissued January, 1927. Reprinted February, 1929.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY BERWICK
& SMITH CO.

To
MR. THEODORE ROOSEVELT
WHO WHILE PRESIDENT WAS NOT TOO BUSY TO TURN
ASIDE--CHEERFULLY AND EFFECTIVELY--AND AID
WORKERS IN THE FIELD OF AMERICAN BALLADRY, THIS
VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

Cheyenne Aug 28th 1910
Dear Mr. Lomax,
You have done a work emphatically worth doing and one which should
appeal to the people of all our country, but particularly to the people of
the west and southwest. Your subject is not only exceedingly
interesting to the student of literature, but also to the student of the
general history of the west. There is something very curious in the
reproduction here on this new continent of essentially the conditions of
ballad-growth which obtained in mediæval England; including, by the
way, sympathy for the outlaw, Jesse James taking the place of Robin
Hood. Under modern conditions however, the native ballad is speedily
killed by competition with the music hall songs; the cowboys becoming
ashamed to sing the crude homespun ballads in view of what Owen
Writes calls the "ill-smelling saloon cleverness" of the far less
interesting compositions of the music-hall singers. It is therefore a
work of real importance to preserve permanently this unwritten ballad

literature of the back country and the frontier. With all good wishes, I
am very truly yours Theodore Roosevelt

CONTENTS PAGE
ARAPHOE, OR BUCKSKIN JOE 390
ARIZONA BOYS AND GIRLS, THE 211
BILL PETERS, THE STAGE DRIVER 100
BILLY THE KID 344
BILLY VENERO 299
BOB STANFORD 265
BONNIE BLACK BESS 194
BOOZER, THE 304
BOSTON BURGLAR, THE 147
BRIGHAM YOUNG, I 399
BRIGHAM YOUNG, II 401
BRONC PEELER'S SONG 377
BUCKING BRONCHO 367
BUENA VISTA BATTLEFIELD 34
BUFFALO HUNTERS 185
BUFFALO SKINNERS, THE 158
BULL WHACKER, THE 69

BY MARKENTURA'S FLOWERY MARGE 224
CALIFORNIA JOE 139
CALIFORNIA STAGE COMPANY 411
CALIFORNIA TRAIL 375
CAMP FIRE HAS GONE OUT, THE 322
CHARLIE RUTLAGE 267
CHOPO 371
COLE YOUNGER 106
CONVICT, THE 290
COW CAMP ON THE RANGE, A 358
COWBOY, THE 96
COWBOY AT CHURCH, THE 246
COWBOY AT WORK, THE 352
COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS BALL, THE 335
COWBOY'S DREAM, THE 18
COWBOY'S LAMENT, THE 74
COWBOY'S LIFE, THE 20
COWBOY'S MEDITATION, THE 297
COWGIRL, THE 251
COWMAN'S PRAYER, THE 24

CROOKED TRAIL TO HOLBROOK, THE 121
DAN TAYLOR 51
DAYS OF FORTY-NINE, THE 9
DEER HUNT, A 379
DESERTED ADOBE, THE 350
DISHEARTENED RANGER, THE 261
DOGIE SONG 303
DOWN SOUTH ON THE RIO GRANDE 331
DREARY BLACK HILLS, THE 177
DREARY, DREARY LIFE, THE 233
DRINKING SONG 305
DRUNKARD'S HELL, THE 395
DYING COWBOY, THE 3
DYING RANGER, THE 214
FAIR FANNIE MOORE 219
FOOLS OF FORTY-NINE, THE 404
FOREMAN MONROE 174
FRECKLES, A FRAGMENT 360
FULLER AND WARREN 126
FRAGMENT, A 306

FRAGMENT, A 309
FREIGHTING FROM WILCOX TO GLOBE 207
GAL I LEFT BEHIND ME, THE 342
GOL-DARNED WHEEL, THE 190
GREAT ROUND-UP, THE 282
GREER COUNTY 278
HABIT, THE 327
HAPPY MINER, THE 409
HARD TIMES 103
HARRY BALE 172
HELL IN TEXAS 222
HELL-BOUND TRAIN, THE 345
HERE'S TO THE RANGER 354
HER WHITE BOSOM BARE 271
HOME ON THE RANGE, A 39
HORSE WRANGLER, THE 136
I'M A GOOD OLD REBEL 94
JACK DONAHOO 64
JACK O'