Cowboy Ballads - Tumblr Posts
hi! i hope you don't mind the reblog but i have lots of recommendations that i couldn't fit in the comments :]
so i made this playlist for you. It has a lot of character ballads and music from artists you already mentioned. it has tons of artists as well as a mix between old traditional folk and folk from the 60s and 70s.
since you talked about liking tales of bandits and elves, the closest thing i could think of were cowboy ballads that usually featured tales of outlaws and workers and the strife that comes with that (a lot of marty robbins songs are covers of older cowboy work songs). i also think that some of the smithsonian protest folk albums fit this description.
so i recommend these albums!
if you want a more comprehensive playlist of american folk music between 1940 and 1979, check out mine! (its very long though)
i hope this was a little helpful, and feel free to reach out if you want more suggestions
As much as I consider myself a folk music enthusiast most of my playlist is British and the only American folk songs I have are
Hurricane by Bob Dylan
Big Iron by Marty Robbins
John Henry by Pete Seeger
Where Have All The Flowers Gone by The Kingston Trio
The Highwayman by Phill Ochs
Which are sorta the most basic of basic American folk songs. I know I prefer the tales of elves and bandits in. British folk music but I am an American after all I should try to get into more American singers right? Any recommendations?
Suggested song
"The Frozen Logger" The Weavers, 1951
"The Frozen Logger" was originally written and performed in 1929 by Jim Stevens (the man who popularized the folk legend Paul bunyan in his 1925 book "Paul Bunyan"
for his program on the ABC seattle network "The Histories of Paul Bunyan"
here's a segment of Jim Stevens talking about that himself:
Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1949) pp.235-242
it's possible that the song was performed by Ivar Haglund (notable for his prolific seafood themed songs and clam restaurant) in the early to mid 1940s on his radio show "Around the Sound" where he would sing folk music for 15 minutes, and I found a couple sources listing him as either the copyright owner of the song, or the writer (he did not write the song). He was friends with Jim Stevens, and it's likely that Stevens taught him the song.
Radio Daily, July 1944 and KJR flyer, 1942
Many secondhand sources mentioned that "The Frozen Logger" was based on an old tune or an old ballad, with words that were originally written by Jim Stevens, including Jim Stevens himself though he's not specific. I think i might be the first person ever to point out that the ballad it was based on belongs to the folk song family of "The Unfortunate Rake"/ "The Unfortunate Lad" (recorded here in the 1960s and performed by A.L. Lloyd) it has a similar story structure, similar characters, similar rhymes, and similar composition.
in " 'The Unfortunate Rake' and His Descendants" by Kenneth Lodewick, the original song is dated as being from ireland in 1790, and one of its earliest printings was in England in 1850 as a folk ballad
as you might be able to guess if you're familiar with cowboy ballads, this song is also the origin of "Streets of Laredo" or "The cowboys lament" which emerged in the late 1800s from cowhand workers. A cowhand in the late 1870s named Frank H. Maynard has claimed to write the song in 1876 and published his version in "Cowboy's Lament: A Life on the Open Range" in 1911 after it was published in Alan Lomax's "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads" in 1910. in my opinion, i think this song could have multiple origins.
the oldest recording i could find was by Harry McClintock in 1928
as an aside, there was also ANOTHER lumberjack version of the song collected by John C. French called "The Wild Lumberjack" from Pennsylvania logging camps dated between 1870-1904/1905. performed here by Kenneth S Goldstein (1960s). This song isn't the origin of "The Frozen Logger" but it's interesting that there are two songs like this.
I believe that "The Frozen Logger" is an adaptation from the cowboy version. Jim Stevens grew up in Idaho and worked in Montana (where he mentions learning many songs) and in 1959, he gave an interview with Ivar Harglund about how he used traditional folk and country music and created new and topical lyrics for the Keep Washington Green Campaign in the 1940s
The first ever publishment and recording (That I could find) of "The Frozen Logger" was in 1947 by Earl Robinson in his Keynote Album, commented upon by the Chicago star by Raeburn Flerlage that same year.
The Chicago Star (Chicago, III.) April 5, 1947 (p.13). Library of Congress
Pete seeger, one of the Weavers, was (for some reason that escapes me) friends with Ivar Haglund (who was friends with Jim Stevens) and, like with the song "the Old Settler" , it is likely that Haglund taught the song to Pete Seeger who then, with the rest of the Weavers, performed it in 1951, popularizing the song.
for @slowtraincumming
Song of the day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"The Dying Cowboy" Cisco Houston, 1952
"The Dying Cowboy " or "Cowboys Lament" is based on an old sailors poem, written by Edwin Hubbell Chapin and published in 1839, "The Ocean Burial"
Edgar Allan Poe's "Southern Literary Messenger" vol V, pp.6l5-6l6, 1839
here's an example of the traditional song put to music by Eugene Jemison in 1954
by the 1880s, the lyrics had morphed into the famous cowboy song we all know and love, but it wasn't until 1910 that it was pared with its well-known melody by John Lomax in the album, "Cowboy Songs And Other Frontier Ballads" here (recorded 1942)
by far, the most interesting thing that happened to the song is that its meaning was reversed. in 1934, Carson Robison changed the lyrics and the song and titled it "Carry Me Back to The Lone Prairie" (recorded 1941) and several other contemporary famous country artists
like Sons of the Pioneers,
Riders in the Sky,
Gene Autry,
Johnny Bond,
and Roy Rogers.
covered this song.
this more Hollywood country version of the song changed the story away from the bitter toiling of cowhand workers and towards nostalgia for the West that fit right in with other popular country music of the 40s and 50s. At the same time, the song was covered by Cisco Houston, a leftwing activist and official Union Boy, among other progressives, as a criticism of working class conditions. This song is so utterly fascinating to me and the best way to visually and auditorially explain the historical split manufactured between folk and country.
Song of the day
do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it
"I Ride an Old Paint/Leavin' Cheyenne" Carl Sandburg, 1937
"I Ride an Old Paint/Leavin' Cheyenne" is a traditional cowboy ballad, first published in 1916 by John Lomax in "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads"
and later, in 1921, by Nathan Howard "Jack" Thorp in "Songs of The Cowboys"
and even later in 1927, by Carl Sandburg in " The American Songbag"
all 3 of them propose different origins to the song, which demonstrate a larger story-
Carl Sandburg says in The American Songbag that he heard it from a singer who heard it from a cowhand traveling to the border with some friends:
Jack Thorp says that he heard it from a cowboy in Pecos City, Texas, but doesn't say who.
Luckily, with John Lomax, there actually is a thread to pull with the origins of this song.
John Lomax had learned the song from Cowpoke Jess Morris who at multiple times had said that he learned the song as a child working on his father's ranch from Freed-man Cowboy Charley Willis, a famous Black cowboy and employed by Morris' Father, E.J Morris.
in 1928, he says that he learned it working at his father's ranch at a young age but doesn't specify Charley Willis.
Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 133, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 18, 1928 (p. 2)
and in 1952, where he specifies that it was Charley Willis who taught him.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Tex.) Sun, Jun 01, 1952. (p. 18)
In J. Morris' unpublished manuscript and other correspondence that's been archived at the American FolkLife Center at the Library of Congress, he talks about the life of Charley Willis. He was an amazing cowhand because of his soothing voice, how he was leaving from Texas to Wyoming, how he might have actually had a horse called "Old-Paint." If you're interested in learning more about that, i recommend:
this short article
this npr article
and chapter 12 of this book
While neither Charley Willis nor his son were ever recorded singing this song, in 1942, Jess Morris was finally recorded by John Lomax, and this version is probably as close to the version by Charley Willis as we're going to get
it seems that in 1913, Jess Morris recorded the song, but this recording no longer exists, but here's a tag for it.
Steven Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us (2012) p.345, The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
as with many things, however, one of the first recorded renditions of this song belongs to Harry McClintock in 1928
based on the similar lyrics in all of the older versions, I believe this song is actually a Descendant of "The Wagoner's Lad" (also called "Lovely Nancy" or "My Horses Ain't Hungry" sometimes) and belongs to the "On Top of Old Smokey" family of traditional folk music.
take a look at the lyrics from the 3 books it was first recorded in
While Sandburg's is pretty different, Lomax and Thorp's versions both contain lyrics that are also in "The Wagoner's Lad" as well as other similarities, as do Jess Morris' version and Harry Mcclintock's.
here are "The Wagoner's Lad" lyrics to compare with
"The Wagoner's Lad" was first compiled in 1906 by Cecil Sharp and published in 1917
where Sharp explains that it was much much older and that the Appalachian culture was particularly skillful at persevering traditional folk songs. this song also probably comes from even older, more traditional folk tunes from English folk music.
it was first recorded in 1926 and performed by Kelly Harrel as "My Horses ain't Hungry"
my favorite rendition is "Pretty Nancy" by Jean Ritchie in 1971
Getting back on the topic of "Old Paint," my favorite version of all time is by contemporary artist Colter Wall in 2023, who combines the best aspects of the traditional song's various melodies and lyrics and really makes the story of the song stick out as a bittersweet masterpiece.
Anyway, I don't know who wrote "Old Paint". like with all folk music, it's very likely that it has multiple origins or that Charley Willis learned it from someone else. Regardless, I'm happy that he's credited with writing the song. black history in the American West is so often erased that whatever shred of recognition that is given to black cowboys is something to hold onto.