The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #17944   Message #175845
Posted By: Stewie
09-Feb-00 - 07:18 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Santa Fe Trail
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Santa Fe Trail
Jules Allen recorded the song for Victor in Los Angeles 8 April 1929 under the title 'Longside the Santa Fe Trail'. With minor variations - for example 'fluffles' and 'when you're huntin' one girl it's some wide' - the lyrics are basically what is posted above by Abby. Jules sings 'Oh-oh oh, oh' for the first 2 stanzas and changes to 'yo-ho oh, oh' for the final two - maybe that's where the yo-ho originated. Allen's recording was reissued on LP in 1973 on Richard Weize's Folk Variety label. Weize had the following interesting note:

Although Jules Allen appears not to have known it when he recorded this song and printed it in his 1933 volume 'Cowboy Lore', it was published in sheet music with the title 'The Santa Fe Trail' in 1911 by Comet Publishing Co of Denver Colorado. The words were by James Grafton Rogers, a prominent citizen of Colorado who had recently celebrated his 90th birthday; the melody and arrangement were by John H. Gower, a Denver church organist. When a very young man, Mr Rogers worked on a New York City newspaper and wrote numerous verses and songs that he hoped would qualify for Broadway shows. Later, he became a distinguished attorney, served as Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, and held many other important posts in his home state of Colorado and in the federal government in Washington DC ...

Allen's recording has been reissued recently on CD in Yazoo's wonderful 2000 series of compilations: Various Artists 'When I Was a Cowboy Vol 1: Early American Songs of the West' Yazoo 2022.

Cheers, Stewie.