Traditional Ballad Index entry:

Buffalo Skinners, The [Laws B10a]

DESCRIPTION: A promoter named (Crego) hires a group of men to skin buffalo. He consistently cheats and mistreats them. Eventually they kill him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: work homicide boss revenge
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws B10a, "The Buffalo Skinners"
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 773-775, "Canaday I. O. (The Buffalo Skinners)" (2 texts, but only the first goes with this piece; the other belongs with "Canaday I-O" [Laws C17])
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 170-172, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 6, "The Buffalo Song" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 429, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 110, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 270-272, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XV, pp. 195-218 (31-33), "Buffalo Range" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though the "B" text is "Boggy Creek," C and D appear unrelated, and E is "Canada-I-O")
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 91-94, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 139, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 5-6, "The Buffalo Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 52, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 390-392, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 335, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 fragment, 1 tune, sung by none other than J. A. Lomax)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 854-855, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 84, pp. 181-183, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 410-411, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 23-24, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune, with the murder omitted but a yodel added)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 520-521, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text plus excerpts from Canaday-I-O)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 169-170, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 63, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 110, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
DT 377, BUFFSKIN* BUFFSKI2
Roud #634
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Buffalo Skinners" (Asch 410-3 [as "Buffalo Skinner"]/Stinson 410-3/Varsity 5144, n.d., rec. 1939)
Woody Guthrie, "Buffalo Skinners" (on Struggle1, Struggle2, CowFolkCD1)
John A. Lomax, "Buffalo Skinners" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pete Seeger, "Buffalo Skinners" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boggy Creek" [Laws B10b]
cf. "The Trail to Mexico [Laws B13]" (a few overlapping lyrics)
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17]
cf. "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (plot)
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (lyrics, plot)
File: LB10A

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