Its provenance dates back before Siebel was born.

SPANISH JOHNNY
(Willa Cather)

The old West, the old time
The old wind singing through
The red, red grass a thousand miles
And Spanish Johnny, you!
He'd sit beside a water ditch
When all his herds were in,
And never mind a child, but sing
To his mandolin

The big stars, the blue night,
The moon-enchanted lane,
The olive man who never spoke,
But sang the songs of Spain.
His talk with men was wicked talk
To hear it was a sin,
But those were golden things he said
To his mandolin.

The old songs, the old stars,
The world so golden then!
The hand so tender to a child
Had killed so many men
He died a hard death long ago,
Before the road came in
The night before he swung, he sang
To his mandolin.

Source: John A. Lomax & Alan Lomax 'American Ballads & Folk Songs' Macmillan 1934, Twenty-Third Printing 1972, p 123.

Collected from C.E. Scoggins, Sea Horse Hill, Boulder, Colorado. Scoggins noted: 'The words are Willa Cather's; if you print them, of course you'll have to get her permission. The tune is a poor thing, but mine own. I liked the verse and this is the way it sang itself to me. A lot of people like it and I used to like it myself; but I have sung it so often now it doesn't seem to mean much any more.

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