Lyr. Add: The Santa Fe Trail
(Powder River Jack Lee Version)

Say, Pard! Have yuh sighted a schooner, way out on the Santa Fe Trail,
They made it by Monday or sooner, with a water keg tied on the tail;
There was Pappy and Maw on the mule-seat, and somewhere along by the way
A little tow-headed gal on a pinto, jest a-dangling fer old Santa Fe.

Chorus
YO-HO-HO, YO-HO-O-HO
Way out on the Santa Fe Trail.

I saw her ride down the arroyo, 'way out on the Arkansas sand,
With a smile like an acre of sunflowers, and a little brown quirt in her hand;
She mounted her pinto so airy, and rode like she carried the mail,
And her eyes nigh set fire to the prairie, 'way out on the Santa Fe Trail.

I know a gal down by the border, I would ride tuh El Paso to sight,
Got acquainted with her shippin' cattle, and I sometimes kiss some gals goodnight.
But Lord, they're all fruffles and *sweetin', and afternoon tea by the pail,
But I'll stick to me sorter *Sam beatin', way out on the Santa Fe Trail.

We mebbe'll make Tooner by sundown, when yore huntin' some gal it's some way,
And 'tis shorter from Hell to Hilary than it is on the old Santa Fe.
And if we make Tooner by sundown, where a tank may be made in the swale,
I will ride with my gal on a pinto, way out on the Santa Fe Trail.

*sweetin' - candy. Sam beatin' - liquor.

Note by Lee- "The Yo-Ho-Ho-ing, etc., on the range, was like the wailing that we sung to the cattle, and the punchers were not averse to letting their voices out in lusty tones that would sometimes echo for miles. The wailing chorus is sung to air same as verse.

With sheet music, p. 18-19, "Cowboy Songs," 1938, Powder River Jack H. Lee, Deer Lodge, Montana, printed by The McKee Printing Company, Butte, Montana.
Rogers didn't ever make a big to-do over all the 'cowboy' singers who stole his songs, but he should have sued Lee for this really bad 'remake'.

Th first paragraph of Lee's Introduction to his "Cowboy Songs" deserves reading- take a deep breath:

"In giving you some of my cowboy songs for publication I wish to say first hand that you will find both the words and music as near correct as it has been possible for us to preserve the original themes and altho it is true that there has always been various versions of American folk songs, the same does not apply so much to cowboy songs as to permit a general revising of the melodies and words which has been done in a way since the advent of radio that not only changes the meaning, but also tends to obliterate from the public mind of today, the fact that there was a general sameness to the airs or melody,
and to the authentic songs of the western rangeland of the days when the great trail herds were being driven north from Texas to the markets of the north and to the feeding grounds of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas and other states where the cattle were fattened before they were driven to the shipping points." End sentence and paragraph.