Lyr ADD: Pony Tail Bow (Bob Coltman)

Subject: Lyr Req: Ponytail Beau (Bob Coltman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 07:24 PM

I got a call from somebody looking for the lyrics to "Ponytail Beau," by Bob Coltman.
I've transcribed all the lyrics for Bob's 3 CDs, but didn't come across anything with a title anywhere close.
Anybody know this one?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ponytail Beau (Bob Coltman)
From: cnd
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 08:32 PM

Here's the only thing even close to a lead I could find:

Subject: RE: Obit: Evelyn Beers Burnstine (Fox Hollow)
From: GUEST,Sean - PM
Date: 08 Oct 09 - 10:26 AM

Bob, you were certainly one of the many living, breathing -- and singing -- reasons I enjoyed Fox Hollow. Fondly remember you doing "Ponytail Bow" and "The Kissing Song," among others. So when my friend Lissa Schneckenburger covered "Before They Close the Minstrel Show" on her CD a few years ago, I felt a bridge form between these eras of my life.

link

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ponytail Beau (Bob Coltman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 08:42 PM

I emailed Bob. Haven't heard from him here lately, but I sure enjoyed our correspondence years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ponytail Bow (Beau?)(Bob Coltman)
From: cnd
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 10:18 PM

Found a little more detail. From the New York Times, Oct 26 1975 (https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/26/archives/bob-coltman-opens-folk-music-series.html)

In his own original songs, however, Mr. Coltman used a softer, easier vocal style, applied to a wide range of subject matter—from a touching ballad on the death of Robin Hood to a lively, foot-pounding jig about country fiddling, “The Pony Tail Bow.” And, as an advocate of homemade music, he deplored its passing with “I Can't Play Nothin' But the Radio.”

Still nothing substantive but at least we're getting somewhere

Subject: ADD: Pony Tail Bow (Bob Coltman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Nov 21 - 12:58 PM

Hello Joe,

Good to hear from you! On you haven’t got all my songs yet, by a long stretch. I have recently passed song number 6,000. Not all up to par, some I’ve thrown away, but among what's left, there’s no shortage.

“Pony Tail Bow” is a joking song I made up to sing because I am not a better fiddle player. It’s easy to play! “Bow” is correct, as in horse-hair fiddle bow. The lyrics tell why.

It’s been a long while, in fact a whole new computer and operating system, on which I have yet to try to make an Mp3. I will get it together and send an Mp3 presently, with guitar, to save your ears (and hope my voice works), but for the moment, here are the lyrics.   

PONY TAIL BOW
(By Bob Coltman)

1.
I wake up in the morning, and the very first thing I do
Is reach and get my fiddle, and try a lick or two.
Lady give it to me last month, so’s I could learn to play,
But it makes the most peculiar noise—it drives everybody away.

CHORUS: (after every verse)
Seems like it’s simple, Why won’t it go?
Musta give me a cat scratch fiddle or a consarn pony tail bow.

2.
I kep’ myself hard at it, to make it play a tune,
I thought I’d try an easy one like “Chicken Behind the Moon,”
But one lick sound like an old buzz saw, and the next like the whooping’ cough,
I ‘clare I think them notes ain’t there, the feller left ‘em off.

3.
You stick your fingers here and there, and run the bow acrost,
But the doggone thing tangles up on the string, and all I get is lost.
I think the man that invented this musta had it in for me,
I might as well a-took up fishin’ and left this fiddlin’ be.

4.
But here I sit an’ I ain’t gonna quit, it’s got into my blood,
I’m bound I’ll play this fiddle bad, if I can’t play it good,
Saw and saw and never let up, them’s my only joys,
Thing I notice more and more: I’m starting’ to like the noise.

===

On Nov 23, 2021, at 7:34 PM, Joe Offer wrote:

Hi, Bob -
I haven't seen you around Mudcat for a long time, but I still think of you now and then. I've enjoyed the correspondence we've had over the years. I got a call from Bob and Jeanne Zentz yesterday. They're looking for your song "Ponytail Beau" (they think that's the title). I thought I had posted every song you've written, but that's not one I knew of.
Can you help?
All the best to you.
-Joe Offer, The Mudcat Cafe-

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