Lomax Cowboy Songs

Subject: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 03:34 AM

What are the Cowboy Songs books that John and Alan Lomax published? I know there are at least two. The Library of Congress has Cowboy songs and other frontier ballads, published in 1922, but I know of a 1910 version and I think there may be others.
I have a 1916 version, which says it has additions to the 1910 version.
I have another book titled Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp, by John A. Lomax. It was published by Duell, Sloan, and Pearce of New York, copyright 1919, 1947, and 1950.

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Thread #13471   Message #110997
Posted By: Joe Offer
03-Sep-99 - 02:57 AM
Thread Name: Favourite Cowboy Songs-Second Edition
Subject: Lomax - Cowboy Songs, 1910

I just got a copy of Cowboy Songs, by John A. Lomax. The book was published in 1910, but I got the 1916 edition. It's a great collection of songs - but it has lyrics only for most of the songs. I understand that the book was reissued in the 1930's with tunes to most of the songs.
The book begins with a handwritten letter from Theodore Roosevelt, dated August 28, 1910:

Dear Mr. Lomax,
You have done a work emphatically worth doing and one which should appeal to the people of all our country, but particularly to the people of the west and southwest. Your subject is not only exceedingly interesting to the student of literature, but also to the student of the general history of the west. There is something very curious in the reproduction here on this new continent of essentially the conditions of ballad-growth which obtained in medieval England; including, by the way, sympathy for the outlaw, Jesse James, taking the place of Robin Hood. Under modern conditions, however, the native ballad is speedily killed by competition with the music hall songs; the cowboys becoming ashamed to sing the crude homespun ballads in view of what Owen Wister* calls the "ill-smelling saloon cleverness" of the far less interesting compositions of the music hall singers. It is therefore a work of real importance to preserve permanently this unwritten ballad literature of the back country and the frontier.
With all good wishes, I am
very truly yours,
Theodore Roosevelt

(I had to guess at some of the words - Teddy's penmanship was a little sloppy)
-Joe Offer-

*Owen Wister, author of "The Virginian".

Subject: RE: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: GerryM
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 06:52 AM

Joe, I also have Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, with an introduction by Alan Lomax and Joshua Berrett; the introduction is dated June 1986.

Subject: RE: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 10:28 AM

Mine's the 1922 edn.

Our Singing Country has a section on cowboy ballads. 1941

Subject: RE: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 11:18 AM

"Cowboy Songs" (1910) was somewhat expanded in 1916 and much expanded in 1938, with Alan Lomax credited as co-editor.

John A. Lomax's "Adventures of a Ballad Hunter" (1947) tells how he collected some of the songs.

"Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp" is cowboy-related poetry only.

Subject: RE: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: Rex
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 01:39 PM

I play and study music of the old west. Part of that is the early songs and poems of the cowboy. John and Alan Lomax take up a good section of my cowboy library. Joe, it seems that you are looking for more that the usual material. So here is some Lomax on the fringe.

Cow Camps & Cattle Herds - John A. Lomax
The Encino Press, 1967
Introduction by John A. Lomax, Jr.
This covers songs but also cowboy culture in general.

Home On The Range by John A. Lomax
Published December 1986 by John H. Jenkins
ASIN B06XBLBD6G
This is a rough essay on the song by Lomax with corrections. You'll find some good material here on his discovery of Home on the Range.

The completed article appears in:
Half-Million Dollar Song
John A. Lomax
Half-Million Dollar Song, origin of 'Home on the Range'
The Southwest Review, Dallas, Texas,
Volume 31, Issue 1
Fall 1945
pp. 1-8.
Southern Methodist University Press

In the above articles and other publications, John Lomax claims that Home on the Range predates Dr. Brewster M. Higley but there are as yet no sources that support this.

Finally Lighter is correct that "Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp" consists mostly of spoken word poetry. But there are some pieces within that have become popular cowboy songs and some that were written intended to be songs.

Subject: Index:Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads-1938
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 04:40 PM

Thread #141163   Message #3248491
Posted By: Jim Carroll
01-Nov-11 - 11:50 AM
Thread Name: Lomax songbooks, comparison of content
Subject: Index:Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads-1938

Hi Joe,
Will do index when I get time
"Does yours have music notation? Mine doesn't"
Yes - most of the songs come with tunes
Best
Jim
PS I see from the price scribbled on the front page that it cost me all of £1.80 - oh happy days!!

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Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads (1938)

CONTENTS
CHAPTER        PAGE

I.    UP THE TRAIL
Cowboy's Gettin'-Up Holler                3
Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along, Little Dogies                4
The Colorado Trail                7
Doney Gal                8
Me an' My Doney-Gal                11
Good-by, Old Paint                12
The Skew-Ball Black                14
The Kansas Line                15
George Britton                18
The Lone Star Trail                19
The Texas Cowboy                22
On the Trail to Idaho                24
John Garner's Trail Herd                25
The Crooked Trail to Holbrook                27
The Old Chisholm Trail                28
Clear Rock's Chisholm Trail                37
Leadbelly's Chisholm Trail                39
Boggy Creek                41
The Railroad Corral                42
The Cowboy's Dream                44
The Dying Cowboy                48
Dogie Song                51
The Trail to Mexico                52
The Texas Song                57
The Gal I Left Behind Me                58
Night-Herding Song                60

II.    THE ROUND-UP

Hollers                63
Toast        63
Cowboy Graces                63
Cowboy Talks to a Pitching Horse                64
Diamond Joe                65
The Cowboy                67
A Cow Camp on the Range                70
Top Hand                72
Pinto                73
When the Work's All Done This Fall                74
The Drifter                76
The Zebra Dun                78
Charlie Rutledge                82
The Cowboy at Work                83
Bronc Peeler's Song                83
Wild Bronc Peeler                85
Jess's Dilemma                86
A Prisoner for Life                88
The Convict                90
Little Joe, the Wrangler                91
The Old Cowboy                93
The Pecos Puncher                95
The U-S-U Range                96
The Dying Cowboy of Rim Rock Ranch                98
The Stampede                99
A Kansas Cowboy                103
The Rustler                105
Panhandle Cob                105
Salty Dogs                11O
Jim Farrow                112
Windy Bill                113
Only a Cowboy        116
Whose Old Cow?                117
The Horse Wrangler                119
The Cowboy's Meditation                122
Home, Sweet Home        124.
Utah Carroll                                                                125
Ten Thousand Cattle                128
Ten Thousand God-Damn Cattle                130

III.    DODGE CITY, THE END OF THE TRAIL
The Boasting Drunk in Dodge                135
Drinking Song                136
The Desperado        137
The Bad Man from the Brazos                138
The Cowboy        139
Billy the Kid        140
Quantrell    ...        142
Roy Bean                147
Sam Bass                150
Jesse James                152
Juan Murray        158
Bow Down Your Head and Cry                159
The Bad Boy                161
Rye Whisky                163
O-Bar Cowboy                166
The Wild Montana Boy                167
The Cowboy                168
Buckskin Joe                170
The Killer                172
The Durant Jail        176

IV.    CAMPFIRE AND BUNKHOUSE
Red River Shore                181
The Wild Rippling Water                183
The Range Riders                185
Lackey Bill                187
The Peeler's Lament                189
The Old-Time Cowboy                191
The Rambling Cowboy                192
The Rattlesnake                194
Bill Venero                197
Macaffie's Confession                201
The Boston Burglar                203
Fuller and Warren                205
Jack Donahoe                209
Young Companions                212
Brown-Eyed Lee                214
Bonnie Black Bess                217
The Melancholy Cowboy                220
A Wild Rattling Cowboy .      .                        221
The Dying Desperado                223
Annie Breen                225
The White Steed of the Prairies                227
When I Was a Brave Cowboy                228

Cowboy Jack                                                       230
Young Charlottie                                                   231               
Silver Jack .                                                       234
The Hell-Bound Train                                              236

V.    OFF GUARD
A Cowboy Dance Song                241
Rhymed Dance Calls                242
The Harrington Barn Dance                244
Cheyenne                245
The Cowboy's Christmas Ball                246
The Cowboy's Dance Song                250
Jack O' Diamonds or The Rabble Soldier                253
The Arizona Boys and Girls                256
Don't Grow Weary, Boys                259
I Am Fur from My Sweetheart                259
Dan Taylor                261
Lulu                263
Way Out in Idyho                265
Rambling Gambler                266
Bucking Bronco                267
The Lovesick Cowboy                268
The Gol-Darned Wheel                269
The Cowboy at Church                272
The Jolly Cowboy                275
Old Rosin, the Beau                278
The Range Riders                280
The Cowboy's Life                282
The State of Arkansas                283

VI.    SON OF A GUN
Trail End                288
Once You Git the Habit                289
Poor Lonesome Cowboy                290
The Texas Cowboys                291
The Black Tail Range                292
Cyclone Blues                294
Bob Stanford                295
The Cowboy Up to Date                296
Red River Valley                298
Bury Me Out on the Prairie                300
Great-Granddad                302
The Lavender Cowboy                304
The Wandering Cowboy                305
The Dry-Landers                306
Lone Driftin' Riders                307
The Santa Fe Trail                308
The Cowboy and His Love                311
The Llano Estacado                313
Speaking of Cowboy's Home                315
Hell in Texas                317
New National Anthem                319
I'd Like to Be in Texas When They Round-Up in the Spring .                321
I Wanted to Die in the Desert                323
The Last Longhorn                325
To Midnight                327
The Great Round-Up                327
The Cowman's Prayer                329
Rounded Up in Glory                330

WAY OUT WEST
The Buffalo Skinners                335
The Texian Boys                338
The Lone Buffalo Hunter                342
The Buffalo Hunters                343
Sioux Indians                344
California Joe                346
The Old Scout's Lament                354
A Man Named Hods                355
Pattonio, the Pride of the Plain                356
Texas Rangers                359
Down South on the Rio Grande                362
Mustang Gray                362
Way Down in Mexico                        365
The Dying Ranger                366
Muster Out the Rangers                368
The Disheartened Ranger                369
Here's to the Ranger!                371
The Dreary Black Hills                372
The Bloody Injians                375
Joe Bowers                375
The Days of Forty-Nine                378
The Fools of Forty-Nine                381
The Happy Miner                383
The Road to Cook's Peak                384
In the Summer of Sixty                386
A Ripping Trip                387
Sweet Betsy from Pike                388
Bill Peters, the Stage Driver                391
The California Stage Company                393
Freighting from Wilcox to Globe                394
The Bullwhacker                396
Brigham Young                399
The Mormon Bishop's Lament                    401
A Mormon Immigrant Song                403
The Little Old Sod Shanty                405
Greer County                407
Life in a Half-Breed Shack                409
Dakota Land                410
The Kinkaiders                412
West Texas        ..                413
Westward Ho                415
The Far, Far West                416
The Cowboy's Lament                
Sam Hall                422
A Home on the Range                424

Subject: RE: Lomax Cowboy Songs
From: Rex
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 12:15 PM

Very well Joe, I'll see your 1938 and raise you the 1910 first edition. In comparison of content. Its interesting to see what Lomax chooses to place first and what goes to the back in later editions. It is also useful to date material. That is the material that Jack Thorp did not find or choose for his earlier Songs of the Cowboys (1908). Most notably, A Home On The Range.


Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads - 1910

CONTENTS

ARIZONA BOYS AND GIRLS, THE                211
BILL PETERS, TaE STAGE DRIVER                100
BILLY VENERO                                299
BOB STANFORD                                265
BONNIE BLACK BESS                        194
BOOZER, THE                                304
BOSTON BURGLAR, THE                        147
BUENA VISTA BATTLEFIELD                        34
BUFFALO HUNTERS                                185
BUFFALO SKINNERS, THE                        158
BULL WHACKER, THE                        69
By MARKENTURA'S FLOWERY MARGE                224
CALIFORNIA JOE                                139
CAMP FIRE HAS GONE OUT, THE                322
CHARLIE RUTLAGE                                267
CONVICT, THE                                290
COLE YOUNGER                                106
COWBOY, THE                                96
COWBOY AT CHURCH, THE                        246
COWBOY'S DREAM, THE                        18
COWBOY'S LAMENT, THE                        74
COWBOY'S LIFE, THE                         20
COWBOY'S MEDITATION, THE                297
COWGIRL, THE                                251
COWMAN'S PRAYER, THE                        24
CROOKED TRAIL TO HOLBROOK, THE                121
DAN TAYLOR                                51
DAYS OF FORTY-NINE, THE                        9
DISHEARTENED RANGER, THE                261
DOGIE SONG                                303
DREARY BLACK HILLS, THE                        177
DREARY, DREARY LIFE, THE                233
DRINKING SONG                                305
DYING COWBOY, THE                        3
DYING RANGER, THE                        214
FAIR FANNIE MOORE                        219
FOREMAN MONROE                                174
FULLER AND WARREN                        126
FRAGMENT, A                                306
FRAGMENT, A                                309
FREIGHTING FROM WILCOX TO GLOBE                207
GOL-DARNED WHEEL, THE                        190
GREAT ROUND-UP, THE                        282
GREER COUNTY                                278
HARD TIMES                                103
HARRY BALE                                172
HELL IN TEXAS                                222
HER WHITE BOSOM BARE                        271
HOME ON THE RANGE, A                        39
HORSE WRANGLER, THE                        136
I'M A GOOD OLD REBEL                        94
JACK DONAHOO                                64
JACK 0' DIAMONDS                        292
JERRY, GO ILE THAT CAR                        112
JESSE JAMES                                27
JIM FARROW                                237
JOE BOWERS                                15
JOHN GARNER'S TRAIL HERD                114
JOLLY COWBOY, THE                        284
JUAN MURRAY                                276
KANSAS LINE, THE                        22
LACKEY BILL                                83
LAST LONGHORN, THE                        197
LITTLE JOE, THE WRANGLER                167
LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY, THE                187
LONE BUFFALO HUNTER, THE                119
LONE STAR TRAIL, THE                        310
LOVE IN DISGUISE                        77
MCCAFFIE'S CONFESSION                        164
MAN NAMED HODS, A                        307
MELANCHOLY COWBOY, THE                        263
METIS SONG OF THE BUFFALO HUNTERS        72
MINER'S SONG, THE                        25
MISSISSIPPI GIRLS                        108
MORMON SONG                                182
MORMON BISHOP'S LAMENT, THE                47
MUSTANG GRAY                                79
NIGHT-HERDING SONG                        324
OLD CHISHOLM TRAIL, THE                        58
OLD MAN UNDER THE HILL, THE                110
OLD SCOUT'S LAMENT, THE                        117
ONLY A COWBOY                                124
POOR LONESOME COWBOY                        32
PRISONER FOR LIFE, A                        200
RAILROAD CORRAL, THE                        318
RAMBLING COWBOY, THE                        244
RANGE RIDERS, THE                        269
RATTLESNAKE-A RANCH HAYING SONG                315
ROOT HOG OR DIE                                254
ROSIN THE BOW                                280
SAM BASS                                149
SHANTY BOY, THE                                252
SIOUX INDIANS                                56
SKEW-BALL BLACK, THE                        243
SONG OF THE "METIS" TRAPPER, THE        320
STATE OF ARKANSAW, THE                        226
SWEET BETSY FROM PIKE                        258
TAIL PIECE                                326
TEXAS COWBOY, THE                        229
TEXAS RANGERS                                44
TRAIL TO MEXICO, THE                        132
U. S. A. RECRUIT, THE                        248
UTAH CARROLL                                66
WARS OF GERMANY, THE                        204
WAY DOWN IN MEXICO                        314
WESTWARD HO                                37
WHEN THE WORK IS DONE THIS FALL                53
WHOOPEE-TI-YI-YO, GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES 87
U-S-U RANGE                                92
YOUNG CHARLOTTIE                        239
YOUNG COMPANIONS                        81
ZEBRA DUN, THE                                154