On the Trail of the Buffalo

Last updated

"On the Trail of the Buffalo" (Roud 634), also known as "The Buffalo Skinners" or "The Hills of Mexico", is a traditional American folk song in the western music genre. It tells the story of an 1873 buffalo hunt on the southern plains. [1] According to Fannie Eckstorm, 1873 is correct, as the year that professional buffalo hunters from Dodge City first entered the northern part of the Texas panhandle. [2] It is thought to be based on the song Canaday-I-O. [3]

Contents

According to extensive research carried out by Jürgen Kloss in 2010–2012, this song is one of the many variants of John B Freeman's "The Buffalo Song". [4]

"The Buffalo Skinners"

"The Buffalo Skinners" is an American folk song which first appeared in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads in 1910. The song tells of crew of men hired in Jacksboro, Texas to go buffalo hunting north of the Pease River  :

T'was in the town of Jacksboro in the spring of seventy-three,
A man by the name of Crego came stepping up to me,
Saying, "How do you do, young fellow, and how would you like to go
And spend one summer pleasantly on the range of the buffalo?" [5]

The song goes through many verses telling a humorous tale of the trials and tribulations they find on the hunt. The next to the last verse tells of how the trip ended:

The season being near over, old Crego he did say
The crowd had been extravagant, was in debt to him that day,
We coaxed him and we begged him and still it was no go,
We left old Crego's bones to bleach on the range of the buffalo. [6]

The last verse ends with:

Go home to our wives and sweethearts, tell others not to go,
For God's forsaken the buffalo range and the damned old buffalo. [7]

"Boggus Creek"

Another early variant called "Boggus Creek", collected by W.P. Webb, was first published in 1923. Webb considered it a variant to "The Buffalo Skinners" [8] In "Boggus Creek" a group of cowboys are hired at the now abandoned cowtown at Fort Griffin, Texas, to work cattle in New Mexico:

As I rode in the town of Fort Griffin in the spring of '83
An old Texas cowman came riding up to me,
Saying, "how do you do, young fellow, and how would you like to go
And spend one summer season in the hills of Mexico?" [9]

In this variant, no one is killed but the song ends the same way, except instead of warning others about the "range of the buffalo" it says:

Go home to wives and sweethearts, tell other not to go
To the god-forsaken country of old New Mexico. [10]

Recordings

Cultural references

The song is quoted by Fermilab News, in an article describing the nuclear research facility's herd of American bison. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lead Belly</span> American folk and blues musician (1888–1949)

Huddie William Ledbetter, better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced, including his renditions of "In the Pines", "Pick a Bale of Cotton", "Goodnight, Irene", "Midnight Special", "Cotton Fields", and "Boll Weevil".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American folk music</span> Roots and traditional music from the United States

The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, vernacular music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa. Musician Mike Seeger once famously commented that the definition of American folk music is "...all the music that fits between the cracks."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lomax</span> American musicologist and folklorist (1867–1948)

John Avery Lomax was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lomax Hawes, also distinguished collectors of folk music.

"Lily of the West" is a traditional British and Irish folk song, best known today as an American folk song, listed as number 957 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The American version is about a man who travels to Louisville and falls in love with a woman named Mary, Flora or Molly, the eponymous Lily of the West. He catches Mary being unfaithful to him, and, in a fit of rage, stabs the man she is with, and is subsequently imprisoned. In spite of this, he finds himself still in love with her. In the original version, the Lily testifies in his defense and he is freed, though they do not resume their relationship.

Western music is a form of music composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Western music celebrates the lifestyle of the cowboy on the open range, along the Rocky Mountains, and among the prairies of Western North America. The genre grew from the mix of cultural influences in the American frontier and what became the Southwestern United States at the time, it came from the folk music traditions of those living the region, those being the hillbilly music from those that arrived from the Eastern U.S., the corrido and ranchera from Northern Mexico, and the New Mexico and Tejano endemic to the Southwest. The music industry of the mid-20th century grouped the western genre with that of similar folk origins, instrumentation and rural themes, to create the banner of country and western music, which was simplified in time to country music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisco Houston</span> American musician (1918–1961)

Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together.

"Streets of Laredo", also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

"The Titanic" (also known as "It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down" and "Titanic (Husbands and Wives)") is a folk song and children's song. "The Titanic" is about the sinking of RMS Titanic which sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg.

<i>Dust Bowl Ballads</i> 1940 studio album by Woody Guthrie

Dust Bowl Ballads is an album by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. It was released by Victor Records, in 1940. All the songs on the album deal with the Dust Bowl and its effects on the country and its people. It is considered to be one of the first concept albums. It was Guthrie's first commercial recording and the most successful album of his career.

"The Lass of Roch Royal" is an English-language folk song, existing in several variants.

"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Cisco Houston as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.

"The Ballad of Casey Jones", also known as "Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer" or simply "Casey Jones", is a traditional American folk song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line, and how Jones remained on board to try to stop the train as Webb jumped to safety. It is song number 3247 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

<i>The Asch Recordings</i> 1997 compilation album by Woody Guthrie

The Asch Recordings, recorded between 1944 and 1949, are a series of albums featuring some of the most famous recordings of US folk musician Woody Guthrie. These sessions were recorded by Moses "Moe" Asch in New York City.

"Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" is a cowboy folk song. Also known as "The Cowboy's Lament", "The Dying Cowboy", "Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie", and "Oh, Bury Me Not", the song is described as the most famous cowboy ballad. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Based on a sailor's song, the song has been recorded by many artists, including Moe Bandy, Johnny Cash, Cisco Houston, Burl Ives, Bruce Molsky, The Residents, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, Colter Wall, William Elliott Whitmore and Sam Shackleton.

"Cumberland Gap" is an Appalachian folk song that likely dates to the latter half of the 19th century and was first recorded in 1924. The song is typically played on banjo or fiddle, and well-known versions of the song include instrumental versions as well as versions with lyrics. A version of the song appeared in the 1934 book, American Ballads and Folk Songs, by folk song collector John Lomax. Woody Guthrie recorded a version of the song at his Folkways sessions in the mid-1940s, and the song saw a resurgence in popularity with the rise of bluegrass and the American folk music revival in the 1950s. In 1957, the British musician Lonnie Donegan had a No. 1 UK hit with a skiffle version of "Cumberland Gap".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folkways Records</span> American record label (1948–1987)

Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.

"The Old Chisholm Trail" is a cowboy song first published in 1910 by John Lomax in his book Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt</span> African American traditional folk singers

James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt were African American traditional folk singers imprisoned in the Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas. The men made a number of field recordings of convict work songs, field hollers and other material with John Lomax for the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Music in the 1930s.

"The Rambling Gambler" is a traditional folk song of the American West. It was first recorded in print by John A. & Alan Lomax in their jointly authored 1938 edition of Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. Like many folk songs, it is known by a variety of titles, such as "Rambler, Gambler," and "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler"

References

  1. Carr, Prairie Nights to Neon Lights, p. 10: " "The Buffalo Skinners" tells of a buffalo hunting trip from Jacksboro to West Texas in 1873."
  2. Liner notes The Continuing Tradition,Volume 1. Folk-Legacy 1981
  3. "Buffalo Skinners: Lyrics" . Retrieved 2008-02-09.
  4. Kloss, Jürgen. "On The Trail Of The "Buffalo Skinners" (Part III)". Retrieved on 4 August 2014.
  5. Lomax, Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads, p. 158.
  6. Lomax, Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads, p. 160.
  7. Lomax, Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads, p. 161.
  8. Webb, "Miscellany of Texas Folk-Lore", pp. 55-56: "These given here have been obtained st first hand from the cowmen. They are interesting as variants to the songs collect by Mr. Lomax and others."
  9. Webb, "Miscellany of Texas Folk-LOre", p. 57.
  10. Webb, "Miscellany of Texas Folk-LOre", p. 58.
  11. Lomax III, John. "John A. Lomax, Jr. (1907-1974): A Success in All He Did". Association for Cultural Equity. Retrieved on 24 November 2014
  12. "Fermilab News" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-02-09.

Bibliography