Cowboy Songs

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WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY
- Cowboy Songs of the American West

By Christopher M. Wright
© 2005 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved

ALBUM LINKS BELOW

Read the homespun humor of cowboy Will Rogers here.

Head'em up and move'em out! The popular image of an Old West cattle drive continues with thundering herds, men on horseback darting this way and that, and songs around the campfire when the day is done. Who were these men known as cowboys, and how is it they could leave such a rich musical tradition behind?

The story begins in Mexico, which could not effectively govern its far-flung northern territories after winning independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico's northerly reaches included Texas where Franciscan padres were unofficially in charge. However, still loyal to Spain, the padres left after independence, abandoning their cattle to converts they had won among Native Americans. Longhorns in the thousands roamed the open range. As Texas progressed to its own independence (1836) and then statehood (1845), many eyed Texas cattle as a way to feed the crowded cities of the East. Davy Crockett was among them. When he was defeated for a fourth term in Congress, he left Tennessee for Texas where he hoped to make his fortune in the cattle business.

But first the commercial interests had to get the longhorns to the nearest railroads, which were in Kansas. Drovers were needed on the Chisholm Trail and others terminating in the cowtowns of Abilene, Wichita, and Dodge City. The Chisholm Trail was 400 yards wide and 600 miles long. Hooves and the elements beat it down lower than the ground around it.

Cowboys could be on the trail for three months. Some say the work was not all that dangerous, but the men did have to contend with lightning, unpredictable horses, and the threat of stampedes by four or five thousand head of cattle at a time.

Many of the men were former confederate soldiers - farm boys - who came back home after the war to find their lands in ruins. Economic prospects were not good in the South during Reconstruction, so they took their agricultural skills west as economic migrants. In addition, there was a wave of Irish immigration during the Civil War and some of the new arrivals also found their way to Texas.

Perhaps a quarter of all cowboys were black, having been freed or escaped slaves. Another one in ten was of Mexican heritage, it's been estimated. The Hispanic cowboys, known as vaqueros, had considerable horsemanship and tradecraft honed during three centuries of raising cattle in Mexico and Spanish America. They taught the others and some early examples of what is today called 'Spanglish' arose from this interaction. Vaqueros became known as 'buckaroos', la riata - lariat, mesteño - mustang, sabe - savvy, and lazo - lasso. The word 'dogies' (as in 'git along, little dogies'), might derive from dogal, the Spanish word for a halter used to restrain a nursing calf from its mother.

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo

Like sailors, loggers, and other solitary workers before them, cowboys developed their own musical tradition. In the cowboys' case however, the music was born of necessity and was directly connected to the work.

Some say the cowboys spurred on lagging cattle with song. Also, any little sound at night could startle the longhorns into stampeding. Cowboys hummed, whistled, sang, played harmonicas and small concertinas more or less continuously to mask coyote howls and other sounds of the night, according to some sources. "It is surprising how quiet the herd will be so long as they can hear the human voice," stockman Joseph McCoy wrote in 1874. Harry Stephens, who claimed to have written 'The Night Herding Song' said, "why, we always had so many squaks [sic] and yells and hollers a-trying to keep the cattle quiet, I thought I might as well have a kind of song to it."

The view that lullabies and other songs were commonly used in this way is disputed by other sources. One Jack Thorp, who claimed to have stood watch plenty in 50 years, said he seldom heard cowboys singing.

Cowboy songs came from several sources. Some grew out of the story-telling 'recitation' poetry that was popular in the Victorian era. 'Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie' derived from an 1839 poem about burial at sea. Lonely, isolated, and bored cowboys devised their own poems and set them to old melodies. 'Utah Carroll' and 'Texas Rangers' trace back to English and Scottish ballads. Irish tunes were also put to service in this way (e.g., 'Streets of Laredo' - see below). Irish jigs were slowed down until their dotted rhythm fit the gait of a slow-walking horse. Sea chanteys and Appalachian folk songs also got recycled. Influences from black gospel music and Mexico were also incorporated.

In 1873, Dr. Brewster Higley wrote 'Home on the Range' ('where the deer and the antelope play') as an art song, a conscious effort at broad melody and flowery words. Other cowboy songs were the product of many singers who added and subtracted lyrics before the songs were standardized.

Cowboy songs covered a wide variety of subjects - Texas, home, love, death, adventure, and life on the trail. The lyrics of two songs are worthy of note. Written in 1876, 'Streets of Laredo' was based on a 17th century Irish sea-burial tune:

"As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen,
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay."

The dead cowboy narrates how he came to be killed and the Irish flavor comes through in the refrain:

"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.
"Play the dead march as you carry me along.
"Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
"I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."

The 'Yellow Rose of Texas' reportedly honors Emily Morgan, a yellow (mulatto) slave who helped Sam Houston defeat Santa Anna and the Mexican army. After whipping the Texas army at the Alamo and Goliad, Santa Anna pushed east to the San Jacinto River near present-day Houston. He camped with his army on the banks of the river where Emily Morgan 'entertained' him in his tent during siesta time. Heavily outnumbered, Sam Houston attacked and miraculously defeated the leaderless Mexicans who had their backs to the river and could not escape. Emily Morgan is immortalized in song:

"She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosalee,
But the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl for me."

John Lomax, who grew up on a branch of the Chisholm Trail, was among the first to collect authentic cowboy songs. His book Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads appeared in 1910. Other collectors followed in the next two decades (the poet Carl Sandburg, Louise Pound, Charles J. Finger, and Margaret Larkin).

Saddle Up - On the Hollywood Trail

The authentic cowboy way of life started at the end of the American Civil War (1865) and really only lasted about 20 years. More rail lines were built and small ranchers and homesteaders closed the open range with miles of fences. Today, cattle is still big business but confined to ranches, and herding is done with helicopters as much as horses.

By 1890, the cowboy way of life was already passing from the scene, but the cowboy spirit of independence and individualism lives on in the American psyche. The term 'cowboy' became more loosely defined and applied indiscriminately until outlaws and sheriffs, drifters and heroes alike all entered into national myth as 'cowboys'. 'The Virginian' has been called 'the classic cowboy novel without cows.'

Cattle drives may have ended but cowboy music went on to thrive in the entertainment industry. Tin Pan Alley started turning out 'cowboy songs' as early as 1905. Cowboy or 'western' music became common radio fare by the 1930's. Hollywood starting cranking out Western films.

The image of the cowboy became hopelessly distorted in the process. Hollywood cowboys rode around with guitars strapped to their horses. In truth, 'there were no gee-tars on cattle drives' - they were too big. At most, a fiddle might have been kept with the cook. Another embellishment had to do with guns. Real cowboys did not carry guns, it has been argued. Guns were kept on the wagons and only passed out when the crew came under attack. But photographers wanted good pictures so they asked cowboys to strap on guns for the camera. The cowboys have the pistols on backwards in many of these photographs, it has been observed.

DVD

Gene Autry was a major cowboy radio and film star. It is said that, before him, there were cowboys who sang but that he was the first 'singing cowboy'. Autry brought yodeling to cowboy music (having learned it from Jimmie Rodgers, the 'Singing Brakeman') but purists decry the development, saying there is no evidence that the old Texas cowboys ever yodeled. Gene Autry's signature song was 'Back in the Saddle Again' (1939). He is also known for his versions of 'Git Along Little Dogies' and 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' (1933). Autry's shy, boy-next-door demeanor and heartfelt delivery made him popular at the box office. His Westerns were filled with music and fun.

Roy Rogers was another famous cowboy singer and radio star. He co-founded the singing group The Sons of the Pioneers in 1934. He went on to make 28 films and 100 TV shows with his wife Dale Evans ('Queen of the West'). Dale Evans is the one who wrote 'Happy Trails' ('until we meet again' - used on the homepage of this website). She almost quit the film effort, tired of seeing Roy, his horse Trigger, and his sidekick Gabby Hayes take top billing.

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When Roy's second contract with Republic Pictures expired, he did not renew, preferring instead to go into that exciting new medium, television, where he thought he could best capitalize on his popularity with children. Republic wanted to sell its catalog of Rogers and Evans films to television and sued to block Rogers from going on TV. Roy won the court battle. The decision was reversed by a higher court years later, but that didn't stop the Roy Rogers show from premiering on NBC in 1951. In the first episode, Roy's horse Trigger beats famous comedian Bob Hope in a poker game. 'Happy Trails' closed the show, but music had largely fallen by the wayside to make way for storylines.

The singing cowboy movie genre ended by the mid-1950's. But Hollywood continued to make Westerns (John Wayne) and the Old West cemented its grip on popular culture in the 1950's and '60's with TV shows like Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, Bonanza, and The Big Valley (the latter with the venerable Barbara Stanwyck). It was wall-to-wall Westerns on TV and at the movies in those days until Star Trek came along.

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Which brings us to Michael Martin Murphey (www.michaelmartinmurphey.com/) - yes, the same Michael Murphey who wowed hippies and college students in the early 1970's with his 'Geronimo's Cadillac' album and went on to record the Top 40 hits 'Wildfire' and 'Carolina in the Pines'. He continued his musical career as the 'wandering minstrel of the West' through recordings and live performances. He started using his full name to distinguish himself from another member of the screen actors' guild. See his website for information regarding his festivals, trail rides, and other events.

Murphey - there must be an Irish connection in there somewhere - has recorded several albums of cowboy songs, some old, some new. Murphey knows of what he sings. "I grew up on family farms and ranches in Texas and Arkansas where my grandfathers and my uncle ran cattle," he told an interviewer. He spent a year reading history, reviewing vintage recordings, and consulting with musicologists to bring authenticity to his albums. The first, entitled 'Cowboy Songs', made the country charts as did the single it spawned, 'Cowboy Logic'. Murphey had to struggle to convince his record label (Warner Bros.) to make the album, but it proved so successful that more followed.

Murphey also drew on musical advice he sought from Roy Rogers and, earlier, Gene Autry. Murphey, who is avowedly anti-drug, also took one other piece of advice he received from Roy Rogers, to quit smoking pipes and cigars: "Never send a kid down the wrong trail," Rogers told him. "Be a good role model for kids."

For more about cowboys singing on stage and screen, read the 2002 book "Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy" (Vanderbilt University Press), by Douglas B. Green (aka: Ranger Doug, 'Idol of American Youth' from the Grammy Award-wining group Riders in the Sky)

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