Authentic old cowboy music

[story]

I’m looking for really old cowboy music. What might now fall under the umbrella of folk, I guess, but cowboy focussed. The kind of music that would have been written and sung by the people who travelled across America with the cattle.

I’m interested in listening to the earliest music that we can access.
The kind of stuff Alan Lomax was interested in.
So much has been re-recorded that it’s hard to get at the early stuff.

Also, any good documentaries that anyone can recommend please.

Thank you Urban

 

[story]

For some reason I’ve got a feeling DotCommunist may know something about this.

ska invita C&W is beloved by a lot of Afro-Caribbean people, so maybe you have some obscure corner of your internal jukebox dedicated to cowboy folk songs?

 

[Pickman's model]

Lomax & lomax, cowboy songs and other frontier ballads (new york: collier, 1986)

 

[story]

Frontier ballads! That’s the search term I need.

Ta Pickman's model

And I’ll look out that book.

So you’re an aficionado are you, or is this a result of your librarian skilz?

 

[Pickman's model]

Frontier ballads! That’s the search term I need.

Ta Pickman's model

And I’ll look out that book.

So you’re an aficionado are you, or is this a result of your librarian skilz?

Yes and yes

 

[DotCommunist]

For some reason I’ve got a feeling @DotCommunist may know something about this.

ah, not the age you're looking for, I got into some of the older tunes from of all things the (excellent) fallout:new vegas radio soundtrack and its mod expansions. Mixed in with old blues and barbershop quartets and so on. But no I'm no afficiando. This was the last c&w song I listened to by memory and its not very old at all lol:

 

[story]

Yeah that’s pretty cool but not what I’m after.

 

[petee]

The kind of music that would have been written and sung by the people who travelled across America with the cattle.

19th c., then?
e2a, here's an article with links to some recordings

Western and Cowboy Songs | Popular Songs of the Day | Musical Styles | Articles and Essays | The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Although it is often spoken of in the same breath as "Country" music, "Western" is a distinct area of American popular music whose roots reach into the frontier era of the 19th century.

www.loc.gov

 

[Saul Goodman]

 

[story]

19th c., then?

I know we won’t have many/any recordings of the original music but I want to hear it as close to the source as possible.

 

[petee]

I know we won’t have many/any recordings of the original music but I want to hear it as close to the source as possible.

right, i added a link in the meantime.

 

[HeAthen]

ah, not the age you're looking for, I got into some of the older tunes from of all things the (excellent) fallout:new vegas radio soundtrack and its mod expansions. Mixed in with old blues and barbershop quartets and so on. But no I'm no afficiando. This was the last c&w song I listened to by memory and its not very old at all lol:

Great song. I like this take on it too

 

[HeAthen]

I only really got into country stuff a few years back via some of the Southern Rock then Americana route. Most of the stuff I listen to is more modern so interested in learning about some of the more traditional stuff.

 

[Aladdin]

 

[Aladdin]

Git Along Little Dogies.
Written around 1893...

 

[Humberto]

Buffalo Gals is pretty old and was widely known, so quite likely it would have been played in saloons and such on the frontier.

 

[two sheds]

someone had to

 

[Aladdin]

Buffalo Gals is pretty old and was widely known, so quite likely it would have been played in saloons and such on the frontier.

1844

Written by Cool White, it was originally published as “Lubly Fan” in 1844. Its words were easily changed to reflect the location of each performance (e.g. Buffalo Gals, Charleston Gals, Mobile Gals, etc.). The song was popular through the civil war.

 

[blairsh]

someone had to

 

[Humberto]

There's some info here on the important role of music in America at the time, and during the civil war. A lot of sentimental stuff was popular. The kind of glamourisation of the hardy, steely, taciturn cowboy is probably embellished down the generations though. I'm not sure that they were so celebrated at the time.

Music of the American Civil War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[klang]

 

[Humberto]

Another Wiki bit said they wouldn't drink on the trail itself, and it was probably forbidden (would seem a bad idea). So it was at the stopovers they probably spent their wages, kind of like merchant seamen are sometimes reputed to be.

 

[Humberto]

There's the ballad of Stagger Lee for example, but that was more the gun happy desperado rather than cowboys. Not sure St. Louis was the frontier by 1895 either.

Stagger Lee - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Frankie and Johnny was another a bit later.

 

[Humberto]

Mississippi John Hurt '28



Frankie and Albert "

 

[Serge Forward]

I’m looking for really old cowboy music. What might now fall under the umbrella of folk, I guess, but cowboy focussed. The kind of music that would have been written and sung by the people who travelled across America with the cattle.

I’m interested in listening to the earliest music that we can access.
The kind of stuff Alan Lomax was interested in.
So much has been re-recorded that it’s hard to get at the early stuff.

Also, any good documentaries that anyone can recommend please.

Thank you Urban

Might be worth looking on this English language folk music database (including American folk). VWML archives: English Folk Dance and Song Society

 

[Humberto]

A lot of the chord sequences, melodies and structures are passed down too in folk.

Interesting thread idea though.

Pictures from Life's Other Side is attributed to Hank Williams in 1951.

But Woody Guthrie recorded it in 1944 and it's clearly traditional. Googling is limited.

 

[bris]

ah, not the age you're looking for, I got into some of the older tunes from of all things the (excellent) fallout:new vegas radio soundtrack and its mod expansions. Mixed in with old blues and barbershop quartets and so on. But no I'm no afficiando. This was the last c&w song I listened to by memory and its not very old at all lol:

Highway Man? Surely that's Geordie rather than cowboy music.

 

[two sheds]

Here's an authentic old frontier cowboy



sorry I'm not helping am I

 

[Humberto]

Here's an authentic old frontier cowboy



sorry I'm not helping am I

Dunno you come accross as a wally to me,

 

[Humberto]

Why's everyone ragging over a valid thread.