FTX-904 - THE RAMBLING GAMBLER
ALAN LOMAX - Texas Folksongs
16 songs taped by Peter Kennedy in 1958 from the American
folksong collector, who, with his father, John Lomax, recorded folksongs in
the field in Texas from cowboys and convicts in the 30s and 40s. Alan accompanies
himself on guitar and is joined on 2nd guitar and 5-string banjo by Guy Carawan
(see FTX-919), and on 5 of the tracks by John Cole on mouth-harp (harmonica).
1. THE RAMBLING GAMBLER (guitar/ banjo & harmonica) - 3'05"
2. I'M BOUND TO FOLLOW THE LONGHORN COWS (gtr/ bjo) - 3'40"
3. LORD LOVELL (gtr/ gtr) - 3'09"
4. THE RICH OLD LADY (Marrowbones) (gtr) - 3'22"
5. LONG SUMMER DAYS (gtr/ gtr) - 2'15"
6. AINT NO MO' CANE ON THIS BRAZIS (gtr) - 3'11"
7. ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES (gtr) - 1'51"
8. BILLY BARLOW (gtr/ gtr/ whistling) - 2'46"
9. THE WILD RIPPLING WATER (The Nightingales Sing) (gtr/ bjo/ har) - 3'14"
10. RATTLESNAKE (gtr/ bjo/ har) - 1'34"
11. SAM BASS (gtr/ bjo) - 3'24"
12. THE DYING COWBOY (St James's Hospital/ The Unfortunate Rake) (gtr) - 3'23"
13. GODAMIGHTY DRAG (gtr/ gtr) - 3'14"
14. GO AWAY, EADIE (gtr/ gtr/ har) - 4'03"
15. BLACK BETTY, BLACK BETTY (gtr/ har) - 1'55"
16. MY LITTLE JOHN HENRY (gtr/ gtr) - 2'30"
Recorded in London 1958, edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax
cassettes 1981.
ALAN LOMAX, one of the greatest folkmusic collectors of all time, left Harvard
to follow his father with a recording machine into the Brazos country and Texas
prison farms. He was only just turned 20 when he took charge of the Folklore
Archive of The Library of Congress in Washington. His father, John A. Lomax,
had had his interest stirred when he was still a student at University and began
collecting cowboy songs as part of his college studies. It was this early discovery
of cowboy songs, as distinct from the ballads brought over from Britain and
collected by Cecil Sharp in the Southern Appalachians during World War I, that
led to a folk revival in the USA with younger singers able to boast that they
had now had their own folksongs as American as huckleberry pie. Alan who was
the catalyst that fired this revival, and through his programmes with Burl Ives,
Josh White, Pete Seeger and the Weavers, brought about a post-war movement in
the USA which in turn, in the 50's. again through Alan's work, brought about
a similar movement in Britain and in other parts of Europe.
#1: From Alec Moore, crippled retired cowboy, when recorded, was selling ice-
cream in the streets of Austin. COWBOY SONGS p.266.
#2: Also from Alec Moore. COWBOY SONGS p.19.
#3: From the Gant family in Austin. published in FOLKSONGS OF NORTH AMERICA.
#4: "Ironhead", lead-singer on a Texas State Penitentiary Farm, learned this
version of a song, well-known in England, Scotland and Ireland, from an older
prisoner before World War I. OUR SINGING COUNTRY p.176.
#5: This is a work-song from "Clear Rock", a buddy of Ironhead, employed on
the same prison farm. OSC p.396.
#6: From Ernest Williams, also in the same pen. AB&FS p.58.
#7: This lullaby was sung to Alan by his mother, Bess Lomax, whose family brought
it to Texas from North Carolina after the Civil War. AB&FS p.304.
#8: This is known to Celtic singers in Britain where it is also used for "Hunting
the Wren". OSC p.101.
#9: Also well-known in Britain as "Nightingales Sing", this is another from
cowboy, Alec Moore. CS p.181.
#10: From L.W.Payne, Austin, this is the comic West Texas version of the well-known
American ballad, "Springfield Mountain". AB&FS p.356.
#11: One of Alan's father's. John Lomax regarded it as superlative example
of the ballad-maker's art. CS p.150.
#12: Another from the convict, "Iron Head", is a cowboy version of "The Sailor
cut down in his prime" and other versions once widely sung in Britain and Ireland.
CS p.420.
#13: Another work-song from a convict, "Track Horse" (Augustus Haggerty), in
the State Penitentiary at Huntsville. OSC p198.
#14: A prison-holler from Dave Tippen in the Darrington State Farm. OSC p363.
#15: This was one of Iron Head's most popular axe-songs. Black Betty, to some,
was the Black Maria truck that brought State prisoners to the pen, but, for
others, it was the name for the thick black strap that was still being used
as a punishment whip in the State farms. AB&FS p.60.
#16: The ballad, John Henry, was not known in Texas except in this form, as
a railroad worksong blues sung by Iron Head. AB&FS p.198.
