Cannonball, The

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; singer says he will catch the train called the Cannonball (from Buffalo to Washington), his girl left him, and he's leaving her. More or less.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Lesley Riddle; recorded by the Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love farewell rambling train travel abandonment floatingverses lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 413-425, "Cannonball Blues/Whitehouse Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first being "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" and the second the "Cannonball Blues," plus a version of a song called "Mr. McKinley" from _The Week-End Book_, which is so different that I would regard it as a separate though perhaps related song, probably not traditional)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 116-117, "The Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 463, "Cannonball Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (CANONBL3 adapted by Bruce Phillips?)
Roud #4759
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "The Cannon Ball" (Victor V-40317/Bluebird 6020/Montgomery Ward 4742, 1930)
Kilby Snow, "The Cannonball" (on KSnow1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (words, tune)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away" (floating verses)
SAME TUNE:
Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)
It Takes a Married Man to Sing a Worried Song (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 38-39 -- and, yes, despite that title, the tune is this, not "Worried Man Blues")
File: CSW116

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