Cowboy's Prayer (I), A

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, I've never lived where churches grow"; the speaker prefers the wilderness as God created it. He is thankful that he is "no slave of whistle, clock, or bell." He apologises for his failings, and asks for guidance in the future
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark (1883-1957)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: cowboy religious nonballad
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REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 128, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 47-48, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 154, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 126-136, "Badger Clark, Poet of Yesterday's West" (1 text plus discussion and a short biography of Clark)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 69-70, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Roud #11201
NOTES [44 words]: There is no evidence that this song has ever circulated in tradition; the Fifes included it in their book for its content, not its pedigree.
For a brief biography of author Charles Badger Clark, see the notes to "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue (A Border Affair)." - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: FCW128

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