Joe Bowers [Laws B14]

DESCRIPTION: Joe Bowers leaves for California to raise money to marry Sally. Returning home, he is irritated to find that she has married another, a red-haired man, and has a red-haired baby
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 ("Johnson's Original Comic Songs")
KEYWORDS: travel marriage infidelity settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Laws B14, "Joe Bowers"
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 98-99, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 185-187, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 55-57, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 341-343, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, apparently a collation of four versions, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 366, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Randolph 187, "Joe Bowers" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 190-193, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 187D with the tune re-transcribed)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 25-26, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 258, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 258, "Joe Bowers" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 70, pp. 197-198, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #160, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 155, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 132-133, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 107-109, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 23, "The Disappointment of Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 751-752, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 48-50, "The Man That I Look Our For"; "Joe Bowers" (2 texts; the first is a rewrite with all the names changed and a few other alterations, but it's clearly the same song) (p. 39 in the 1919 edition)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 431, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 63, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 102, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 421-423, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 174, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 12, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 96-97, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 88, pp. 186-188, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 50, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #24A-B, pp. 186-187, "Joe Bowers" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 46-48, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 63, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 286-287, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1121, p. 76, "Joe Bowers" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 171-172, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 207, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Joe Bowers" (source notes only)
DT 381, JOBOWERS*
Roud #2806
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Joe Bowers" (Varsity 5130, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Loman D. Cansler, "Joe Bowers" (on Cansler1)
Logan English, "Joe Bowers" (on LEnglish02)
Jean Ritchie, "Joe Bowers" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "Joe Bowers" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (tune)
cf. "Bebe Hung One On Us" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Ghost of the Peanut Stand (File: CrSNB070)
The 2nd N.Y. Fire-Zouaves (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 139)
NOTES [113 words]: Various suggestions have been put forward regarding the author of this song; Laws quotes Louise Pound's attribution to John A. Stone (Old Put). Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest advocate John Woodward. The Lomaxes mention the Johnson of "Johnson's Original Comic Songs." Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety alludes to Merwin's attribution to Frank Swift. I suspect the matter can no longer be settled.
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2 says that the Missouri legislature once considered putting up a monument to Joe Bowers. I suspect this is more folklore than fact; in any case, no monument was made. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB14

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