I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows

DESCRIPTION: "I'm bound to follow the longhorn cows until I git too old. It's well I work for wages, boys, I git my pay in gold." The singer boasts of his skills as a cowboy. He describes the difficulties of stampedes. He hopes to save up money to be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work bragging money gold loneliness love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 162-163, "I'm Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 186, "I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 97, pp. 228-229, "The Jolly Cowboy" (1 text, much shorter than Lomax's)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 104, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 114, "Lone Star Trail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 137, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 374-375, "Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5765
RECORDINGS:
Ken Maynard, "The Lone Star Trail" (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on AAFM3, WhenIWas1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Love the Name of Texas" (theme)
NOTES [167 words]: This song was featured in the film "The Wagon Master"; Ken Maynard is described as the "pioneer of cowboy singing stars" in the movies. - PJS
Guy Logsdon, on p. 52 of Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, agrees in part, "In the early 1930s, Ken Maynard, though lacking vocal skills, became the first 'reel' cowboy to sing in a motion picture, but Gene Autry was the singer for whom the genre was created." It is interesting to note that (as of this writing) the Ballad Index cites six Maynard recordings -- but three of them appear to have been unissued at the time!
If the texts printed by the Fifes are any indication, this piece can take on almost any form, and the incidents can take place in almost any order; the only line their texts have entirely in common is "My trade is cinches and saddles and ropes and bridle reins." And the Lomax text is again very different, with changes in all the verses, much new material, and a different order. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF186

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