Cowboys' Christmas Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in western Texas where the Clear Forks waters flow... It was there that I attended the Cowboys' Christmas Ball." The location is described, as are all the people who show up. The singer expects to recall the excitement forever
AUTHOR: Larry Chittenden
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Chittenden's "Ranch Verses")
KEYWORDS: cowboy party dancing
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XVI, pp. 219-224 (33-36), "The Cowboys Christmas Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 3539, "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 60, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 350-352, "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 144-147, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 38-43, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, with elements of "Buffalo Gals" and "Skip to My Lou" as bridges)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 56-58, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 17-19, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text)
Roud #4634
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cowboys' New Years Dance"
NOTES [65 words]: Although often quoted, the difficult form of this piece (six twelve-line stanzas!) seems to have kept it from securing a firm place in oral tradition; Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys list seventeen printings but only one field recording, and Ohrlin admits that his version is shorter than the original. Cannon has a version chopped down to five stanzas, which he calls "folk song length." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF16

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