On The Trail Of The Buffalo

"On the Trail of the Buffalo", also known as "The Buffalo Skinners" or "The Hills of Mexico", is a traditional American folk song in the western music genre. It tells the story of an 1873 buffalo hunt on the southern plains. According to Fannie Eckstorm, 1873 is correct, as the year that professional buffalo hunters from Dodge City first entered the northern part of the Texas panhandle. It is thought to be based on the song Canaday-I-O.

According to extensive research carried out by Jürgen Kloss in 2010-2012, this song is one of the many variants of John B Freeman's "The Buffalo Song".
Retrieved on 4 August 2014.

"The Buffalo Skinners"

"The Buffalo Skinners" is an American folk song which first appeared in John Lomax's ''Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads'' in 1910. The song tells of crew of men hired in Jacksboro, Texas to go buffalo hunting north of the Pease River :

The song goes through many verses telling a humorous tale of the trials and tribulations they find on the hunt. The next to the last verse tells of how the trip ended:

The last verse ends with:

"Boggus Creek"

Another early variant called "Boggus Creek", collected by W.P. Webb, was first published in 1923. Webb considered it a variant to "The Buffalo Skinners" In "Boggus Creek" a group of cowboys are hired at the now abandoned cowtown at Fort Griffin, Texas, to work cattle in New Mexico:

In this variant, no one is killed but the song ends the same way, except instead of warning others about the "range of the buffalo" it says:

Recordings

* Woody Guthrie Recorded his version of "Buffalo Skinners" in 1945. It was first released on ''Struggle: Asch American Documentary, Vol. 1'' (Asch 360, 1946, later Stinson 360, now SFW 40025) and is now also available on various CDs, for example on ''Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 4 (Folkways SFW 40103)'' or ''The Early Years'' (Tradition FS-204)
* Hermes Nye ''Texas Folk Songs'' (1955, Folkways FW 02128)
* Ed McCurdy ''Songs of the Old West'' (1956, Elektra EKL 112)
* Raphael Boguslav ''Songs From A Village Garret'' (1956, Riverside RLP 12-638)
* John A. Lomax Jr. Retrieved on 24 November 2014 ''Sings American Folk Songs'' (1956, Folkways FW 03508)
* Pete Seeger At first on ''American Industrial Ballads'' (1956, Folkways SW 40058) and then on ''American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5'' (1962, Folkways SW 40154; this is an abbreviated version with five verses, the lyrics are from Lomax' original "Buffalo Skinners", the melody and accompaniment are closer to Woody Guthrie)
* Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Derroll Adams ''Roll On Buddy'' (1957, Topic 12T 105)
* Richard Dyer-Bennet ''Vol. 9'' (1960, Dyer-Bennet DB 09000)
* Cisco Houston ''Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie'' (1961, Vanguard VRS 9089) and later on ''Folk Song and Minstrelsy'' (1963, Vanguard RL-7624)
* Eric Von Schmidt ''Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt'' (1963, Prestige 7717)
* Carl Sandburg ''Cowboy Songs and Negro Spirituals'' (1964, Decca DL 9105)
* Jim Kweskin ''Relax Your Mind'' (1965, Vanguard VSD-79188)
* Johnny Cash With the title "New Mexico" (recorded at Sun Records circa 1955, unreleased until 1964)
* Johnny Horton "Out in New Mexico" in his 1965 Album ''I Can't Forget You''
* Bob Dylan Recorded a variant, known as "The Hills of Mexico", along with covers of other Johnny Cash songs, during the Basement Tapes sessions (1967, officially released in 2014)
* Slim Critchlow ''Cowboy Songs: The Crooked Trail To Holbrook'' (1969, Arhoolie 479; includes also "John Garner's Trail Herd" and "The Crooked Trail To Holbrooke"; recorded 1957-63)
* John Renbourn ''Faro Annie'' (1971)
* Harry Tuft on ''The Continuing Tradition Volume 1: Ballads'' (1981, Folk-Legacy Records)
* Mosquito ''Cupid's Fist'' (1994)
* Sid Selvidge ''Twice-Told Tales'' (1994)
* Rich Lerner ''Trails and Bridges'' (1995)
* Ramblin' Jack Elliot ''South Coast'' (1995)
* Shakin' Apostles ''Medicine Show'' (1997)
* Tim O'Brien (musician) ''Fiddler's Green'' (2005)
* Gob Iron ''Death Songs for the Living'' (2006)
* Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby (2007)
* Willie Watson "Mexican Cowboy" on ''Folk Singer Vol. 1'' (2014)
* Charlie Marks (musician) ''Honey Baby'' (2020)

Cultural references

The song is quoted by Fermilab News, in an article describing the nuclear research facility's herd of American bison.

See also

*Cowman (profession)

References

Bibliography

*Carr, Joe; Alan Munde. ''Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas''. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press (1996).
*
* Lomax, John A., M.A. (1918) st pub. 1910. New York: Sturgis & Walton ''Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads'' (6th printing ed.). New York: The MacMillan Company.
*Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle.
"Boggy Creek" or "The Hills of Mexico"
. ''The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World''. Hosted b
California State University, Fresno, Folklore
2007.
*Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle.

. ''The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World''. Hosted b
California State University, Fresno, Folklore
2007.
*Webb, W.P. "Miscellany of Texas Folk-LOre" ''Coffee in the Gourd'', pp. 47–63, J. Frank Dobie (ed.). Austin: Texas Folklore Society (1923).

{{DEFAULTSORT:On The Trail Of The Buffalo
American folk songs
Bob Dylan songs
Woody Guthrie songs
Songs about Texas
Bison hunting
Year of song unknown