What’s Become of the Punchers?

[Hud]

My first pay'n job was in Nebraska.  It was wrangling calves, branding, dehorning and casterating them.  Then my Dad bought a resort in Minnesota and I left my just started cowboy career behind to take people fishing and lay around on the beach with girls.

I haven't really missed my early cowboyn' untill the last few years. Got some mules and horses again. Found I have a knack for training them.

Anyway Marcia, my wife, bought me some cowboy CDs. While listening to them, I remembered my Grandma Steinkamp singing some of the same songs. She could yodel too.  Here is one that has a little cowboy history to it.  It was writen, I think, around 1900 by Jack Thorpe.  Marcia typed it out for me.  She can listen and type nearly as fast a song is sung.

Hud

------------------------------------
What’s become of the punchers
we rode with long, long ago?
The hundreds and hundreds of cowboys
we all of us used to know.
Sure some were killed by lightnin’
some when the cattle run
and others were killed by horses
and some by the old six gun.

Those that worked out on the round-up
those of the brand and pen
those who went out on that long trail drive
never to return again.
We know of some who have prospered
we know of some who are broke.
My old partner made millions in Denver
while I’ve got m’ saddle and soap.

A sleepin’ and workin’ together
and eatin’ ol’ Koozie’s good chuck
ridin’ in all kinds o’ weather
playin’ in all kinds o’ luck
and braggin’ about our top horses
each puncher - he’s ready to bet
that his horse could outrun the boss’s
or any old horse you could get.

Gene Rhodes is among all the high-brows
ridin’ above the west
but I know about lots o’ doin’s
that he never has confessed.
And he used to ride ‘em careless
back in the good ol’ days
when we both worked together
up in the San Andres.

Now buildin’ big loops we call blockers
and spinnin’ the rope in the air
and never a cent in our pockets
oh, but what did a cow puncher care?
Now I’m tired o’ ridin’ this trail, boys
dead tired o’ ridin’ alone
believe I’ll head ol’ Button for Texas
and our ol’ Palo Pinto home.

[williamlayton]

how in the world did i miss this string--great idea and nobody posted to it.
there are some great old songs out there--all ballads--told a story in song.

ghost riders in the sky
waughbash cannonball
streets of larado
dirty little coward that shot mr howard
blessings

[Capt Hamp Cox]

Was fortunate several years back to be in Elko, NV for its annual week-long Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and got to see and hear in person Don Williams, Riders In The Sky, The Hays County Gals and Pals, and several others playing and singing COWBOY (not country western, but COWBOY) songs.  Another local performer who is definitely worth seeing and hearing is Austin, TX' own Don Walser who also knows how to do COWBOY songs up right.  Some of my favorites are listed below.

Cool Water
Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo
Cowboy's Dream
Last Round-Up
Ridin' Home
Twilight On The Trail
Red River Valley
Wagon Wheels
Riders In The Sky  
Empty Saddles
Teardrops In My Heart
Ridin' Down The Canyon
Timber Trail
Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Yellow Rose of Texas
Last Roundup
Mexicali Rose
(Take Me Back to My) Boots and Saddle
Back in the Saddle Again
Rancho Grande
You Are My Sunshine
It Makes No Difference Now
Maria Elena
Deep in the Heart of Texas
I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
(I Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle
I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)
So Long to the Red River Valley
Home on the Range
Cattle Call
Don't Fence Me In
     

And, there are many many more.

[Capt Hamp Cox]

For anyone interested in finding the words to an old COWBOY song, check out this site http://lonehand.com/cowboy_songs_index.htm.  Guarantee you'll find some you've heard, and some you haven't.  Enjoy.

The song below was sung (in person) by Riders In The Sky at the graveside portion of my brother-in-law's funeral several years back.  Got to tell you it will bring a tear to the eye under those circumstances, but it is a great song.  For those who like COWBOY songs, but are not familiar with Riders In The Sky, you are really missing some good entertainment.

EMPTY SADDLES IN THE OLD CORRAL

VERSE 1: There's something strange in the old corral
There's a breeze, though the wind has died
Though I'm alone in the old corral,
Seems there is someone at my side

CHORUS: Empty saddles in the old corral,
Where do ya ride tonight?
Are ya roundin' up the dogies,
The strays of long ago,
Are ya on the trail of buffalo?
Empty saddles in the old corral,
Where do ya ride tonight?
Are there rustlers on the border,
Or a band of Navajo
Are ya headin' for the Alamo?
Empty guns covered with rust
Where do ya talk tonight?
Empty boots covered with dust
Where do ya walk tonight?
Empty saddles in the old corral,
My tears would be dried tonight
If you'll only say I'm lonely,
As ya carry my old pal
Empty saddles in the old corral

VERSE 2: There is no smoke, still the fires burn,
There's no song, still I hear guitars,
There is no dust, still the ghosts return
Softly to vanish thru the bars

[Capt Hamp Cox]

Hud,

This one's 'specially for you.


Strawberry Roan

I was laying round town just spending my time,
Out of a job and not makin' a dime
When up steps a feller and says, "I suppose
That you're a bronc rider by the look of your clothes?"

He guesses me right. "And a good one I'll claim.
Do you happen to have any bad ones to tame?"
He say's he's got one that's a good one to buck,
And at throwing good riders he's had lots of luck.

He says this old pony has never been rode
And the man that gets on him is bound to be throwed.
I gets all excited and I ask what he pays
To ride this old pony for a couple of days.

He say's "ten dollars." I says "I'm your man;
The bronc never lived that I cannot fan;
The bronc never tried nor never drew breath
That I cannot ride till he starves plumb to death."

He says, "Get your saddle.  I'll give you a chance."
We got in the buggy and went to the ranch.
We waited till morning, right after chuck
I went out to see if that outlaw could buck.

Down in the corral, a-standin' alone,
Was this little old caballo, a strawberry roan.
He had little pin ears that touched at the tip
And a big forty-four brand was on his left hip.

We was spavined all around and he had pidgeon  toes,
Little pig eyes and a big Roman nose.
He was u-necked and old with a long lower jaw-
You could tell at a glance he was a regular outlaw.

I buckled on my spurs, I was feeling plumb fine,
I pulled down my hat and curls up my twine,
I threw the loop on him, right well I knew then,
Before I had rode him I'd sure earn my ten.

I got the blind on him with a terrible fight,
Cinched on the saddle and girded it tight;
Then I steps up on him and pulled down the blind
And sat there in the saddle to see him unwind.

He bowed his old neck and I'll say he unwound,
He seemed to quit living down there on the ground;
He went up to the east and came down to the west
With me in the saddle a doin' my best.

He sure was frog walkin', I heaved a big sigh,
He only lacked wings for to be on the fly;
He turned his old belly right up to the sun,
for he was a sun fishin' son of a gun.

He was the worst bronco I've seen on the range,
He could turn on a nickel and leave you some change.
While he was buckin' he squalled like a shoat,
I tell you that outlaw, he sure got my goat.

I tell all the people that pony could step
And I was still on him a-buildin' a rep;
He came down on all fours and turned up his side,
I don't see how he kept from losin' his hide.

I lost my stirrup, I lost my hat,
I was a pullin' at leather as blind as a bat;
With a phenomenal jump he made a high dive
And set me a-winding up there through the sky.

I turned forty flips and came down to the earth
And sit there a-cussin' the day of his birth.
I know there's some ponies that I cannot ride,
Some of them living, they haven't all died.

But I bet all my money there's no man alive
That can ride Old Strawberry when he makes his high dive.

[Hud]

Cap'n Cox,

Thankyou. That is one of my very most favorite songs.  I can just imagine exactly what that horse looks like. If I ever see him I'm running the other way.

When my cousin and I were kids my Uncle would take us with him to the horse sales at the Souix City stock yards.  We would go out back in the pens and ride all the horses untill we got ran out of there.  In a few minutes we'd be back in there again. They never got real serious about keepen' us out. It's a wonder we never got killed by a few of those broncs though.  

Hud

[williamlayton]

ya come thru like a champ ol hamp---pun intended--ya know the feller that sang so many of these songs was the tennessee ployboy mr eddie arnold. he could do em right.
blessings
ps--we said prayers for you today.

[Capt Hamp Cox]

This one's along the same lines as Strawberry Roan

Zebra Dun

We was camped on the plains at the head of the Cimmaron
When along comes a stranger and stopped to argue some,
Well he looked so very foolish when he begun to look around
For he seemed just like a greenhorn just escaped from town.

We asked him had he been to chuck, he said he hadn't a smear,
So we opened up the chuckbox and said he could eat right here,
Well he filled up on some coffee and some biscuits and some beans And started right in talking about the foreign kings and queens.
 
All about the foreign wars on the land and on the seas
With guns as big as steers, and ramrods big as trees.
About a feller named Paul Jones, a fightin' son of a gun
A fighter and the grittiest cuss that ever packed a gun.
 
Such an educated feller, his thoughts just come in herds,
He astonished all them cowboys with his highfalutin' words
Well the stranger kept on talkin' till the boys they all got sick
And begun to look around to see if they could play a trick.
 
Well, he said he'd lost his job up on the Santa Fe
He was goin' 'cross the plains to for to hit the Seven D;
 He didn't say how come it, just some trouble with the boss
But asked if he could borrow a fat saddle horse.
 
Well, this tickled all the boys to death, we laughed way down our sleeves
We said we'd give him a fine horse, as fresh and fat as you please.
So Shorty grabbed his lariat and he roped the Zebra Dun
And we give him to the stranger and waited for the fun.
 
Now old Dunny was an outlaw, he'd grown so awful wild
He could paw the moon down, he could jump a mile;
Old Dunny stood right still there, like as he didn't know
Till the stranger had him saddled and ready for to go.
 
When the stranger hit the saddle, then old Dun he quit the earth,
And started travelin' upwards for all that he was worth,
A-yellin' and a-squealin' and a-having wall-eyed fits
His front feet perpendicular, his hind feet in the bits.
 
We could see the tops of mountains under Dunny every jump
But the stranger he was glued there just like the camel's hump;
The stranger he just sat there, and twirled his black moustache,
Just like a summer boarder waitin' for the hash.
 
Well he thumped him in the shoulders and he spun him when he whirled,
And hollered to them cowboys, "I'm the wolf of the world!"
And when he had dismounted and once more upon the ground,
We knew he was a thoroughbred and not a dud from town.
 
The boss he was a-standin' there just watchin' of the show
Walked over to the stranger and said, "You needn't go.
If you can use a lariat like you rode old Zebra Dun
You're the man I've been looking for since the Year of One!"
 
And when the herd stampeded he was always on the spot,
And set them off to nothing, like the boiling of a pot.
Well, there's one thing and a shore thing I've learned since I've been born
Every educated feller ain't a plumb greenhorn.