Old Chisholm Trail

Song lyrics and download available here: http://www.balladofamerica.com/music/indexes/songs/oldchisholmtrail

Artist: Matthew Sabatella & the Rambling String Band

Description: Texas Confederate soldiers returning home from the Civil War found that in their absence the herds of longhorn cattle they were raising before the war had doubled in size and were now roaming the southern tip of the state unbranded. They were so plentiful that they had little value in Texas, but the industrial cities of the North were booming with immigrant labor and hungry mouths to feed. So began the era of the American cowboy and the great cattle drives, in which cattle were rounded up and herded north into Kansas, Missouri, and Wyoming. There they met the new railroad lines that could carry the meat to the East Coast.

The first trail that was widely used for these long drives was called the Chisholm Trail. By the time the trail fell into disuse in 1882, hundreds of cowboys had driven tens of thousands of cattle up the trail, inventing and singing countless verses to Old Chisholm Trail.

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• sabatella
• traditional
• american
• folk
• cowboy
• history
• western
• railroad
• cattle
• west
• banjo
• fiddle

[lordlollipop]

Shot him in the butt with the handle of a skillet?

"I shot his in the rump and he landed in the skillet" is the way the song goes.

BTW Why trash up a classic song with a completely different tune?

[balladofamerica]

Thank you for your constructive feedback. The tune sung in this version and the words "shot him in the rump with the handle of the skillet" come from the book "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads" originally published in 1910. The book features songs and ballads as recorded in the field and transcribed by John A. and Alan Lomax. It marks the first time the song appeared in print. It contains dozens of stanzas and at least six different tunes (of which I am singing Version 1) .

[SCOTTYX2]

I LOVE THE CUT IN!!! BEAUTIFUL!!!

[nadarealguy]

@Ballad of America

1.) Love the song

2.) You're comment is the best I've ever seen in any comment section. Keep up the good work.

[switz222]

SOLID