[78-L] Old cowboy song...

Rodger Holtin rjh334578 at gmail.com.invalid
Sun Dec 11 11:54:42 PST 2016


Graham,

This one is going to nag at me for a while, too.

The melody is the same as Carson Robison used on his Mussolini's Letter to
Hitler and Hitler's Reply, American Bluebird 11459, from 1942.  I'll bet he
stole the melody.

I just *know* I've heard this thing before and it certainly reminds me of
Edward B Marks "Mother Was a Lady" ("If Brother Jack Were Here").  It's that
KIND of song.  I'm going to bet that it's a vaudeville warm over that
slipped into folk song tradition.  It just seems too well-crafted to be
"folk song" material.

Donna has certainly found an answer we can live with until something else
can be found - it's more than you had a few hours ago, anyway, and may well
be where your uncle got it.  I just think there *may* be more to the story,
and if so, it might not be found online.  Some archive with 19th century
temperance material may be the only way to track it down, but that's what it
sounds like to me.

-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Graham Newton
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2016 1:44 PM
To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List;
78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: [78-L] Old cowboy song...



Hello All and thanks to those who replied to my "Old cowboy song" question.

The song was ID'd by a few people including Donna Halper who said:-

> It may be a Canadian folk song/country ballad called "If You'll Only 
> Let Liquor Alone."  I found some information that said the song was 
> first identified in 1963, in New Brunswick Canada.

and later she added:-

> And I have also found that there was an earlier version, from 1947 
> (still Canadian) under the title "If You'll Only Leave Whiskey Alone."
> Compiled in Edward Ives' Folksongs of New Brunswick.

It seems the "Liquor" version is probably it!

Thank you all again for this assistance!



... Graham Newton

============================================================================

Howdy pardner...

This is important for my 90+ year old aunt who recently lost her husband,
the love of her life.  He wasn't a singer but he has left a cassette of a
few songs that he sung with no identification of titles or anything like
that.
With the help of Google and some of my references, I've been able to ID
everything BUT this one which remains.

It is incomplete, starting just into the song but is complete from there on.
It's conceivable that the tune may be known by something other than the
words that accompany this, so any suggestions are welcomed.

It is on my web site, so click on it and see if it rings any bells for you!

http://www.audio-restoration.com/Jean_Sherman.WAV

Any leads would be appreciated



... Graham Newton

--
Audio Restoration by Graham Newton, http://www.audio-restoration.com World
class professional services applied to tape or phonograph records for
consumers and re-releases, featuring CEDAR's CAMBRIDGE processes.
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