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Source: Jana Fallin, 785-532-3827, jfallin@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009
K-State experts for Kansas Day:
STATE SONG OF KANSAS, 'HOME ON THE RANGE,' ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN AND MOST BELOVED COWBOY SONGS, SAYS K-STATE PROFESSOR WHO RESEARCHES THE GENRE
MANHATTAN -- Whether it's referred to as the cowboy national anthem or the &1xbet online sports betting ;million dollar song,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;My Western Home&1xbet online sports betting ; or &1xbet online sports betting ;Home on the Range,&1xbet online sports betting ; the official state song of Kansas is one of the best known and most beloved cowboy songs, according to a Kansas State University professor.
Jana Fallin, professor of music education, is an expert in cowboy music and cattle drive folklore. She said &1xbet online sports betting ;Home on the Range&1xbet online sports betting ; is a prime example of cowboy music and a song whose popularity didn't disappear with the cattle drives.
&1xbet online sports betting ;The cowboy era is certainly when it was written,&1xbet online sports betting ; Fallin said. &1xbet online sports betting ;It would have been sung on the trail.&1xbet online sports betting ;
It was the favorite song of both Presidents Roosevelt, Theodore and Franklin Delano. NBC was even sued for playing the song on the radio when an Arizona couple sought royalties by claiming to have written the song, earning it the moniker the &1xbet online sports betting ;million dollar song.&1xbet online sports betting ; Fallin said that research by the network's attorney found that the song was indeed written by a Kansan, Brewster Higley of Smith County.
Some of the lyrics may leave modern Kansans scratching their heads, Fallin said. But a verse that mentions swans isn't off base at all, Fallin said, noting that there were native swans in Kansas. The state even has a river and town named after them, Marias des Cygnes and LaCygne, respectively.
Although &1xbet online sports betting ;Home on the Range&1xbet online sports betting ; is the Kansas state song, its simplicity helped it spread beyond the state's borders.
&1xbet online sports betting ;It's a simple but lovely melody,&1xbet online sports betting ; Fallin said. &1xbet online sports betting ;It's very singable.&1xbet online sports betting ;
Fallin said many traditional cowboy songs are old folk tunes adapted with new lyrics. The melody of &1xbet online sports betting ;The Streets of Laredo,&1xbet online sports betting ; for instance, is an old Irish folk tune brought to the United States by immigrants.
When cowboys on the trail repurposed these folk tunes, Fallin said they spiced up the songs with their own bawdy lyrics, full of double entendres. She said one song, &1xbet online sports betting ;The Old Chisholm Trail,&1xbet online sports betting ; gathered more than 100 versus as cowboys kept adding lyrics about their everyday experiences.
&1xbet online sports betting ;Some of the men on the trail were only 14 or 15 years old,&1xbet online sports betting ; Fallin said. &1xbet online sports betting ;And it was a dangerous three months on the trail.&1xbet online sports betting ;
On the Chisholm Trail, cowboys drove the cattle from Texas northward to Abilene, Kan., to catch the railroad, where they could fetch much higher prices. Fallin said the cowboys would move the cattle at a leisurely pace, allowing them to graze and fatten up as they went along.
&1xbet online sports betting ;They went along slowly and didn't have anything to do,&1xbet online sports betting ; Fallin said. &1xbet online sports betting ;They sang out of boredom, but also to calm the cattle. Cattle drives were one of the last such vocations in which music was a part of the job.&1xbet online sports betting ;
Hollywood's singing cowboys like Gene Autry didn't get it quite right, Fallin said. Real cowboys rarely if ever would have had a guitar, which would have been too much to carry along the trail. She said they occasionally might have played a banjo or fiddle, but most often the songs were sung a cappella or with a harmonica.
Fallin said she hopes people become more interested in preserving the historically accurate lore of the singing cowboy.
&1xbet online sports betting ;I don't want us to lose this history,&1xbet online sports betting ; she said.
