Traditional Songs

In my writing I often allude to traditional songs, for the seeds of culture and sentiment are found within them. Songs such as "Streets of Laredo" and "The Old Chisholm Trail" frequently surface in my stories. In a soon-to-be released poem, I reference "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie." Folklorist and musicologist John Lomax included "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" in Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads, a seminal work in the American folk tradition, and the song has been recorded by numerous artists including The Sons of the Pioneers, Johnny Cash, and Tex Ritter. In literature, Larry McMurtry references the song in the title of his 1968 collection of essays, In a Narrow Grave. To me, the song, though simple on the surface, is filled with ambiguity. The inflection in the final verse, as sung by Cowboy Jim Garling, says it all.