Miner's Song

Description

This song comes from the 1910 John A. Lomax's collection "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads" John A. Lomax was a pioneering folklorist who traveled the West recording cowboy songs, work songs, and ballads from oral tradition. His 1910 book was one of the first major collections to treat these as serious American folk literature (it even includes a foreword from Theodore Roosevelt). A classic hard-luck miner’s lament mixed with stubborn hope. It captures the boom-and-bust reality of prospecting and small-scale “leasing” (working someone else’s mining claim for a share). The “singlejack” is a one-handed miner’s hammer, and the “buggy” refers to an old mine cart. This fits the “Forty-Niner” / California Gold Rush era and later Western mining camps (Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, etc.). Lomax noted finding similar mining songs in old songbooks and frontier newspapers from the 1860s onward. It’s one of the non-cowboy “frontier ballads” in the collection, reflecting the broader pioneer experience.

Legal Details / License Terms

Lyrics from Project Gutenberg Cowboy Songs and other Frontier Ballads. Music generated using AI. This auction example serves for testing purposes. All applicable rights reserved. Kaycee Ranch LLC

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