Singers at the Youth Traditional Song conference. Photo by Lorelei Erisis. — Photo by Lorelei Erisis

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Song of the Month

Join us each month in song!

Since 2016—our designated Year of Song—CDSS has featured a traditional song each month. Lorraine Hammond spearheaded this effort, and it was such a popular feature that Judy Cook volunteered to continue the tradition in 2017 and beyond.

Note: Many of these old songs should be looked at as “fairy tales for adults” in that they often address very strong, and sometimes scary, subject matter. They allow us to deal with difficult situations and emotions with the distance afforded by putting it in a song. They are cautionary tales, and had their use as such.

This month’s song:

May 2025: Clayton Boone
Submitted by David Jones

Cowboy Harry Jackson (1924-2011) was originally from Chicago but left home at 14 years old to become a cowboy in Wyoming. He learned many songs from traditional singers and recorded them for Folkways. He served in WWII and later became a successful artist, working on paintings and sculpture, focusing on western themes. I cannot pinpoint his accent—it is very strong. Maybe someone can identify it.

My thoughts on the song “Clayton Boone:”

The old man is referred to as a “mean old man,” but to find his young bride he chooses his finest horse with rich riding gear and sets off to find her.

When he does find her, he reminds her of not only what he has to offer, but that she has a baby. She says that she can’t forget her baby, but stays with Dave anyway, sleeping on “the hard cold ground.” One has to wonder how long this will last.

Listen to the original version by Cowboy Harry:

Listen to the version by Larry Hanks, from whom David learned the song:

Listen to David Jones’s version:

Download the sheet music for “Clayton Boone”

Lyrics

Away out in New Mexico, along the Spanish line
I was working for old Clayton Boone, a man well past his prime
He rides in and he asked of me, “What happened to my lady?”
I said to him “She’s quit your range and runs with the handsome Davy.”

“Go saddle for me that proud cut Dun with the coal black mane and tail
Point out to me their fresh-made tracks and after them I’ll trail
I’ll buckle on my leather chaps, I’ll tie my pistol over
And step aboard that proud dun and ride this wide world over

“I rode upon a saddle fine, a saddle made of silver
My bridle reins of beaten gold, not of your common leather
I rode until the midnight moon, when I seen their campfire burning
And I heard the sweetest mandolin and the voice of the young Dave singing.

“Come home with me to your own sweet bed with the sheets turned down so gaily
Do not forget my silver and gold and your darling baby.”
“I’ll not come home to my own sweet bed with the sheets turned down so gaily
And I’ll forget your silver and gold all for the love of Davy, but I can’t forget my baby.

“Last night I slept with a mean old man in a golden room so stately
Tonight I’ll sleep on the hard cold ground by the warm side of my Davy
I’ll ride along with Dave”

David Jones, a South East Londoner, born in 1934, has been singing the old songs for many years. Earliest remembered folksongs are “The Lincolnshire Poacher” and “The Farmers Boy,” learned at school in the mid-1940s. He has sung in the USA more than anywhere else, but has made forays back to the UK, to Australia, and to parts of Europe. He has sung solo and with a number of groups, and, on the way, has recorded several albums of folksongs. Now, he lives in Leonia, NJ, Gateway to the Golden West, with his wife Louise, and tries to be involved as much as possible with the NYC folk music scene. He has appeared in a number of NYC theater productions to favorable reviews. Last local performance was as Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

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