Artist: Pete Harris
Author: traditional
Label: Library Of Congress
Year: 1934
With spoken introduction by John A. Lomax. Recorded during a fieldtrip funded by Roosevelt's New Deal program.
Covers:
Woody Guthrie [and in '45 when he used the lyrics of Bogey Creek from father Lomax' Cowboy Songs collection]
Johnny Cash [lyrics and melody in New Mexico, a Sun recording released in '64 as a single]
Roscoe Holcomb [as Hills Of Mexico]
Bob Dylan [as The Hills Of Mexico during the Basement sessions; called it "wasting tape"]
Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby [as Hills Of Mexico]
According to Bulletin #7 of the Folksong Society of the Northeast, Buffalo Skinners hails from a woodcutting song in Maine: Canadee-I-O (see there). When moving more to the west it became Michigan-I-O and the more western it went, the more it got popular among buffalo hunters. Once the prairie region of the Midwest was home to so many buffalos "they could drink the Arkansas river dry". That was before Buffalo Bill, the man responsable for trainloads of drive-by shooters slaughtering for sport.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)