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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)
Belgium
Artist: Kelly Harrell
Author: traditional
Label: Victor
Year: 1925
According to Carl Sandburg, a song with English broadside roots (as The Journeyman or The Roving Journeyman). In 1917 Cecil Sharp heard a version by Mrs Townsley and Mrs Wilson in Pineville, KY, John A. Lomax one by cowboy band The Utah Buckaroos in Salt Lake City. When Sharp met Sandburg during his song collecting journey through the Appalachians (1916-18), he complained about the zeal of Holy Roller protestant orthodoxy against the singing of anything profane: "All these missionaries with their schools".
Covers:
Vernon Dalhart [under alias Al Craver for Columbia]
Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers [with Riley Puckett and Clayton McMichen]
Woody Guthrie [as Gambling Man; even part of his lyrics match; shelved until '97]
Lonnie Donegan [n°1 UK as Gambling Man, covering Woody]
Brothers Four [as I Am A Roving Gambler]
Andy Griffith [in film A Face In The Crowd]
Hedy West [as Gambling Man]
Simon & Garfunkel [outtake Sounds Of Silence album]
Bob Dylan [live; crediting Bob Flick (Brothers Four)]
John Cohen & The Down Hill Strugglers [in film Inside Llewyn Davis]
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)
Belgium