Cisco Houston Web Site

LPs

Songs of the Open Road

Folkways FA 2480

1962

LP

SIDE ONE

  1. Mule Skinner Blues
  2. Git Along Little Dogies
  3. E-RI-E Canal
  4. Hobo's Lullaby
  5. East Virginia Blues
  6. Travel On (Done Laid Around, and Played Around, This Old Town Too Long)

SIDE TWO

  1. Pie in the Sky (The Preacher and the Slave)
  2. Mysteries of a Hobo's Life (AKA The Job I Left Behind Me)
  3. Soup Song
  4. Beans, Bacon and Gravy
  5. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
  6. Cryderville Jail
  7. I Ain't Got No Home in this World

Notes

This LP was copyrighted in 1960, and issued on the Folkways label in 1962, after Cisco's death. The 12" vinyl features the famous (but dull) blue label, with the company's full name and address: Folkways Records and Service Corp., 701 Seventh Avenue, NYC. Catalogue number is FA 2480. It's now available on custom-ordered CD from Smithsonian-Folkways, I believe. Check with the Smithsonian website.

Of Interest

Only the final song is by Woody, I believe. The booklet insert in my copy of the original LP has the lyrics, in the typewriter printing which was standard for Folkways. No songwriters are credited at all. The length of each song is un-noted. In the booklet, Cisco claims to have been born in Virginia, although many other bios list Wilmington, Delaware as the birthplace (note: see an explanation Here.) Cisco says he first met Woody in California in 1939. Also, in the booklet, the song "Mysteries of a Hobo's Life" is titled "The Job I Left Behind Me" instead.

Review

Bill Adams

Each fan will have his or her own favorites. (If you can find any female Cisco fans. Somehow, in spite of his great looks and reported personal decency and charm, Cisco seems to be a singer that MEN respond to far more than women.) I love all the songs on side two. For my taste, "Mule Skinner Blues" goes on too long (about six minutes) and "East Virginia Blues" is not as interesting as the rest of the disc. Cisco's vocals are uniformly excellent, of course. "Pie in the Sky" by Joe Hill, and "Beans, Bacon and Gravy" have been my favorites on this one since I first purchased it 40 years ago.

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