EARLY IDAHO SONGS OF THE MONTH - February 2009
| Stump Rancher Blues (unknown songwriter, 1910s or 20s?). Lyrics for this humorous song were found in the working papers of Professor Jan Brunvand in the University of Idaho library Special Collections. In the 1960s. A north Idaho "stump ranch" is a homestead made from a logged area, which for many years had the appearance that stumps were being grown. The song is the perspective of grizzled old stump rancher, musing on what he would differently with his farm and concluding that he would just "sit me down and whittle". Fields with 100-year old cedar stumps still are easy to find in northern Idaho. Professor Brunvand would have his students collect songs, and that is the apparent source of this one.. The only identifier on the lyrics is "Florence Sutterfield, August 11, 1959". So we don't know if Sutterfield wrote or collected the song, and have been unable to determine her identity.. The theme suggests it may have been written in the 1910s or 1920s. The rendition here is by Bonnie Bliss of Oldtown, Idaho on vocals, who also provided the melody, and Stan Hall. Bonnie owns a bona fide Idaho stump ranch as did her great grandfather. |
No instrumental posted for February, 2009.
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