Trackimage | Playbut | Trackname | Playbut | Trackname |
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2014778 | Play | Diamond Joe | 00:00 Tools | |
2014781 | Play | Dark As A Dungeon | 02:35 Tools | |
2014782 | Play | Hard Traveling | 00:00 Tools | |
2014780 | Play | Born 100,000 Years Ago | 00:00 Tools | |
2014785 | Play | Deportees | 00:00 Tools | |
2014788 | Play | This Land Is Your Land | 00:00 Tools | |
2014779 | Play | Railroad Bill | 00:00 Tools | |
2014787 | Play | Do Re Mi | 02:35 Tools | |
2014784 | Play | The Killer | 00:00 Tools | |
2014792 | Play | Ship In The Sky | 00:00 Tools | |
2014783 | Play | 900 Miles | 00:00 Tools | |
2014786 | Play | Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill | 00:00 Tools | |
2014837 | Play | skip to my lou | 00:00 Tools | |
2014790 | Play | The Cat Came Back | 00:00 Tools | |
2014789 | Play | Big Rock Candy Mountain | 00:00 Tools | |
2014791 | Play | Pastures Of Plenty | 00:00 Tools | |
2014797 | Play | The Tramp | 00:00 Tools | |
2014822 | Play | Curly Headed Baby | 00:00 Tools | |
2014812 | Play | Jesus Christ | 00:00 Tools | |
2014798 | Play | The Great American Bum | 00:00 Tools | |
2014804 | Play | Buffalo Skinners | 00:00 Tools | |
2014806 | Play | Passing Through | 00:00 Tools | |
2014827 | Play | Rambling, Gambling Man | 00:00 Tools | |
2014817 | Play | The Intoxicated Rat | 00:00 Tools | |
2014813 | Play | Pie In The Sky | 00:00 Tools | |
2014834 | Play | Little Joe, the Wrangler | 00:00 Tools | |
2014795 | Play | The Frozen Logger | 00:00 Tools | |
2014815 | Play | The Dying Cowboy | 00:00 Tools | |
2014809 | Play | Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life | 00:00 Tools | |
2014803 | Play | Hobo Bill | 00:00 Tools | |
2014793 | Play | Ezekiel Saw The Wheel | 00:00 Tools | |
2014800 | Play | I Ride An Old Paint | 00:00 Tools | |
2014802 | Play | St. James Infirmary | 00:00 Tools | |
2014794 | Play | Pretty Boy Floyd | 00:00 Tools | |
2014799 | Play | I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore | 00:00 Tools | |
2014801 | Play | Grand Coulee Dam | 00:00 Tools | |
2014808 | Play | I Ain't Got No Home | 00:00 Tools | |
2014830 | Play | Pat Works On The Railroad | 00:00 Tools | |
2014807 | Play | The Girl In The Wood | 00:00 Tools | |
2014819 | Play | What Did the Deep Blue Sea Say | 00:00 Tools | |
2014805 | Play | The Fox | 00:00 Tools | |
2014811 | Play | Great July Jones | 00:00 Tools | |
2014796 | Play | Saint James Infirmary | 00:00 Tools | |
47861253 | Play | The Preacher And The Slave (Pie In The Sky) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014829 | Play | Zebra Dun | 00:00 Tools | |
2014825 | Play | Chisholm Trail | 00:00 Tools | |
2014810 | Play | Hard, Ain'T It Hard | 00:00 Tools | |
2014854 | Play | Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail | 00:00 Tools | |
2014873 | Play | There's a Better World a-Comin' | 00:00 Tools | |
2014885 | Play | The Strawberry Roan | 00:00 Tools | |
2014823 | Play | Old Lone Wolf | 00:00 Tools | |
2014871 | Play | The John B. Sails (Sloop John B.) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014888 | Play | The Midnight Special | 00:00 Tools | |
2014847 | Play | Trouble In MInd | 00:00 Tools | |
2014846 | Play | Stewball | 00:00 Tools | |
2014872 | Play | Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014821 | Play | Old Blue | 00:00 Tools | |
2014844 | Play | Farmer's Lament | 00:00 Tools | |
2014820 | Play | Philadelphia Lawyer | 00:00 Tools | |
2014884 | Play | Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies | 00:00 Tools | |
2014836 | Play | Taking It Easy | 00:00 Tools | |
2014864 | Play | Beans, Bacon And Gravy | 00:00 Tools | |
2014858 | Play | Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road | 00:00 Tools | |
2014824 | Play | Worried Man Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014868 | Play | A Picture From Life's Other Side | 00:00 Tools | |
2014859 | Play | Sweet Betsy from PIke | 00:00 Tools | |
2014814 | Play | Ladies Auxiliary | 00:00 Tools | |
2014894 | Play | John Hardy | 00:00 Tools | |
2014863 | Play | Roll On Columbia | 00:00 Tools | |
2014893 | Play | The Wreck of the Old 97 | 00:00 Tools | |
2014853 | Play | Ramblin' Gamblin' Man | 00:00 Tools | |
2014849 | Play | Talking Fishing Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014833 | Play | Badman Ballad | 00:00 Tools | |
2014852 | Play | Nine Hundred Miles | 00:00 Tools | |
2014875 | Play | Stagolee (Stagger Lee) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014826 | Play | Way Out There | 00:00 Tools | |
2014904 | Play | Gettin' Up Holler | 00:00 Tools | |
2014842 | Play | Colorado Trail | 00:00 Tools | |
2014898 | Play | The Rambler | 00:00 Tools | |
2014876 | Play | The Roamer | 00:00 Tools | |
2014920 | Play | Whoopie Ti Yi Yo | 00:00 Tools | |
2014840 | Play | This Train | 00:00 Tools | |
2014841 | Play | cumberland gap | 00:00 Tools | |
2014879 | Play | Old Paint | 00:00 Tools | |
2014906 | Play | The Brave Engineer | 00:00 Tools | |
2014907 | Play | The Gambler | 00:00 Tools | |
2014848 | Play | Pat Works on the Railroad (Paddy Works on the Railroad) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014831 | Play | Talking Dust Bowl | 00:00 Tools | |
2014845 | Play | old time religion | 00:00 Tools | |
47861294 | Play | Crawdad Hole | 00:00 Tools | |
2014891 | Play | My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean | 00:00 Tools | |
2014860 | Play | Cryderville Jail | 00:00 Tools | |
2014839 | Play | take a whiff on me | 00:00 Tools | |
2014881 | Play | Midnight Special | 00:00 Tools | |
2014918 | Play | Sinking Of The Rueben James | 00:00 Tools | |
47861254 | Play | Soup Song | 00:00 Tools | |
2014835 | Play | bad lee brown | 00:00 Tools | |
2014892 | Play | New York Town | 00:00 Tools | |
2014838 | Play | bury me beneath the willow | 00:00 Tools | |
2014900 | Play | Hobo's Lullaby | 00:00 Tools | |
2014908 | Play | So Long It's Been Good | 00:00 Tools | |
2014857 | Play | Chilly Winds | 00:00 Tools | |
2014878 | Play | Dink's Song | 00:00 Tools | |
2014899 | Play | The Sinking Of The Reuben James | 00:00 Tools | |
2014862 | Play | Ranger's Command | 00:00 Tools | |
2014850 | Play | the golden vanity | 00:00 Tools | |
2014895 | Play | John Henry | 00:00 Tools | |
2014866 | Play | Diamond Joe: Cowboy Song | 00:00 Tools | |
2014902 | Play | Erie Canal | 00:00 Tools | |
2014886 | Play | Done Laid Around | 00:00 Tools | |
2014941 | Play | Old Howard | 00:00 Tools | |
2014861 | Play | columbus stockade | 00:00 Tools | |
2014877 | Play | East Virginia | 00:00 Tools | |
2014921 | Play | Preacher and the Slave, The (Pie in the Sky) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014914 | Play | Gypsy Dave (Gypsy Davy) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014890 | Play | Muleskinner Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014926 | Play | Booth Killed Lincoln | 00:00 Tools | |
2014909 | Play | Turtle Dove | 00:00 Tools | |
2014905 | Play | True Love on My Mind | 00:00 Tools | |
2014851 | Play | johnny hard | 00:00 Tools | |
2014870 | Play | sourwood mountain | 00:00 Tools | |
2014901 | Play | the job i left behind me | 00:00 Tools | |
2014998 | Play | Tramp On The Street | 00:00 Tools | |
2014916 | Play | Hound Dog | 00:00 Tools | |
47861257 | Play | Old Reilly | 00:00 Tools | |
2014867 | Play | foggy mountain top | 00:00 Tools | |
2014927 | Play | Blowing Down That Dusty Road | 00:00 Tools | |
2014911 | Play | The Tramp (1960) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014996 | Play | The Boll Weevil | 00:00 Tools | |
2014982 | Play | London Bridge | 00:00 Tools | |
2014975 | Play | Rangers Command | 00:00 Tools | |
47861256 | Play | Make Me a Bed | 00:00 Tools | |
2014882 | Play | Hard Travelling | 00:00 Tools | |
47861264 | Play | Yonder Tree | 00:00 Tools | |
2014978 | Play | We Shall Be Free | 00:00 Tools | |
2014936 | Play | Pumpkin' Easter | 00:00 Tools | |
2014939 | Play | Three Blind Mice | 00:00 Tools | |
2014897 | Play | Peas Porridge Hot | 00:00 Tools | |
2014883 | Play | The Wreck of the Old '97 | 00:00 Tools | |
47861255 | Play | East Texas Red | 00:00 Tools | |
47861259 | Play | On Top of Old Smoky | 00:00 Tools | |
2014943 | Play | John B. Sails (The Sloop John B.) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014951 | Play | What are Little Boys Made Of? | 00:00 Tools | |
47861258 | Play | Froggie Went-A-Courtin' | 00:00 Tools | |
47861260 | Play | Clickety Clack | 00:00 Tools | |
2014919 | Play | Cape Cod | 00:00 Tools | |
2014903 | Play | The Great American Burn | 00:00 Tools | |
2014999 | Play | Humpty Dumpty | 00:00 Tools | |
2014933 | Play | Danville Girl | 00:00 Tools | |
2014995 | Play | Mulberry Bush | 00:00 Tools | |
2014910 | Play | Bonneville Dam | 00:00 Tools | |
47861261 | Play | My Daddy | 00:00 Tools | |
2014913 | Play | Fire Down Below | 00:00 Tools | |
2014937 | Play | Talking Guitar Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014917 | Play | Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail | 00:00 Tools | |
2014981 | Play | Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow | 00:00 Tools | |
2014946 | Play | Old Dan Tucker | 00:00 Tools | |
2014980 | Play | The Old Chisholm Trail | 00:00 Tools | |
47861262 | Play | I Ain't Got No Home In This World | 00:00 Tools | |
2014990 | Play | Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, Get Along Little Dogies | 00:00 Tools | |
47861266 | Play | Great American Bum | 00:00 Tools | |
2014984 | Play | travel on | 00:00 Tools | |
2015002 | Play | Crawdad Song | 00:00 Tools | |
2014929 | Play | The Sloop John B | 00:00 Tools | |
2014931 | Play | Zabra Dun | 00:00 Tools | |
47861267 | Play | The Erie Canal | 00:00 Tools | |
2014962 | Play | 900Miles | 00:00 Tools | |
2014940 | Play | Hard Travellin' | 00:00 Tools | |
47861263 | Play | Buffalo Gals | 00:00 Tools | |
2014954 | Play | Get Along Little Doggies | 00:00 Tools | |
47861265 | Play | It Takes A Worried Man | 00:00 Tools | |
2014922 | Play | Night Herding Song | 00:00 Tools | |
47861275 | Play | Talking Dust Bowl Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014966 | Play | Hard Ain'T It Hard | 00:00 Tools | |
47861268 | Play | The Buffalo Skinners | 00:00 Tools | |
47861276 | Play | What Did The Deep Sea Say_ | 00:00 Tools | |
47861271 | Play | Red River Valley | 00:00 Tools | |
47861269 | Play | I Ain't Got Nobody | 00:00 Tools | |
47861285 | Play | Pie In The Sky (The Preacher And The Slave) | 00:00 Tools | |
47861270 | Play | The Streets of Laredo | 00:00 Tools | |
47861279 | Play | East Virginia Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
47861272 | Play | 900 Miles (trad, arr. Woody Guthrie) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014970 | Play | Mole In The Ground | 00:00 Tools | |
47861281 | Play | Diamond Joe - Joe | 00:00 Tools | |
47861283 | Play | Barbara Allen | 00:00 Tools | |
47861273 | Play | When That Great Ship Went Down | 00:00 Tools | |
47861286 | Play | git along little dogies | 00:00 Tools | |
47861274 | Play | Wreck Of The Old '97 | 00:00 Tools | |
47861293 | Play | Boll Weevil | 00:00 Tools | |
47861296 | Play | Make Me A Bed Right Down On Your Floor | 00:00 Tools | |
47861282 | Play | Down in the Valley | 00:00 Tools | |
47861277 | Play | Jackhammer Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014959 | Play | Mule Skinner Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
47861290 | Play | Tramp Tramp Tramp | 00:00 Tools | |
47861280 | Play | A Group Of Children's Song: Ship In The Sky | 00:00 Tools | |
47861291 | Play | Children Go Where I Send Thee | 00:00 Tools | |
47861284 | Play | Lost John | 00:00 Tools | |
2014993 | Play | A Dollar Down | 00:00 Tools | |
47861278 | Play | Struggle Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
2014960 | Play | Get Along Little Dogies | 00:00 Tools | |
47861287 | Play | Dark as a Dungeon [#] | 00:00 Tools | |
47861288 | Play | Midnight Special ['57] | 00:00 Tools | |
47861289 | Play | Mouth Music (Live) | 00:00 Tools | |
47861292 | Play | What Did the Deep Blue Sea Say [#] | 00:00 Tools | |
47861300 | Play | Blowing Down The Old Dusty Road | 00:00 Tools | |
2014924 | Play | Waggoner's Lad | 00:00 Tools | |
2014944 | Play | Tom Joad | 00:00 Tools | |
2014991 | Play | Ezekill Saw Wheel | 00:00 Tools | |
47861295 | Play | Foggy Mountain Dew (Live) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014949 | Play | Lonesome Train | 00:00 Tools | |
2015001 | Play | Streets of Laredo | 00:00 Tools | |
86872266 | Play | Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) | 00:00 Tools | |
2014973 | Play | Woody's Rag & 900 Miles | 00:00 Tools | |
2014977 | Play | Chisholm Train | 00:00 Tools | |
86872267 | Play | Wreck of the Old 97 | 00:00 Tools | |
88966605 | Play | The Chisholm Trail | 00:00 Tools | |
47861297 | Play | A1 - Take A Whiff On Me | 00:00 Tools | |
47861298 | Play | A2 - Bad Lee Brown | 00:00 Tools | |
2014945 | Play | I'm a Dust Bowl Refugee | 00:00 Tools | |
2014963 | Play | Ain't Got No Home | 00:00 Tools | |
88966606 | Play | My Gal | 00:00 Tools | |
86872268 | Play | East Virginia # 2 | 00:00 Tools | |
86872269 | Play | The Fox [Previously Unreleased] | 00:00 Tools | |
47861299 | Play | 900 Miles - Cisco Houston | 00:00 Tools | |
47861301 | Play | Jack Hammer Blues | 00:00 Tools | |
47861302 | Play | Do Re Mi - Cisco Houston | 00:00 Tools | |
47861303 | Play | Roving Gambler | 00:00 Tools |
Track name
Gilbert Vandine 'Cisco' Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together. Houston was a regular recording artist for Moses Asch's Folkways recording studio. He also performed with such folk/blues musicians as Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, and the Almanac Singers. Gilbert Vandine Houston was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 18, 1918, the second of four children. His father, Adrian Moncure Houston, was a sheet-metal worker. The family moved to California while Houston was still young, and he attended school in Eagle Rock, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. During his school years, Cisco began to play the guitar, having picked up an assortment of folk songs from family. It is reported[1] that Houston was regarded as highly intelligent during his time at school, despite the nystagmus that afflicted his eyesight, leaving him to rely heavily on peripheral vision. He learned primarily by memorizing what he heard in the classroom. Despite his difficulties, Cisco came to be regarded as a well-read individual. When the Great Depression struck, Houston began working to help support his family. In 1932, his unemployed father left home and a few years later Cisco went on the road, accompanied initially by his brother Slim. The years were spent traveling and working odd jobs throughout the western United States, always with a guitar at his side. Gil Houston passed through many places, included the town of Cisco, California, the place from which he took his name. During his travels, Cisco expanded his repertoire of traditional songs, particularly in his time employed as a cowboy. He performed music informally wherever he went, and eventually began occasionally playing at clubs and on Western radio stations. Cisco returned to Los Angeles in 1938 and pursued a career in acting. During this time Cisco, along with friend and fellow actor Will Geer, visited folk singer Woody Guthrie at a radio studio in Hollywood. This marks the beginning of the close friendship between Guthrie and Houston. The taciturn Cisco proved an ideal counterpart for the frenzied Woody, and the two men began traveling together, touring migrant worker camps, singing, and promoting unionism and workers’ rights, eventually making their way to New York City. Despite Houston's poor eyesight (which rendered him nearly blind by the end of his life), he managed to enlist in the Merchant Marines in 1940 and served in World War II. Houston survived three separate torpedoing of ships he served on. When he wasn’t shipping out, Cisco remained in New York and performed with the Almanac Singers, a left-wing folk group that often included Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, and Woody Guthrie, among others. After the United States entered World War II, Woody Guthrie joined Cisco in the Merchant Marines along with Jim Longhi, who documented this period in a memoir. Throughout three wartime trips, the two folksingers gave performances regularly, boosting the morale of the crew and, on the third trip, three thousand troops. During the years following the war, Cisco engaged in acting, music, and traveling, sometimes recording. In 1944 Cisco, along with Woody Guthrie and Sonny Terry, had taken part in recording sessions at the studio of Moses Asch. Four years later, Asch founded the label Folkways, with Cisco performing on two of the first LPs issued by the new company. Houston appeared in the Broadway theatre play The Cradle Will Rock in 1948 and in 1954 began hosting the Gil Houston radio show. The show was quickly cancelled, which led to some suspicion of blacklisting. Throughout the fifties, Cisco performed regularly at clubs, churches, and colleges. He recorded for various labels, including Folkways, Stinson, Disc, Coral, Decca and Vanguard, and was a guest on a numerous radio and television programs. Houston toured India in 1959 under the sponsorship of the State Department with Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Marilyn Childs. In 1960 he hosted the television special, “Folk Sound U.S.A.” on CBS, and appeared later that year at the Newport Folk Festival. His recordings for Vanguard began with the album “The Cisco Special”, followed by a collection of Woody Guthrie songs. Diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, Cisco continued performing until no longer able. Two months before his death, he recorded a final album, “Ain’t Got No Home.” He returned to California, and died April 29, 1961 in San Bernardino. In the months preceding his death, with the knowledge of his imminent demise, Cisco talked at length with his old friend Lee Hays, who recorded their sessions for a project he dubbed “The Cisco Tapes”. Hays held onto the tapes for two more decades, until his own death in 1981, but never completed creating something from the material. Cisco’s death was mourned by a growing folk music community which included young songwriters including Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, and Phil Ochs, a new generation of musicians who revered such performers as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, and Cisco too. Song tributes to and mentions of Cisco Houston include: "Fare Thee Well, Cisco" by Tom Paxton "Cisco Houston Passed This Way" by Peter La Farge "Blues for Cisco Houston" by Tom McGrath "Song To Woody" by Bob Dylan "Christmas Time in Washington" by Steve Earle Cisco Houston was distinguished by his voice, a smooth baritone sometimes considered too polished for folk music. His voice was criticized as being too good, too professional, and lacking in authenticity. Cisco responded to this accusation: "There's always a form of theater that things take; even back in the Ozarks, as far as you want to go. People gravitate to the best singer...We have people today who go just the other way, and I don't agree with them. Some of our folksong exponents seem to think you have to go way back in the hills and drag out the worst singer in the world before it's authentic. Now, this is nonsense...Just because he's old and got three arthritic fingers and two strings left on the banjo doesn't prove anything." His repertoire included folk songs and traditional songs from different arenas of American life - cowboy songs, union songs, railroad songs, murder ballads, and more. He is also known for his renditions of Woody Guthrie originals. Though not known as a songwriter, Houston did contribute some original tunes. These include "Great July Jones", written with Lewis Allen; "Crazy Heart"; "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"; "Bad Man's Blunder", written with Lee Hays; "Diamond Joe"; "The Killer" (words traditional); "What did the deep blue sea say", and "Dollar Down". Some of his compositions were included in the songbook 900 Miles, the Ballads, Blues and Folksongs of Cisco Houston, issued by Oak Publications in 1965. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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