Cisco Houston

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Diamond Joe 00:00 Tools
Dark As A Dungeon 02:35 Tools
Hard Traveling 00:00 Tools
Born 100,000 Years Ago 00:00 Tools
Deportees 00:00 Tools
This Land Is Your Land 00:00 Tools
Railroad Bill 00:00 Tools
Do Re Mi 02:35 Tools
The Killer 00:00 Tools
Ship In The Sky 00:00 Tools
900 Miles 00:00 Tools
Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill 00:00 Tools
skip to my lou 00:00 Tools
The Cat Came Back 00:00 Tools
Big Rock Candy Mountain 00:00 Tools
Pastures Of Plenty 00:00 Tools
The Tramp 00:00 Tools
Curly Headed Baby 00:00 Tools
Jesus Christ 00:00 Tools
The Great American Bum 00:00 Tools
Buffalo Skinners 00:00 Tools
Passing Through 00:00 Tools
Rambling, Gambling Man 00:00 Tools
The Intoxicated Rat 00:00 Tools
Pie In The Sky 00:00 Tools
Little Joe, the Wrangler 00:00 Tools
The Frozen Logger 00:00 Tools
The Dying Cowboy 00:00 Tools
Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life 00:00 Tools
Hobo Bill 00:00 Tools
Ezekiel Saw The Wheel 00:00 Tools
I Ride An Old Paint 00:00 Tools
St. James Infirmary 00:00 Tools
Pretty Boy Floyd 00:00 Tools
I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore 00:00 Tools
Grand Coulee Dam 00:00 Tools
I Ain't Got No Home 00:00 Tools
Pat Works On The Railroad 00:00 Tools
The Girl In The Wood 00:00 Tools
What Did the Deep Blue Sea Say 00:00 Tools
The Fox 00:00 Tools
Great July Jones 00:00 Tools
Saint James Infirmary 00:00 Tools
The Preacher And The Slave (Pie In The Sky) 00:00 Tools
Zebra Dun 00:00 Tools
Chisholm Trail 00:00 Tools
Hard, Ain'T It Hard 00:00 Tools
Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail 00:00 Tools
There's a Better World a-Comin' 00:00 Tools
The Strawberry Roan 00:00 Tools
Old Lone Wolf 00:00 Tools
The John B. Sails (Sloop John B.) 00:00 Tools
The Midnight Special 00:00 Tools
Trouble In MInd 00:00 Tools
Stewball 00:00 Tools
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) 00:00 Tools
Old Blue 00:00 Tools
Farmer's Lament 00:00 Tools
Philadelphia Lawyer 00:00 Tools
Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies 00:00 Tools
Taking It Easy 00:00 Tools
Beans, Bacon And Gravy 00:00 Tools
Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road 00:00 Tools
Worried Man Blues 00:00 Tools
A Picture From Life's Other Side 00:00 Tools
Sweet Betsy from PIke 00:00 Tools
Ladies Auxiliary 00:00 Tools
John Hardy 00:00 Tools
Roll On Columbia 00:00 Tools
The Wreck of the Old 97 00:00 Tools
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man 00:00 Tools
Talking Fishing Blues 00:00 Tools
Badman Ballad 00:00 Tools
Nine Hundred Miles 00:00 Tools
Stagolee (Stagger Lee) 00:00 Tools
Way Out There 00:00 Tools
Gettin' Up Holler 00:00 Tools
Colorado Trail 00:00 Tools
The Rambler 00:00 Tools
The Roamer 00:00 Tools
Whoopie Ti Yi Yo 00:00 Tools
This Train 00:00 Tools
cumberland gap 00:00 Tools
Old Paint 00:00 Tools
The Brave Engineer 00:00 Tools
The Gambler 00:00 Tools
Pat Works on the Railroad (Paddy Works on the Railroad) 00:00 Tools
Talking Dust Bowl 00:00 Tools
old time religion 00:00 Tools
Crawdad Hole 00:00 Tools
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean 00:00 Tools
Cryderville Jail 00:00 Tools
take a whiff on me 00:00 Tools
Midnight Special 00:00 Tools
Sinking Of The Rueben James 00:00 Tools
Soup Song 00:00 Tools
bad lee brown 00:00 Tools
New York Town 00:00 Tools
bury me beneath the willow 00:00 Tools
Hobo's Lullaby 00:00 Tools
So Long It's Been Good 00:00 Tools
Chilly Winds 00:00 Tools
Dink's Song 00:00 Tools
The Sinking Of The Reuben James 00:00 Tools
Ranger's Command 00:00 Tools
the golden vanity 00:00 Tools
John Henry 00:00 Tools
Diamond Joe: Cowboy Song 00:00 Tools
Erie Canal 00:00 Tools
Done Laid Around 00:00 Tools
Old Howard 00:00 Tools
columbus stockade 00:00 Tools
East Virginia 00:00 Tools
Preacher and the Slave, The (Pie in the Sky) 00:00 Tools
Gypsy Dave (Gypsy Davy) 00:00 Tools
Muleskinner Blues 00:00 Tools
Booth Killed Lincoln 00:00 Tools
Turtle Dove 00:00 Tools
True Love on My Mind 00:00 Tools
johnny hard 00:00 Tools
sourwood mountain 00:00 Tools
the job i left behind me 00:00 Tools
Tramp On The Street 00:00 Tools
Hound Dog 00:00 Tools
Old Reilly 00:00 Tools
foggy mountain top 00:00 Tools
Blowing Down That Dusty Road 00:00 Tools
The Tramp (1960) 00:00 Tools
The Boll Weevil 00:00 Tools
London Bridge 00:00 Tools
Rangers Command 00:00 Tools
Make Me a Bed 00:00 Tools
Hard Travelling 00:00 Tools
Yonder Tree 00:00 Tools
We Shall Be Free 00:00 Tools
Pumpkin' Easter 00:00 Tools
Three Blind Mice 00:00 Tools
Peas Porridge Hot 00:00 Tools
The Wreck of the Old '97 00:00 Tools
East Texas Red 00:00 Tools
On Top of Old Smoky 00:00 Tools
John B. Sails (The Sloop John B.) 00:00 Tools
What are Little Boys Made Of? 00:00 Tools
Froggie Went-A-Courtin' 00:00 Tools
Clickety Clack 00:00 Tools
Cape Cod 00:00 Tools
The Great American Burn 00:00 Tools
Humpty Dumpty 00:00 Tools
Danville Girl 00:00 Tools
Mulberry Bush 00:00 Tools
Bonneville Dam 00:00 Tools
My Daddy 00:00 Tools
Fire Down Below 00:00 Tools
Talking Guitar Blues 00:00 Tools
Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail 00:00 Tools
Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow 00:00 Tools
Old Dan Tucker 00:00 Tools
The Old Chisholm Trail 00:00 Tools
I Ain't Got No Home In This World 00:00 Tools
Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, Get Along Little Dogies 00:00 Tools
Great American Bum 00:00 Tools
travel on 00:00 Tools
Crawdad Song 00:00 Tools
The Sloop John B 00:00 Tools
Zabra Dun 00:00 Tools
The Erie Canal 00:00 Tools
900Miles 00:00 Tools
Hard Travellin' 00:00 Tools
Buffalo Gals 00:00 Tools
Get Along Little Doggies 00:00 Tools
It Takes A Worried Man 00:00 Tools
Night Herding Song 00:00 Tools
Talking Dust Bowl Blues 00:00 Tools
Hard Ain'T It Hard 00:00 Tools
The Buffalo Skinners 00:00 Tools
What Did The Deep Sea Say_ 00:00 Tools
Red River Valley 00:00 Tools
I Ain't Got Nobody 00:00 Tools
Pie In The Sky (The Preacher And The Slave) 00:00 Tools
The Streets of Laredo 00:00 Tools
East Virginia Blues 00:00 Tools
900 Miles (trad, arr. Woody Guthrie) 00:00 Tools
Mole In The Ground 00:00 Tools
Diamond Joe - Joe 00:00 Tools
Barbara Allen 00:00 Tools
When That Great Ship Went Down 00:00 Tools
git along little dogies 00:00 Tools
Wreck Of The Old '97 00:00 Tools
Boll Weevil 00:00 Tools
Make Me A Bed Right Down On Your Floor 00:00 Tools
Down in the Valley 00:00 Tools
Jackhammer Blues 00:00 Tools
Mule Skinner Blues 00:00 Tools
Tramp Tramp Tramp 00:00 Tools
A Group Of Children's Song: Ship In The Sky 00:00 Tools
Children Go Where I Send Thee 00:00 Tools
Lost John 00:00 Tools
A Dollar Down 00:00 Tools
Struggle Blues 00:00 Tools
Get Along Little Dogies 00:00 Tools
Dark as a Dungeon [#] 00:00 Tools
Midnight Special ['57] 00:00 Tools
Mouth Music (Live) 00:00 Tools
What Did the Deep Blue Sea Say [#] 00:00 Tools
Blowing Down The Old Dusty Road 00:00 Tools
Waggoner's Lad 00:00 Tools
Tom Joad 00:00 Tools
Ezekill Saw Wheel 00:00 Tools
Foggy Mountain Dew (Live) 00:00 Tools
Lonesome Train 00:00 Tools
Streets of Laredo 00:00 Tools
Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) 00:00 Tools
Woody's Rag & 900 Miles 00:00 Tools
Chisholm Train 00:00 Tools
Wreck of the Old 97 00:00 Tools
The Chisholm Trail 00:00 Tools
A1 - Take A Whiff On Me 00:00 Tools
A2 - Bad Lee Brown 00:00 Tools
I'm a Dust Bowl Refugee 00:00 Tools
Ain't Got No Home 00:00 Tools
My Gal 00:00 Tools
East Virginia # 2 00:00 Tools
The Fox [Previously Unreleased] 00:00 Tools
900 Miles - Cisco Houston 00:00 Tools
Jack Hammer Blues 00:00 Tools
Do Re Mi - Cisco Houston 00:00 Tools
Roving Gambler 00:00 Tools
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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.