Old Charlie

My reinterpretation of the old cowboy classic, “The Night Herding Song.” It's a nod to the skills of night herding and in particular to one former slave and revered cowboy, Charlie Willis (1847-1930)

In From the Night Herd by Fredrick Remington from Harper’s Monthly, 1886

Old-time cowboys considered night herding the most important duty on the trail. Keeping cattle calm took patience, courage, and skill. “Old Charlie,” is my reinterpretation of the old cowboy classic, “The Night Herding Song.” The new song is a nod to the rare gift of the night herder and in particular to one former slave and revered cowboy, Charlie Willis (1847-1930)

“Old Charlie,” from Cowboy Sutra

Background

When I asked Charlie’s great-grandson Franklin Willis how the family remembers Charlie, he told me, “He had a knack for singing. He had a gift, if you will, because his voice was real soothing to the cattle and this is why they wanted him to participate in these big cattle drives because he would sing to them and just make them relax.”

Of all the skills required to move a few thousand head of wild cattle north across hundreds of miles of open country, this ability to keep them calm may have been most important of all. There were no fences, plenty of ferocious animals lurking in the dark, lightning and thunder, and unearthly occurrences, all conspiring to make a nervous herd of cattle stampede at the crack of a twig.

I’ve witnessed the power some people have to calm animals. In Mongolia, I recorded a Mongolian woman singing an ancient yak-milking song to encourage her yak to let down its milk. In Kyrgyzstan, I watched eagle hunters commune with their birds through song and soft words. Masai herders in Kenya and northern Tanzania sing songs of prayer and praise to their individual cows.

Contemporary animal handlers have mostly forgotten this ancient art, and thus, underplay it. Charlie Willis is one of the three old-time cowboy singers I dedicate this album to. He gave us “Goodbye Old Paint,” a song so soothing it was often played as a nightcap at dances in Texas. I don’t know anything specific about the traditions that were passed down to Willis from his African ancestors, but he grew up enslaved and I’d guess that he learned ancient ways of husbandry from the elders who mentored him.

Laura and Charlie Willis

Personal Experience

I became interested in this subject when I noticed my dogs were my best musical audience. Dogs love being close when the music is sounding good. Ruby, our lab, sat near me for months as the folk ensemble Red Rock Rondo worked out arrangements for the song cycle to Zion National Park from which the group took its name. When Greg Istock, Eli Wrankle and I started 3hattrio, Greg’s dog Buzz and my dog would curl up together in Greg’s canvas bass case as 3hattrio grooved on music of our desert home. And for Cowboy Sutra, dear Chaco has been at my feet as I sing and urge the harmonium spirit out of its hiding place. I also admit to singing to cows, sheep and horses over the years. Music, at heart, is spiritual and I think it speaks directly to the natural spirituality in both domestic and wild animals.

And by the way, a dogie is not a dog, it’s literally a calf who has been abandoned by her mother. They are the ones that need the most comforting.

In college, I read Meetings with Remarkable Men, a book by the philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff. It introduced me to the idea of objective music—music composed to cause a specific effect. Gospel music, created to draw us closer to God, is an example, as is music used to invite a yak to let down her milk or a restless herd settle in the middle of the night in the Big Empty of the Northern Plains. If you have ten minutes, you might appreciate this stunning scene from the movie version of Gurdjieff’s book.

History of “the Night Herding Song"

Harry Stephens

Harry Stephens wrote the original song in 1909 when he was wrangling horses at Yellowstone Park. That year he sent his words to John Lomax, who included it in his first collection of cowboy songs. In a later interview, Stephens talks about his experience night herding and sings a bit of the original song. People have reinterpreted that rough old song hundreds of times, and it seems to get prettier with each version, drifting further from the reality of the job. Listen to the original and some of its interpretations:

Harry Stephens tells about his composition and sings a bit of it.

A few examples of the reworking of “the Nightherding Song.”

Old Charlie, the recording

If you are this far into the album, it will come as no surprise that the recording starts with a harmonium which Teresa says reminds her of the hum of the universe she used to tap into as a girl when she dismounted to sit quietly beside her horse in a lonesome corner of her family’s Wyoming ranch. To my voice, the synthesizer provides the music of the spheres, with a bit of banjo enhancing the eerie sound of wind in the wire.

painting by Frank Tenney Johnson

Old Charlie lyrics

Oh, slow up, dogies, and quit your roving round,

You’ve wandered and trampled all over the ground;

Oh, graze along, dogies, and feed kinda slow,

And don't be forever on the go,--

move slow, dogies, move slow.

Hi-o, hi-o, hi-o

I’m night herding here in the jet black night

Just praying for calm till the dawning’s first light

I sing to the cattle with old Charlie’s song

And wish he was here, to pass the night long

Rest easy, dogies, move slow

Hi-o, hi-o, hi-o

Old Charlie, he’d tell me the stories of old

Of cattle and men and wonders foretold

His people had songs that could tame the wild beast

In the land of his elders far off to the east

Be still, little dogies, be still

Hi-o, hi-o, hi-o

O say, little dogies, when you goin'a lay down

And quit this forever siftin' around.

My limbs are weary, my seat is sore;

Oh, lay down, dogies, like you've laid before,

Lay down, little dogies, lay down.

Hi-o, hi-o, hi-o

Old Charlie, he told me out here he is free

Just him and the cattle, no master to please

I’ll always remember these nights on the plain

And things in the wild we cannot explain

Move slow, little dogies, move slow

Hi-o- hi-o, hi-o