Trail Tunes For Old-Timers

   A while back I did a post about Canada's Great Trail and I plan to do a series relating to the subjects of trails, roads and pathways. Right now, writing about trails is less difficult than walking them. The weather is still rather bleak and wet and we are supposed to stay inside to avoid the Great Virus. I am offering here some Trail Music for you to listen to in the comfort of your cozy home.

    I will begin with a song which I heard recently on the car radio. Bing Crosby was the singer and you can easily find a version done by him and the Andrews Sisters on YouTube.  The one I have chosen is a little rougher and is found on "Hell Bent For Leather", an album by Frankie Lane.

  Click on each title to listen to the tune. 

Along the Navajo Trail
Every day, along about evening
When the sunlight's beginning to pale
I ride through the slumbering shadows
Along the Navajo Trail
When it's night and crickets are callin'
And coyotes are makin' a wail
I dream by a smoldering fire
Along the Navajo Trail
I love to lie and listen to the music
When the wind is strummin' a sagebrush guitar
When over yonder hill the moon is climbin'
It always finds me wishin' on a star
Well what a ya know, it's mornin' already
There's the dawnin', so silver and pale
It's time to climb into my saddle
And ride the Navajo Trail

    The next one will be familiar to the elderly as the theme song sung by the "King of the Cowboys" along with "The Queen of the West."

Happy Trails
Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.
Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
Keep smiling until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song, and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.

   During the 1950s when Roy and Dale were singing Happy Trails, this tune from Germany wandered onto the Pop Charts and probably drove you crazy since it was hummed, whistled and sung far too often. I have provided a particularly annoying version.

The Happy Wanderer
I love to go a-wandering
Along the mountain track
And as I go, I love to sing
My knapsack on my back
Val-deri, val-dera
Val-deri, val-dera
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha
Val-dera
My knapsack on my back
I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun
So joyously it calls to me
Come join my happy song
Val-eri, val-dera
Val-deri, val-dera
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha
Val-era
Come join my happy song
I wave my hat to all I meet
And They wave back to me
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree
Val-eri, val-dera
Val-deri, val-dera
Val-deri, val-dera
Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die
Oh, may I always laugh and sing
Beneath God's clear blue sky
Val-eri, val-dera
Val-eri, val-dera
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha
val-dera
Beneath the clear blue sky
Beneath the clear blue sky

   This song is from an earlier time and is generally associated with World War I.  I ran across a recent reference while reading The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, by Robert Macfarlane where it is discussed in the chapter about the poet Edward Thomas. There are many recordings of it. The one chosen offers you a medley by Frank and Bing; it is the third song at about 3:15.

There's A Long Trail A-Winding
Nights are growing very lonely,
Days are very long;
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song.
Old remembrances are thronging
Thro' my memory
Till it seems the world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me.
Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And the white moon beams.
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

All night long I hear you calling,
Calling sweet and low;
Seem to hear your footsteps falling,
Ev'ry where I go.
Tho' the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile,
I forget that you're not with me yet
When I think I see you smile.

   And, I suppose, this one by the Sons of the Pioneers cannot be left out.

Tumbling Tumble Weeds
See them tumbling down
Pledging their love to the ground!
Lonely, but free, I'll be found
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds
Cares of the past are behind
Nowhere to go, but I'll find
Just where the trail will wind
Drifting along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds
I know when night has gone
That a new world's born at dawn!
I'll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds
I know when night has gone
That a new world's born at dawn!
I'll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong

Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds

The Bonus Material (provided by me)

Along the Navajo Trail is also a movie that is now relevant and perhaps should be re-run.
 U.S. Deputy Marshal Roy investigates the disappearance of a government agent who has come to Dale's father's ‘Ladder A Ranch’. The bad guys want the land the ranch sits on because they know an oil pipeline is planned through this location. IMDb

   Apparently the German song, The Happy Wanderer became the unofficial anthem of the Montreal Expos. (See the Wiki entry for The Happy Wanderer. )

   One learns from the Wiki entry for Happy Trails that: "On October 1, 1970, Janis Joplin left a taped recording of the song as a birthday greeting for John Lennon, three days before her death. Lennon, whose birthday was October 9, later told Dick Cavett that her taped greeting arrived at his home after her death."

   If you enjoy western music and Sons of the Pioneers and singing cowboys like Gene Autry, you might be interested in It's the Cowboy Way! The Amazing True Adventures of Riders In The Sky by Don Cusic. (University Press of Kentucky).

Post Script: 
During this time of COVID-19, there are real concerns about lost jobs and how people can be employed. There were similar concerns in the 1930s and this book discusses one solution that involved music and musicians.
   At its peak the Federal Music Project (FMP) employed nearly 16,000 people who reached millions of Americans through performances, composing, teaching, and folksong collection and transcription. In Sounds of the New Deal, Peter Gough explores how the FMP's activities in the West shaped a new national appreciation for the diversity of American musical expression.

Happy Rambling..