Montana Cowboy

The singer has “played the lone hand” for years, riding in strange lands, until he stopped for two blue eyes and a sunny smile. In the chorus he tells the old coyote to howl away: its sad, lonesome song is calling him back to Montana, to the hills where he belongs. He has ridden away from home, and he promises his darling he will be back before long. Because of that chorus the song has also been recorded as “Coyote Song.”

By 1976 it was being recorded on the East Coast. Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard recorded it at Track Recorders in Silver Spring, Maryland, for Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (Rounder 0054, 1976), with Gerrard singing lead and playing guitar, Dickens singing tenor and playing bass, Mike Seeger on mandolin, Lamar Grier on banjo and Tracy Schwarz on fiddle; that record credits the song to Jack Sutton, as does Dry Branch Fire Squad’s first album (Rite, 1977). Ted Lundy, Bob Paisley and the Southern Mountain Boys recorded it for Slipping Away (Rounder 0055, 1976). Hot Rize included it on Traditional Ties (Sugar Hill, 1985) with Tim O’Brien singing lead, crediting Ray Park. Emmylou Harris sang it as “Montana Cowgirl” at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on 30 April 1991 for At the Ryman (Reprise, 1992). Gene Wooten recorded it as “Coyote Song” on Don’t Look Now (Pinecastle). Del McCoury sang it on the fiddler Michael Cleveland’s Let ’Er Go, Boys! (Rounder, 2006), and Kathy Kallick sang it on Laurie & Kathy Sing the Songs of Vern & Ray (Spruce and Maple, 2014), her tribute album with Laurie Lewis.