NRR Project: 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds' (1934)

 

NRR Project: ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds’

Words and music: Bob Nolan

Performed by the Sons of the Pioneers

Released Aug. 8, 1934

What is “Western” music? Seemingly, the answer is simple: songs originating in lives of the people who founded the American West, most specifically cowboys. Musical anthropologists such as John Lomax collected and codified these songs around the turn of the last century. These songs are authentic artifacts of life on the range. Often sung with only a guitar or accordion as accompaniment, they evoked the loneliness and grandeur of the cowboy’s life.

New Western music, however, could be made up by professional songwriters. One such was Bob Nolan, who with Leonard Slye and Tim Spencer made up the nucleus of the Sons of the Pioneers. Nolan could write ballads that sounded like the real thing, with lyrics that romanticized the Western experience.

This kind of music was made popular by the introduction of the singing cowboy in early sound films. The cliché of the warbling vaquero who could fight the bad guys and then serenade a beautiful lady led to the steady production of original songs that sounded like the cowboy originals. “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” is a beautiful song, gently mournful and pathetic. The singer compares himself to the rolling landmarks of the West, claiming to be only happy when he is as free to roam as they are. One can easily imagine it sung around a campfire.

Nolan’s and Spencer’s music writing were solid, and the group’s close and intricate harmonies were captivating. Soon they and other “cowboy bands” gained popularity in the early 1930’s. The fusion of Western tunes with big band and jazz numbers led to the birth of Western swing. The Sons of the Pioneers would appear in films, on the radio and TV, and via recordings for decades down to the present day.

Oh, and Leonard Slye? He changed his name and became Roy Rogers.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: You’re the Top.