Sam Bass: The Ballad and the Man

Western Folklore, Summer 2003 by McEntire, Nancy Cassell

Jim had borrowed Sam's good gold and didn't want to pay,

The only shot he saw was to give poor Sam away.

he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mourn-

Oh, what a scorchingjim will get when Gabriel blows his horn!

And so he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mourn

Oh, what a scorchingjim will get when Gabriel blows his horn!

Perhaps he's got to heaven, there's none of us can say,

But if I'm right in my surmise he's gone the other way.

Printed versions of the tune for this ballad are melodically consistent, though the keys tend to vary. In his autobiographical Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, John Lomax describes the ballad as typical of ". . . the western ballad breed, drawling, whiney, creepy, saturated with gloom .... My manuscript collection contains nearly forty versions of the words; all the tunes were much alike" (1947:58). William A. Owens, who collected songs for the Texas Folklore Society, wrote the following appraisal: "'Sam Bass,' though sometimes sung by members of my family when I was a child, was never as popular as 'Jesse James.' The subject of the latter seemed much nearer to us, and a more colorful and admirable person. The ballad about Jesse James was also more singable" (Owens 1954; reprint 1998:138). Thorp speculated that the tune for "The Range of the Buffalo," a ballad known in Fort Griffin in 1875, was adapted to the Sam Bass text.5 ( see Thorp 1921:135-38; Thorp 1966: 113; Dobie 1927:202). Borrowing tunes from existing material and applying them to new texts was a common practice in the composition of popular music, including cowboy songs. The tune for "Sam Bass" in Cowboy and Other Frontier Songs is of limited range, melodically uninspiring and rhythmically predictable. Perhaps to shed the impression of gloom, Lomax calls for the ballad to be sung "vigorously" (1938:150). In many ways, it is a basic musical frame upon which to hang the most important part of the ballad, the story.6

How close is the Sam Bass of the ballad to Sam Bass the man? Some basic facts do coincide. Sam was born on a farm in the area called Yocky, two miles northwest of Mitchell, Indiana, in what is now Lawrence County, on july 21, 1851. After the death of his mother, Elizabeth, in 1861, and his father, Daniel, in 1864, Sam was given over to his uncle David L. Sheeks. The two clashed, and in 1869, following an argument with Sheeks, Sam left his uncle's home. he eventually landed in Denton County, Texas, working as a hired hand for Denton County Sheriff William F. "Dad" Egan, who years later would join in the search for Sam the outlaw (Webb 1965:372). Sam began to develop skills that required more wit than brawn. he became a winner in card games and he learned how to handle a gun In 1874, he became the owner of a little sorrel mare, known as the Denton mare, who brought him some fame and a good amount of prize money from the races that she won. he and Egan parted company, possibly due to Sam's obsession with horse racing (Webb 1965:372; Gillett 1976:108). In 1875 Sam and a business partner, Joel Collins, purchased a mine in the Black Hills area, and expected, as had many other gold prospectors, to find a fortune. With no profits forthcoming from the Black Hills mine, the partners found themselves in difficult financial circumstances. They turned to robbery. They began hitting the stagecoaches linking the Black Hills with outlying areas.