Lyr Req: Dodgin' Joe (from Howard 'Jack' Thorp)

Subject: Lyr Req: Dodgin' Joe
From: Rex
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 01:44 PM

In Howard "Jack" Thorp's essay, "Banjo in the Cow Camps," The Atlantic Monthly 166 (August 1940), he tells of hearing just two verses of "Dodgin' Joe:

Dodgin' Joe

Now boys I'll tell you a story
Of a horse I owned long, long ago:
A little steel-dust the color of rust,
I called him Dodgin' Joe

Now of all the cow-horses in Texas
Or anywhere else that I know
None could cut out a cow, from corral or herd
As fast as my little horse Joe.

There's been a good bit of water under the bridge since March of 1889 when Thorp started his search for cowboy songs and I am hoping that someone, somewhere, may have come up with some more verses to this one. I don't know of a better place to ask than right here. Does anyone have any information on this old cowboy song?

Rex