"The Strawberry Roan" is a classic American cowboy song, written by California cowboy Curley Fletcher and first published in 1915, as a poem called The Outlaw Broncho. By the early 1930s, the song had become famous; in 1931 it was sung by a cowboy in the Broadway play Green Grow the Lilacs. It has become one of the best-known cowboy songs, found in dozens of collections of American folk music and performed on numerous recordings.[1] Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[2]
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The song tells the story of a bragging horse breaker who meets his match in a picturesque strawberry roan.[1][3]
In popular culture
editAmerican singer Chappell Roan chose her stage name in honor of her grandfather, whose favorite song was "The Strawberry Roan".[4]
References
edit- ^ a b White, John I. (1969). "The Strange Career of "The Strawberry Roan"". Arizona and the West. 11 (4): 359–366. JSTOR 40167567.
- ^ Western Writers of America (2010). "The Top 100 Western Songs". American Cowboy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2010.
- ^ "Strawberry Roan - The Story Behind the Song". CountryMusicTreasures.com. The Music Barn Ltd. Archived from the original on 2014-08-10. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
- ^ Ribner, Sonya (August 12, 2022). "Slumber Party Pop: A New Authenticity with Chappell Roan". Cherwell. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
External links
edit- A complete history and exegesis of the song from Ranch & Riata magazine (February/March 2012)