ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Jules Verne Allen

(Apr. 1, 1883 ~ Jul. 10, 1945)

Jules Verne Allen, born in Waxahachie, Texas (TX), was one of a handful of authentic and documented cowboy singers and writers, along with Carl T. Sprague, who lived the life that his songs dealt with. Jules also learned those songs before radio and records carried them to the world, when they were still part of an oral tradition.

A cowboy from the age of ten and a participant in cattle drives (he worked cattle from the Rio Grande border to the Montana line); Jules was a rough string rider and bronco buster until the end of the first decade of the new century. Allen began singing as an amateur for the pleasure of his fellow cowboys.

Allen worked extensively in law enforcement, holding such positions as Deputy Sheriff of El Paso County, TX, Deputy Sheriff of Bernalillo County (New Mexico), mounted inspector for the U. S. Immigration authorities and Texas Ranger, during Governor Sterling's administration. Jules left law enforcement and began working as a professional singer in the 1920s and was appearing on radio in Dallas (TX), San Antonio (TX), and Los Angeles, California by the end of the decade, sometimes under various pseudonyms, including Longhorn Luke.

In 1928, Allen began recording music for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Jules recorded a dozen sides for the company that year and the next. Allen recorded the earliest known versions of The Cowboy's Dream, Home on the Range and Days of Forty-Nine. His recording of The Dying Cowboy, more familiar as Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, is one of the more notable authentic oral tradition-derived versions of a song dating, in that form, at least since the 1830s.

In a weather-beaten voice, to the accompaniment of a clip-clopping guitar, Allen recounted trail tales like Little Joe, the Wrangler, When the Work's All Done This Fall, Chisholm Trail, Home on the Range, Cowboy's Lament (aka, Streets of Laredo), as well as other songs that, although they did not spring from the life and work of a cowboy, nevertheless smelled of the smoke of long-gone pioneer fires, such as the early settler song, Little Old Sod Shanty and the Gold Rush narrative, The Days of Forty-Nine. If, by some ill chance, these had been the only cowboy songs to survive on records, they would still be an excellent and representative sampling of his music.

It was said that despite the claims of contemporaries he is The Original Singing Cowboy and this title is fully copyrighted by RCA Victor and Southern Music Publishing Company.

Jules Verne Allan Band

Allen was also a composer and writer in his own right. In 1925, Carl T. Sprague, an early singing cowboy from Texas, recorded Red River Valley as Cowboy Love Song (Victor 20067, Aug. 5, 1925), but it was fellow Texan Jules Verne Allen's 1929 Cowboy's Love Song (Victor 40167, March 28, 1929), that gave the song its greatest popularity. Allen himself thought the song was from Pennsylvania, perhaps brought over from Europe.

Jules published Cowboy Lore (1933), a collection of three dozen songs accompanied by details about cowboy life. When the book was published, it appeared that Allen was doing more entertaining as a Singing Cowboy over the radio airwaves along with personal appearances at rodeos and recordings than he was as a cowboy. The New York Times reviewed Allen's book in June of 1933. It has been reprinted several times, most recently in 1971, some 26 years after his death.

Jules volunteered to serve his country and was accepted on April 5, 1917 for duty in World War I. He was a member of both the Disabled American Veterans and American Legion. Despite his relatively brief career in entertainment, and although he never became a household name, Jules Verne Allen remains one of the iconic pioneers of a uniquely American genre of music. "

"Cowboy Song Writer Is Claimed By Death. Jules Verne Allen, 58, author of cowboy songs, died last night at a local hospital. He was known as the "Original Singing Cowboy" and was a recording artist for Victor records from 1928 to 1936. He Had been ill for the past year and came from Sawtelle, Calif., two weeks ago.

His better known songs were "Make Me A Cowboy Again For A Day," and "Ol Grandad." He also wrote a book, "Cowboy Lore." Mr Allen was a native of Waxahachie, Tex. and was formerly a border patrol man. He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. M. R. Schram of New Castle, Wyo.; a brother, L. K. Allen, Tucson and two sisters, Mrs C. H. Mosshart, Ennis, Tex. and Mrs. G. A. Smith, Houston, Tex. All are enroute here. Tucson Daily Citizen 20 Mar 1942."

 The Discography of Jules Verne Allen

Victor Talking Machine Company Recordings

• Gal I Left Behind
• Zebra Dun
• Texas Cowboy
• Prisoner For Life
• Long Side The Santa Fe Trail
• Two Fragments
• Chisholm Trail
• Cowboy's Love Song
• Cowboy's Dream
• Cowboy's Lament
• When The Work's All Done This Fall
• Punching The Dough 

Montgomery Ward Releases

• Chisholm Trail
• Cowboy's Lament
• Cowboy's Love Song
• Days of Forty-Nine
• Home On The Range
• Jack O' Diamonds
• Little Joe The Wrangler
• Little Old Sod Shanty
• Long Side The Santa Fe Trail
• Punchin' the Dough
• Texas Cowboy
• The Cowboy's Dream
• The Dying Cowboy
• Two Fragments
• When The Work's All Done This Fall

Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Country Music Historian, Roots of Country Music, Jun. 4, 2011.