Recorded by John A. Lomax under the auspices of the Library of Congress' Archive of Folk Song, May 1942.

Clay Coppedge on Morris and his "Goodbye Old Paint," from TexasEscapes.com:

Identifying who actually penned the classic trail drive song "Goodbye Old Paint" is about as easy as trying to figure out which horse on which cattle drive inspired the song. One thing we can say with certainty is that the song's journey from trail drive ditty to enduring American classic passed through [Bartlett, Texas].

The man most often credited as composer of the song is Jess Morris, who was born in Bartlett in 1878. Jess Morris never claimed to have written the song; he said he learned it from a black cowboy named Charley Willis.

"Charley played a Jews-harp and taught me how to play it," Morris said. "It was on this Jews-harp that I learned to play 'Old' Paint' at the age of seven.

"In later years I learned to play 'Old Paint' on the fiddle, in my own special arrangement - tuning the fiddle accordingly."

Fiddlers recognize Morris' arrangement as sophisticated and difficult, adding credence to rumors that he studied violin in Austin and at Valparaiso, Indiana. But Jess Morris he always identified himself as a cowboy fiddler.

His unique "Old Paint" arrangement caught the attention of folk music collector John Lomax. Lomax wrote to Morris that he (Morris) had "the best tune that exists to Goodbye, Old Paint" and he wanted to record it as Morris performed it. That version is included on the album "Cowboy Songs, Ballads and Cattle Calls From Texas."

Jess Morris left Bartlett when he was 12 and settled on the Texas panhandle where he was known as a good ranch hand as well as a superb fiddler.

An Amarillo newspaper first identified Jess Morris with the song in 1928. Reporting on a tri-state fiddle contest, Morris is singled out for "Goodbye Old Paint." "The audience forgot all dignity and joined in a hearty yell on 'Goodbye Old Paint,'" the reporter wrote.

The song was probably credited to Jess Morris because of the unique way he tuned his fiddle for the song.

Other versions of the song invariably surfaced, all of them "original compositions." "Many publishers swiped my song and had it published, and many old maverick 'Paints' were running wild and unbranded," Morris later said.

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