Cheyenne by Billy Murray (1906)
CD 3, track 14
Billy Murray’s 1906 recording of “Cheyenne (Shy Ann)” ushered in a minor fad for faux “cowboy” songs that lasted about a decade. The novel parade of these Tin Pan Alley hits by songwriters such as Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne was punctuated by John Lomax’s publication of Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads in 1910.