Biography
Jules Verne Allen ranked among the small number of verified cowboy singers and songwriters, sharing that distinction with Carl T. Sprague, who had actually experienced the existence portrayed in their material. He absorbed the repertoire through oral transmission well before radio and commercial discs introduced it to wider audiences. Having worked as a cowboy beginning at age ten and joined cattle drives until roughly 1910, Allen first performed the pieces informally to entertain his trail companions.
Following periods in law enforcement—possibly including time as a Texas Ranger—and military duty in World War I, he turned professional during the 1920s. By the close of that decade he was broadcasting from stations in Dallas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles, occasionally using stage names such as Longhorn Luke. Starting in 1928 Allen recorded for Victor, completing a dozen sides across that year and the next. Among them were some of the earliest documented renditions of “The Cowboy’s Dream,” “Home on the Range,” and “Days of Forty-Nine.” His version of “The Dying Cowboy,” better known as “Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie,” stands out as a particularly clear example of a song preserved through oral tradition in that form since at least the 1830s.
Allen also composed and wrote independently, issuing the 1933 volume Cowboy Lore, which presented three dozen songs together with accounts of cowboy existence; the book has seen multiple reprints, the most recent appearing in 1971, twenty-six years after his death.
Following periods in law enforcement—possibly including time as a Texas Ranger—and military duty in World War I, he turned professional during the 1920s. By the close of that decade he was broadcasting from stations in Dallas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles, occasionally using stage names such as Longhorn Luke. Starting in 1928 Allen recorded for Victor, completing a dozen sides across that year and the next. Among them were some of the earliest documented renditions of “The Cowboy’s Dream,” “Home on the Range,” and “Days of Forty-Nine.” His version of “The Dying Cowboy,” better known as “Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie,” stands out as a particularly clear example of a song preserved through oral tradition in that form since at least the 1830s.
Allen also composed and wrote independently, issuing the 1933 volume Cowboy Lore, which presented three dozen songs together with accounts of cowboy existence; the book has seen multiple reprints, the most recent appearing in 1971, twenty-six years after his death.