Snow Deer: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

“Snow Deer” began as a Tin Pan Alley song: the sheet music, published in New York in 1913 by the Wenrich-Howard Company, credits the words to Jack Mahoney and the music to Percy Wenrich.[1] Wenrich, born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1887, also wrote “Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet” and “Moonlight Bay,” and Mahoney was one of several lyricists he often worked with.[2] The Traditional Tune Archive links the song to that era’s fashion for popular songs on American Indian themes and says it became widely popular.[3] Henry Burr and Albert Campbell recorded it as a vocal duet in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1913, and it was issued on Victor 17398, whose label describes it as an “Indian song.”[4]

Painting of a dark forest with snow on the ground and branches, and a small deer among the trees

Gustave Courbet, The Deer, oil on canvas, ca. 1865. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

Jimmie Wilson’s Catfish String Band recorded it as a two-step, spelled “Snow Dear” on the label, in Dallas on October 21, 1925, for OKeh 45019.[5] The Tune Archive calls the band an Oklahoma novelty outfit and notes that it was also heard on Tulsa’s KVOO.[3] The Light Crust Doughboys recorded an instrumental version, with Cecil Brower on fiddle, at the Burrus Mills studio in Saginaw, Texas, on April 26, 1940, issued on OKeh 05696.[6] The Handbook of Texas rates the Doughboys, formed in 1931 with Bob Wills as an original member, the most successful and enduring western swing band in the Fort Worth–Dallas area; W. Lee O’Daniel fired Wills in 1933.[7]

The Tune Archive credits a 1961 Bob Wills recording with twin fiddles for helping carry the piece into traditional fiddling across North America.[3] The Archive reports it popular among Michigan fiddlers, names the Canadian fiddlers Ned Landry, Don Messer and Al Cherny among its players, and, citing Robert Buckingham, says most older Pennsylvania fiddlers play it “always in harmony if there are two or more fiddlers.”[3] Judy House includes it in Jam Across America, a 178-page book of mountain dulcimer arrangements in DAD tuning, with tunes chosen from the playlists of dulcimer clubs around the country.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Snow Deer"

Sources

  1. York University Libraries, YorkSpace (John Arpin Sheet Music Collection): "Snow deer".
  2. Songwriters Hall of Fame: "Percy Wenrich".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Snow Deer".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-13398. Snow deer / Henry Burr ; Albert Campbell".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 9389. Snow Dear / Jimmie Wilson's Catfish String Band".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix DAL1077. Snow deer / Light Crust Doughboys".
  7. Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas: "Light Crust Doughboys".
  8. Judy House: "Jam Across America".
  9. Image: Gustave Courbet, The Deer, oil on canvas, ca. 1865. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song