For twelve years now I’ve been searching for this country music compilation that I listened to while living at New Vrndavana, WV. I found it at the Moundsville library, checked it out, took it home and loved it. I even made a tape of it.

When I left New Vrndavana in 1996, I had the tape with me, but soon after, I lost it. I figured that it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the compilation again. But after hitting a few thrift stores and flea markets (the internet wasn’t a big help for much of anything back then), I came up empty handed.

A few years later I was working in a book store. One of the customers was a collector of country music. I asked him about it, rattling off a handful of songs that I could remember. He said the collection sounded familiar, but he didn’t have it.

Every year or so I remember another song from it.

The first few songs I could remember were “Cowboy’s Sweetheart” by some woman, “The Prairie’s My Home” by some guy and “Cotton Eyed Joe” by whoever it was. Oh, and a Jimmie Rodgers song.

But as the years went on, I remembered “The Last Roundup” by Gene Autry. A few years later, “Dark as a Dungeon” popped into my head.

I would try to list the songs, but could never keep a good record of it. I’d even download a few, but to no avail. This album was lost to history and my crappy memory.

Ohh, but get this! I recently was reading looking through a new blog that completely fascinates me called LP Cover Lover. It’s a blog full of weird LP covers. I found the category “Crazy Xians” and being a former crazy, I checked it out. I love old gospel album covers. They’re amazingly creepy, but in a really innocent sort of way.

A few pages into it, I stumbled upon a cover for an album called “Gospel Ship.” It sounded familiar, but the cover was of a UFO, so I didn’t quite get it. And then I start to hum a tune I’ve not heard since 1996. I could even remember the lyrics!

Well I’m gonna take a trip
On the old gospel ship;
I’m going far beyond the sky.
Well I’m gonna shout and sing,
Until heavens bring,
That’s I’m bidding this world goodbye.

It’s weird what the mind squirrels away. This was great! I had remembered another song from that country comp!

Every time I’d remember a song from it, I’d celebrate by doing an internet search for it. In the 90’s, I’d use Hot Bot. In the early 2000’s, it was Yahoo. And now it’s Google. I’ve tried it several times over the past year (on Google), but nothing.

Though, with this new song, maybe there could be a bit of luck.

And, as you might have guessed… there was!

I would search instances of the songs that I knew about appearing together on the same document, hoping that some anal retentive young lad or lady would have, for some reason, typed out all of the song titles. While this was utterly fruitless in the past, I figured it would eventually work. It did.

I got one hit for a PDF file entitled “80287.doc” on the New World Records site. It didn’t mean much to me and I wasn’t sure what New World Records even was. The PDF file is 21 pages long, so I figured that the into should be in there somewhere. You can download it at this page on the New World Records site.

Each paragraph was about a different song. As I scrolled through it, each song was familiar to me. Each song was on the compilation that I had been looking for for 12 years. Each song was on it. No song was not. Holy freaking crap, I FOUND IT!!

What 80287.doc turned out to be was the entire liner notes from an album called…

You have NO idea how happy this makes me. No idea. I don’t think I’ve been searching for anything for this long. My quest is nearly at an end.

Now I just have to find a copy of the LP. It was never released on CD and some of the songs are pretty rare.

Here’s a tracklist:

Side One
Total time 30:05
1 GEORGIA WILDCAT BREAKDOWN – Clayton McMichen and His Georgia Wildcats
2 BLUE YODEL NO. 11 – Jimmie Rodgers and Billy Burke
3 SWEET FERN – The Carter Family
4 DREAMING WITH TEARS IN MY EYES – Jimmie Rodgers
5 GOSPEL SHIP – The Carter Family
6 FAIS PAS ÇA [DON’T DO THAT] – The Hackberry Ramblers
7 THE LAST ROUNDUP – Gene Autry, vocal with studio orchestra
8 FORGOTTEN SOLDIER BOY -The Monroe Brothers
9 IDA, SWEET AS APPLE CIDER – Milton Brown and His Brownies
10 THERE’LL COME A TIME – The Blue Sky Boys

Side Two
Total time 27:05
1 I WANNA BE A COWBOY’S SWEETHEART- Patsy Montana and the Prairie Ramblers
2 THE RESCUE FROM MOOSE RIVER GOLD MINE- Wilf Carter (Montana Slim)
3 RAILROAD BOOMER- Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys
4 BORN TO LOSE – Ted Daffan’s Texans
5 IT WON’T BE LONG – Harry Choates
6 CHANT OF THE WANDERER – The Sons of the Pioneers
7 DARK AS A DUNGEON – Merle Travis
8 COTTON EYED JOE – Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
9 FAT BOY RAG – Johnny Gimble

With a bit of searching on Access Pennsylvania, I found that the album is in the Snyder County Library! That’s about ten miles away from me. But since I’m not a resident of said county, I can’t check it out. Lame.

But, honestly, I’d rather own it. Wish me luck on my search. If anyone wants to help me out, it would be wonderful.

I’ve been able to download 17 of the 19 songs (missing “Georgia Wildcat Breakdown” and “Railroad Boomer”). I saw one (“Railroad Boomer”) on iTunes, but now it’s gone (how is that possible?). Anyway, ere are four songs from the album. Not sure if anyone will dig this stuff, but I sure do.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Gospel Ship by The Carter Family

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It Won’t Be Long by Harry Choates

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Chant of the Wanderer by The Sons of the Pioneers

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Cotton Eyed Joe by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys