Chant of the Wanderer

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: March 30, 1940

Take a look at the sky where the whippoorwill trills,
And the mountain so high where the cataract spills,
Take a look at the falls and the rippling rills.
Hear the wanderlust calls of the whispering hills.
The rippling rills, the cataract spills, the whippoorwill trills.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
The rippling rills, the cataract spills, the whippoorwill trills.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
The rippling rills, the cataract spills, the whippoorwill trills.

Let me live on the range where the tumbleweeds grow.
Let the silver sand change where the prairie winds blow.
Let the wanderer sing where the wanderers go,
Let the melody ring for he’s happy, I know.
The wanderers go, the prairie winds blow, the tumbleweeds grow.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
The wanderers go, the prairie winds blow, the tumbleweeds grow.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
The wanderers go, the prairie winds blow, the tumbleweeds grow.

Let me follow the trail where the buffalo roam.
Let a silver cloud sail where the settin’ sun shone.
Let the lobo wolf wail in a broken heart tone.
Let it storm, let it gale, still the prairie’s my home.
A broken-heart tone, the settin’ sun shone, the buffalo roam.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
A broken-heart tone, the settin’ sun shone, the buffalo roam.
Lo-ooooo (counter yodel as next lines are sung)
A broken-heart tone, the settin’ sun shone, the buffalo roam,The prairie’s my home!

Bob Nolan, introducing his song on Teleways Radio Transcription No. 17 said, “In my lifetime, I have knocked around just about all the 48 states and quite a few foreign countries. I’ve traveled first class and I have hit the rods and I’ve met a lot of interesting people doing it. Some of the best were here in the west where I’ve done most of my roaming around and it was here that I wrote this song. And I want to kind of dedicate it to some of the mighty swell people I’ve met along the way.”

The origin of "Chant of the Wanderer" was relayed to us by a young fan [at the time] from the early 1930s who became an entertainer herself with The Montana Sweethearts and Patsy Montana.

"And me, every time I would get to talk to Bob, I couldn't express myself or talk because I was too shy. So that went on and I kept writing him little letters praising his songs and things. I told Bob once in my letters, "You should have been a poet. Your songs just tell me that you are very poetic." Then I wrote a letter and this was one of the last letters that I wrote, "I wish you'd write a song for me like a poem with three rhyming lines at the end and then I would like to have coyotes or a wolf in the background.

"KFWB had the Pioneers – or Farley's Gold Star Rangers they were called – get on the phone so people could talk to them, so I called him when I was about 23 and I talked to him and I said, "Did you get my letter?" and he said yes, it was right there in his pocket. I said, "Can you write a song like that?" Then I couldn't talk much more because I got shy and hung up. And he did write the song! He wrote Chant of the Wanderer! Oh, what a beautiful song he wrote and I almost liked it better than Chant of the Plains. I wrote him when I heard Chant of the Plains – he hadn't written Chant of the Wanderer yet – and I said, "What a beautiful song. The wolf going through the desert and his wild heart beats." I thought maybe he'd write me back. I wanted the words and he did have someone type the words out for me and I was so happy to get the words but I did hope he'd write a little note or something but he never wrote back."
(LaVida Dallugge Brickner, June 17, 2005)

Bob used the song in the Columbia picture Western Caravans around June 1939 and registered it for copyright on March 30, 1940, when his second songbook (Bob Nolan’s Folio of Original Cowboy Classics No. 2, ©1940 by American Music, Inc.) was published. It was used again in Red River Valley at the end of 1941 when the Sons of the Pioneers rejoined Roy Rogers, this time at Republic Studios.

Chant of the Wanderer (American Music, Inc.)

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, transcription disc TR-855 (059250)

NBC Thesaurus transcriptions LPT 372 (courtesy of Wallace Smith)

10-2-4 Ranch radio show, July 16, 1943 (01)

Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 17, 72, 117, 145, 172, 207, and 251

Smokey the Bear radio show episodes nos. 2 and 11 (1955)

Lucky U Ranch radio show (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcription disc TR-133/134 (December 6, 1951)
- Transcription disc TR-174/175 (January 3, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-254/255 (February 25, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-316/317 (April 8, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-427/428 (June 25, 1952.)
- Transcription disc TR-483/484 (August 20, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-543/544 (October 31, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-664/665 (January 26, 1953)
- Transcription disc TR-678/679 (February 4, 1953)