Vagabond Whirlwinds
Bob Nolan
Original copyright: September 27, 1957
My heart goes rolling back to the lone prairie.
I’ve been gone so long,
I forgot how free that a man can be
‘Way out where the vagabond whirlwinds play.
Oh! how I miss the plains and the clear blue skies
O’er the great domain
Where the wild hawk flies on the swirling rise,
‘Way out where the vagabond whirlwinds play.
I know the whole world may change
But one place remains
And I know I’ll go where the whirlwind leads
For my heart’s still there
With the windblown seeds of the tumbleweeds
‘Way out where the vagabond whirlwinds play.
ABOUT THIS SONG
This little song was registered for copyright in September 27, 1957 Bob Nolan Music which means it was one of Bob Nolan's post-Sons of the Pioneers compositions. Bob had retired from the group in 1949 so he could dedicate the rest of his life to his music. Sadly, the song wasn't recorded until 2001 when Dave Bourne and the Lobo Rangers chose it for an album.
“The structure of “Vagabond Whirlwinds” is a revolving progression which never seems to end…it continues to flow, like the wind. The second chord of the bridge (a III chord) leaps out and yells, ‘It’s a Nolan chord!'" (Dave Bourne, September 8, 1998)
Bob had an old home recording machine and he made his own wax demos or acetates on it. Many years later, his grandson rented a record player and transferred the old demos to tape.
“I remember years ago, soon after Bob died, that my mom went down to see P-Nuts and brought back a box of old 78s. These records were one-time studio recordings of songs that he wrote and never were recorded [commercially]. But we went out and got a 78 record player, needles - which were hard to find - and hooked it up to a cassette recorder and recorded all the records. As you can imagine the quality was very poor. A little curl of wax built up before the needle so the sound was virtually destroyed.” (Calin Coburn, July 2, 2000)
SHEET MUSIC
The only music we have for this song is a lead sheet produced by Bob Ross Music.