The Tenderfoot
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-09-02

Day 169 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

Despite the foreman's assurance that cow-punching is  nothing but play, the novice wears himself out trying to keep the cattle under control. After being badly injured in a fall, he decides he has had enough. (Malcolm Laws, Native American Balladry)

Sandburg writes: "A plain tale that has gravity and persuasion and belongs in the realistic school of narrative. We may laugh, as bystanders usually do, when somebody else's mortal frame and personal dignity are kicked around as with this tenderfoot. Text and tune are as sung by Norman Byrne of the University of Oregon, and as he learned it in Alberta, Canada. 

The word "cavva" comes from the term "cavvietta," derived from Spanish and referring to the whole herd of horses that a ranch owns.

EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Miles City, Montana Stock Growers' Journal, credited to "R. J. Stovall")