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"Rambler, Gambler", also known as "The Rambling Gambler" or "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler"
is a traditional folk song of the American West. It was first published in print by
John A. & Alan Lomax in their jointly authored 1938 edition of Cowboy Songs and Other
Frontier Ballads. John Lomax did not include the song in his original 1910 edition but it
appears in the 1938 edition.
As with a lot of American lyric songs, a number of floater verses from other songs are incorporated here. Many of the verses are from the "Wagoner's Lad" family of songs. It was recorded by Alan Lomax on Texas Folksongs (1958), Odetta (as "Rambler-Gambler"), Simon & Garfunkel (as "Rose of Aberdeen"), Flatt & Scruggs, Gordon Bok (as "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler"), Ian & Sylvia (as "Rambler Gambler"), and Sandy & Caroline Paton (as "I'm a Rambler and a Gambler"). I learned it originally from Joan Baez and later from Gordon Bok. |