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Powder River Jack Signed Photo
Lot #106 (Sale Order 106 of 1029)
Photo by Crandall Grand Teton National Park. 8" by 10" Born Jackson Martin on the first of October, 1874, Jack H. Lee was counted among the eldest of the more authentic tradition of cowboy singers to cut records in the days before Hollywood Autry's and Roger's took center stage (though the extent of that authenticity has been called into question). Purportedly after joining Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show around 1893, Jack met his future wife Kitty Miller, a native Illinoisan six years his senior, and the two began a long career singing genuine cowboy songs on vaudeville and in rodeos. Claiming to hail from Montana, they dubbed themselves Powder River Jack and Pretty Kitty Lee and were performing together at least as early as 1898. Ultimately, the duo became one of the most popular early cowboy acts, though their recorded legacy leaves little evidence of that success. The Lees were recorded for the first time in November of 1930, with a session for the RCA Victor Company in Hollywood. The date produced four titles, all of which were released to limited success as the nation plunged into the Great Depression. They returned to the studio six years later, waxing two sides for Decca in Chicago, which have never been released. An additional three recordings were made of Jack performing at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., in May of 1938. Powder River Jack also published several books of cowboy lore and song folios during the 1930s which demonstrated his penchant for misappropriating authorship of traditional cowboy poetry (even going so far as to claim "Red River Valley" as his own). Jack Lee died in a car accident on February 24, 1946, in Chandler, Arizona; he was survived for nine years by Kitty, and both are interred side-by-side in the City Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona. Because of Jack’s tendency to plagiarize, the duo’s merit as cowboy performers has been challenged. While indeed neither Jack nor Kitty were likely ever working cowhands and much of their backstory was probably fabricated, they did perform and preserve genuine western folk music—even if they wrongfully attributed its origins—and, with that caveat, are no less deserving of recognition than their contemporary early cowboy recording artists.
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Fri,
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23,
2025
9:00 AM
Mountain
