Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an

American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with 

Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together.

Houston was a regular recording artist for Moses Asch's Folkways recording

studio. He also performed with such folk/blues musicians as Lead Belly, 

Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers.

 

Gilbert Vandine Houston was born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States,

on August 18, 1918, the second of four children. His father, Adrian Moncure

Houston, was a sheet-metal worker. The family moved to California while

Houston was still young, and he attended school in Eagle Rock, California,

a suburb of Los Angeles.

During his school years, Houston began to play the guitar, having picked up

an assortment of folk songs from his family. It is reported that Houston was

regarded as highly intelligent during his time at school, despite the nystagmus

 that afflicted his eyesight, leaving him to rely heavily on peripheral vision.

He learned primarily by memorizing what he heard in the classroom. Despite

his difficulties, Houston came to be regarded as a well-read individual.

When the Great Depression struck, Houston began working to help support

his family.

 

In 1932, his unemployed father left home and a few years later Gil went on

the road, accompanied initially by his brother Slim. The years were spent

traveling and working odd jobs throughout the western United States, always

with a guitar at his side. Gil Houston passed through many places, including

the town of Cisco, California, the place from which he took his name.

During his travels, Houston expanded his repertoire of traditional songs,

particularly in his time employed as a cowboy. He performed music informally

wherever he went, and eventually began occasionally playing at clubs and on

Western radio stations.

Houston returned to Los Angeles in 1938 and pursued a career in acting.

During this time Houston, along with friend and fellow actor Will Geer,

visited folk singer Woody Guthrie at a radio studio in Hollywood. This marks

the beginning of the close friendship between Guthrie and Houston.

The taciturn Houston proved an ideal counterpart for the hyperactive Woody,

and the two men began traveling together, touring migrant worker camps,

singing, and romoting unionism and workers' rights, eventually making their

way to New York City. 
 

Despite Houston's poor eyesight (which rendered him nearly blind by the end

of his life), he managed to enlist in the Merchant Marine in 1940 and served in 

World War II. Houston survived three separate torpedoing of ships he served on.

[citation needed] After the United States entered World War II, Woody Guthrie 

joined Houston in the Merchant Marines along with Jim Longhi, who

documented this period in a memoir. Throughout three wartime trips, the two

folksingers gave performances regularly, boosting the morale of the crew and,

on the third trip, three thousand troops. 

​

After the war, Houston returned to New York and performed with the Almanac

Singers, a left-wing folk group that often included Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, 

Millard Lampell, and Woody Guthrie, among others. During the years following

the war, Houston engaged in acting, music, and traveling, sometimes recording.

In 1944 Houston, along with Woody Guthrie and Sonny Terry, had taken part in

recording sessions at the studio of Moses Asch. Four years later, Asch founded

the label Folkways, with Houston performing on two of the first LPs issued by

the new company. Houston appeared in the Broadway theatre play The Cradle

Will Rock in 1948 and, in 1954, began hosting the Gil Houston radio show. 

The show was quickly cancelled, which led to some suspicion of blacklisting 

because of Houston's left-wing views.

​

Throughout the 1950s, Houston performed regularly at clubs, churches, and

colleges. He recorded for various labels, including Folkways, Stinson, Disc,

Coral, Decca and Vanguard, and was a guest on a numerous radio and television

programs. Houston toured India in 1959 under the sponsorship of the State

Department with Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Marilyn Childs. In 1960,

he hosted the television special, Folk Sound U.S.A. on CBS, and appeared later

that year at the Newport Folk Festival. His recordings for Vanguard began with

the album The Cisco Special, followed by a collection of Woody Guthrie songs.

​

Diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, Houston continued performing until no

longer able. Less than two months before his death, he recorded a final album, 

Ain't Got No Home. He returned to California and died April 29, 1961, in

San Bernardino.

In the months preceding his death, with the knowledge of his imminent demise,

Houston talked at length with his old friend Lee Hays, who recorded their

sessions for a project he dubbed The Cisco Tapes. Hays held onto the tapes for

two more decades, until his own death in 1981, but never completed creating

something from the material.

​

Houston and Hays had previously revised an earlier song called "Bad Man's

Blunder". The Kingston Trio, still at the height of their popularity in 1960,

recorded it for their album String Along, because they "wanted to do something

for this artist who had contributed so much to the folk movement, but had

somehow failed to receive the commercial recognition one would expect for

a talent of his magnitude. Houston received significant royalties from the

success of this song at a time when the money was much needed."

​

Houston's death was mourned by a growing folk music community that included

young songwriters including Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, and Phil Ochs, a new

generation of musicians who revered such performers as Woody Guthrie, 

Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, and Houston.

Song as tributes to, or with mentions of, Cisco Houston include:

• "Fare Thee Well, Cisco" by Tom Paxton

• "Cisco Houston Passed This Way" by Peter La Farge

• "Blues for Cisco Houston" by Tom McGrath

• "Song To Woody" by Bob Dylan

• "Christmas Time in Washington" by Steve Earle

• "Goodbye Josh" by Peter Yarrow

• "Never Tire of the Road" by Andy Irvine 

• ​

Cisco Houston was distinguished by his voice, a smooth baritone sometimes

considered too polished for folk music. His voice was criticized as being too

good, too professional, and lacking in authenticity. Cisco responded to this

accusation:

There's always a form of theater that things take; even back in the Ozarks, as

far as you want to go. People gravitate to the best singer...We have people today

who go just the other way, and I don't agree with them. Some of our folksong

exponents seem to think you have to go way back in the hills and drag out the

worst singer in the world before it's authentic. Now, this is nonsense...

Just because he's old and got three arthritic fingers and two strings left on the

banjo doesn't prove anything.

​

His repertoire included folk songs and traditional songs from different arenas

of American life - cowboy songs, union songs, railroad songs, murder ballads,

and more. He is also known for his renditions of Woody Guthrie originals.

Though not known as a songwriter, Houston did contribute some original tunes.

These include "Great July Jones", written with Lewis Allen; "Crazy Heart";

"Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"; "Bad Man's Blunder", written with Lee Hays;

"The Killer" (words traditional); "What did the deep blue sea say", and

"Dollar Down". Some of his compositions were included in the songbook 

900 Miles, the Ballads, Blues and Folksongs of Cisco Houston, issued by

Oak Publications in 1965.