Goebel Reeves-H.O.B.O. Calling

Goebel Reeves was a singer/songwriter who eschewed his middle-class upbringing to become a hobo known as "the Texas Drifter" and sometimes as "George Riley, the Yodeling Rustler; " he penned one of Woody Guthrie's signature tunes, "Hobo's Lullaby," and according to legend, he taught Jimmie Rodgers to yodel. Reeves was born the son of a Texas state legislator in Sherman, Texas. In 1917, he joined the U.S. Army and while fighting overseas was shot upon the front lines. He was discharged in 1921 and chose to become a vagabond, earning a meager living as a singer. He did a stint with the Merchant Marines before making his recording debut in 1929, and began using the above-mentioned monikers the next year. His last recordings were made in 1938 for a transcriptions company in Hollywood, and were mostly recitations and poems. Occasionally Reeves appeared on radio stations in both the U.S. and Canada. Later in the '30s, he rejoined the Merchant Marines and spent time in Japan. During World War II, he entertained U.S. troops and then, because he spoke some Japanese, worked for the U.S. government to help out in Japanese-American relocation camps. Reeves died in a veterans' hospital in Long Beach, California, in 1969.