Singing cowboy
A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and dangers encountered while pushing cattle for miles up the trails and across the prairies. This continues with modern vaquero traditions and within the genre of Western music, and its related New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country music styles. A number of songs have been written and made famous by groups like the Sons of the Pioneers and Riders in the Sky and individual performers such as Marty Robbins, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Bob Baker and other "singing cowboys". Singing in the wrangler style, these entertainers have served to preserve the cowboy as a unique American hero.
History[edit]
The image of the singing cowboy was established in 1925 when Carl T. Sprague of Texas recorded the cowboy song, "When the Work's All Done This Fall". A year later, John I. White became the first representative of the genre to perform on a nationally broadcast radio show. Other early recording artists in the Western genre included Jules Verne Allen, Harry McClintock, Wilf Carter alias Montana Slim, and Tex Owens who wrote "The Cattle Call" which became a standard in the singing cowboy genre.
Many of these early recording artists had grown up on ranches and farms or had experience working as cowboys. They typically performed simple arrangements with rustic vocal performances and a simple guitar or fiddle accompaniment. The full popularity of the singing cowboys was not reached until the spread of sound films and the emergence of the commercial country music industry.
As the singing cowboy genre developed it kept its themes of the American west and cowboy life, but moved away from its folk music origins to adapt to popular tastes. It was popularized by many of the B-movies of the 1930s and 1940s.[1] The typical singing cowboys were white-hat-wearing, clean-shaven heroes with the habit of showing their emotions in song. Singing cowboys typically recorded with big band arrangements, often in the western swing style popularized by Bob Wills, and were also influenced by the vocal style of crooners such as Bing Crosby. Crosby himself also made a single appearance as a singing cowboy in Rhythm on the Range (1936), including the song "I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)" which many other singing cowboys later performed.
Notable actors[edit]
Ken Maynard[edit]
Ken Maynard was the screen's first singing cowboy. He first appeared in silent motion pictures in 1923 and in addition to acting also did stunt work. His horsemanship and rugged good looks made Maynard a cowboy star. He recorded two songs with Columbia Records before making his first film with a musical soundtrack. He sang two songs in Sons of the Saddle (1930).[2]
Bob Steele[edit]
In 1930 Bob Steele began a series of singing cowboy films for Tiffany Pictures[3] though he later stopped singing in films.